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Carazaa Interesting point.
I can't speak for other European countries but "fast food" is ubiquituous in the UK. We have had fish-and-chip shops for generations, Asian take-away food shops for not much less; and now a plethora of American outlets like MacDonalds and KFC. However, it is not cheaper than fresh food or even micro-waveable "ready meals", the worst is certainly of much lower value nutritionally as well as financially.
I don't have children of my own and despite having many nephews and neices am not familiar with modern school curriculae. Nevertheless there are many anecdotal and serious accounts of some decades of a serious decline of both properly-cooked school meals, and of teaching domestic-science that included cookery.
This decline is not from choice by purely financial, by continual cuts in public-service spending. The initial result of a governmental decision to scrap standards while also cutting grants to county councils was that the schools were forced to buy ready-cooked, packaged meals that only needed short over-times, leading to very poor diets and reducing the skilled school cooks to merely heating and serving .
Consequently, many children left school not understanding food and cooking, if their parents did not take any efforts to cook properly either.
Yet if you visit any British supermarket there is still a large amount of fresh fruit and vegetables available, and still a range of meats, so there is still the demand. Although all is not perfect. The ready-made foods take up many more shelf-acres. The choice of each fruit, vegetable or meat type is limited to one species of each, with fancy packing to give an illusion of wide choice. The supermarkets and franchise chains deliberately exclude local and independent producers.
While the book shops do a brisk trade in brightly-illustrated cookery-books... but how many of those bought, are ever used to much extent?
(I have never explored one book I own, of rice and pasta recipes. Its recipes all say "Serves 8" and have vast lists of exotic ingredients you won't find in most supermarkets and franchise-shops. Also, when you live alone it is too easy to become lazy about food, and I need make myself at least try.)
Many people moan that they are "too busy" to cook. More likely they are poor at managing themselves, try to do too much or simply cannot be bothered.
Someone once told me he and wife experimented, comparing ready-meals and cooking from fresh by the time it takes in actual work-top activity (so excluding oven time). They found no significant difference, for while the food is cooking, at about 15-20 minutes to simmer potatoes, they were doing other things, like setting the table or a bit of housework.
....
Regarding working hours, I wonder what is typical in Asian countries, particularly Japan with its company-driven ethos of living to work, not working to live; so likely to lead to long working hours?
