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Supply & demand does explain a lot, simply.  But it's more than that. 

Swaths of people, especially poor people, can be cajoled into demand for things that aren't good for them, are addictive, are extremely convenient, etc. 
That's why we can't simply look at the ebb and flow and just shrug, as if nothing can be done.  That's BS and I give everyone here enough credit to know it.
Maybe their plight hasn't been fully considered by some of you.  And that's fine.  But shrugging and saying 'supply and demand' as if that solves anything is silly.

It's herding cattle into the pen they want, then you telling the cattle to think more strategically.  Not mean to be insulting, but you get the idea.

I don't think that's how free-market economists would define "demand."  What we're talking about here is closer to the kind of interference they complain about, which creates artificial price points.  Demand is usually conceptually structured around easily accessible alternatives within discretionary income.  There's a lot of things--even things generally considered necessities which could arguably still be construed as demand, in that if we really don't like the price per kwh from our electric company, we don't have to have it*--that we could do without.  I see what you're saying here, but I don't think most would count leaving our jobs and getting another one as the kind of readily available choice that they're outlining when they teach the demand curve.  In other words, how we spend income on the scale of our discretionary-to-essential spending is one thing; messing with that income we choose to buy things with is a different thing. 

It'd be like saying that government regulations/interference is not really messing with the supply curve, those companies are choosing to be in that business when they don't have to be.  They could fold up shop and do something else.  It's not that you're not pointing to a real thing, it's that it's not how an economist would typically categorize it.

• Gasoline has a portion that is very inelastic (the amount of gas needed for the average worker to get to their jobs, to take kids to/from school, to run necessary errands). But it also has a portion that can be quite elastic, such as said road trip vacation. 
• Paying for power to your house is something that we all, in a modern society, need. So electricity service is inelastic. However for me, having a very inefficient A/C unit and a drafty house, means that my demand for A/C is a lot more elastic--I don't run the A/C until we get to the hot part of the year where my house would be 85+ degrees without it. 
• Likewise, your need to have a smartphone for work is inelastic demand. But your determination whether you're going to keep a smartphone 5+ years and run it into the ground before replacement, or whether you're going to keep up with the Joneses and always be on the latest tech, is elastic demand. 
• Demand for Ruth's Chris Steak House--a luxury good--is highly elastic. But demand for food--for enough calories to sustain oneself and not starve to death--is highly inelastic. 

What can be done?

Well we have capital gains taxes.  I’m not sure how to get money out of politics and have free speech or how that impacts McDs. 

Well, my point is that the market can't always tell the difference between "necessary" and "discretionary" demand. The market doesn't know if I'm filling my gas tank because I have to drive to work vs being unemployed, or whether I'm filling my gas tank because my wife and I are going on a road trip vacation.

Where that usually comes up is in things like elasticity of demand.

• Gasoline has a portion that is very inelastic (the amount of gas needed for the average worker to get to their jobs, to take kids to/from school, to run necessary errands). But it also has a portion that can be quite elastic, such as said road trip vacation.
• Paying for power to your house is something that we all, in a modern society, need. So electricity service is inelastic. However for me, having a very inefficient A/C unit and a drafty house, means that my demand for A/C is a lot more elastic--I don't run the A/C until we get to the hot part of the year where my house would be 85+ degrees without it.
• Likewise, your need to have a smartphone for work is inelastic demand. But your determination whether you're going to keep a smartphone 5+ years and run it into the ground before replacement, or whether you're going to keep up with the Joneses and always be on the latest tech, is elastic demand.
• Demand for Ruth's Chris Steak House--a luxury good--is highly elastic. But demand for food--for enough calories to sustain oneself and not starve to death--is highly inelastic.

In most markets, the balance between elastic and inelastic demand applies constraints on how a supply/demand curve acts, but it doesn't invalidate the theory.