How is the fast food mentality applied outside of the fast food industry? What kind of future is available for hard-working, low-income citizens?
The “industrialization” of fast food restaurant kitchens “has enabled the fast food chains to rely on a low-paid and unskilled workforce” (Schlosser 6). The fast food industry has overtaken the privately owned food industry and replaced it with a system so devastating, so far-reaching, that the individual has no power or say in the system. Reading this reminded me of “The New Slavery,” in which “today most slaves are temporary; some are enslaved for only a few months. . . it is not profitable to keep them when they are not immediately useful” (Bales 15). Fast food workers are forced into receiving low pay, and the average length of employment at a fast food restaurant is only four months. Each worker is not valued, especially because training for such jobs is almost nonexistent, thanks to technological advances in the kitchen. The fast food industry is so violent that it seems the only thing that is keeping them from outright slavery are protective laws on its workers. However, “the fast food industry. . . work[s] closely with its allies in Congress and the White House to oppose new worker safety, food safety, and minimum wage laws” (Schlosser 8). Within the new slavery, slaves are responsible for “high profits at a very low purchase cost” (Bales 15), and “without protection or alternatives, the poor become powerless, and the violent, without state intervention, become supremely powerful” (30). The fast food corporations profit tremendously from the underpaid efforts of its employees, and the protection of the workers is endangered by the establishment of large corporations. The large corporate offices have “helped McDonald’s franchises defeat literally hundreds of efforts to unionize” (76-77), and these efforts maintain an unfair, underpaid environment for McDonald’s workers and fast food workers everywhere. The corporations become almost supremely powerful, only slightly halted by a governmental system over which they exercise some considerable control.
“In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2001, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars” (Schlosser 3). A majority of Americans that contributed to the $110 billion are teenagers that grab food on their way to school. I know when I was in high school, you could drive by the McDonald’s on your way to school and the parking lot would be full of students getting breakfast. To them it was just a cheap breakfast, which they liked, that they could take to school with them. They did not realize that it was bad for them. The other thing with fast food was that it was easy to get. A lot of places around the world have become more easily accessible to the common man. That is something that Schlosser focuses on when he talks about Colorado Springs; “subdivisions, shopping malls, and chain restaurants are appearing in the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain” (7). According to Schlosser, fast food is now “a fact of modern life” (7). I feel like this is a “fact” that we could live without. Schools around the world are starting to allow different fast food chains to sell food in their cafeterias and I feel like this is not going to help the schools get any better. They will not be bringing in any revenue to their schools for these lunches; all of the money will go to pay off the bills that brought the food in. “Colorado Springs was a sleepy tourist town in the early part of the twentieth century, an enclave of wealthy invalids and retirees, surrounded by richland” (61). All of this was before the fast food franchises came into the picture; with these new franchise came a new drove of people that needed jobs and needed places to live. With each new thing the communities were not ready for the amount of people, and the community exploded before the world around it was ready.
Fast Food Nation To cut down on all the theft and death, why won’t fast food companies just make working conditions better? Why would fast food companies hire people that cannot speak English? It seems like in our society today, fast food corporations are taking over the world quite literally. They employ much of the work force and yet they take advantage of the youth that they hire. Schlosser calls it an “industry that both feeds and feeds off the young” (Fast Food Nation 9). They pick teenagers because “they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful experience makes them easier to control” (68). These corporations pick teenagers that don’t have much of a choice, they need a job and need money whether it be to help their families or buy themselves a car, and because there are so many of them “when these kids don’t like the working conditions or the management they quit. Then they find a job at another restaurant, and they cycle continues” (83). The corporations also spend lots of money on ways to further de-skill the jobs and spend less on training their employees. By doing this, they can hire anyone off the street and if they leave it’s not a big deal because anyone can do the same job just as well. Schlosser says that “while quietly spending enormous sums on research and technology to eliminate employee training, the fast food chains have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in government to subsidies for “training” their workers” (72). The fast food corporations are effectively ripping off the government without anyone saying a work. Even worse, when employees try to create a union, they either just fire them due to the low skills involved or try to talk them out of it with other tactics. For example, one McDonalds in Michigan fired the crew members and “the restaurant was shut down, a new McDonald’s was built down the block—and the workers who’d signed the union cards were not rehired” (77). And because of these horrid working conditions their employees steal from them and rob them at gunpoint killing employees and innocent bystanders and still, they don’t get the message.
One of the main things about this reading that I found somewhat shocking was that teenagers are essentially the driving force between many of these fast food restaurants. Schlosser writes, “about two-thirds of the nations fast food workers are under the age of twenty” (Schlosser 68). It is shocking to think that people as young as sixteen are employed at places like fast food restaurants, when many of them most certainly lack any sort of training at all. Schlosser explains that “teenagers are less expensive to hire than adults, and are easier to maintain (68). However, some of the teenage workers perform activities that are dangerous and against the law. “The injury rate of teenage workers in the United States is about twice as high as adult workers” Schlosser writes, and then later goes on to give an example of a worker who “uses the deep fryer and electric tomato dicer, even though its illegal” (82). So what about the adults that work at these restaurants to try to live on their own? They barely make enough to survive, but they continue to work there. Schlosser talks about the process of stroking, in which “the chains try to inoculate team spirit into their young crews” (74). These chains make it so they appreciate the work of their employees in order to get them to stay. This is partly the reason why some older employees stay longer. The company acts as if they appreciate their work, when in reality, it seems like many of these fast food chains care more about making money than the safety of their workers, even though they most likely know that the majority of their employees are teenagers. Another thing that was kind of surprising was the frequency that fast food restaurants get robbed. “The typical fast food employee steals $218 dollars a year” Schlosser states. (84). Also, violent crime seems to be quite prevalent in fast food restaurants, which aren’t places where I would expect to see such a high rate of crime. Despite these problems within fast food restaurants, the industry seems to show no signs of stopping, and will most likely continue to exist well into the future. (Word Count 371).
I feel that the points Eric Schlosser makes in Fast Food Nation not only describe the industrialization of modern business models, but also relates to the human mind and references these aspects to explain how fast food companies have taken such a large foothold in modern society. Huge brand name companies like McDonald’s and Taco Bell carry a sense of uniformity based on the idea that “customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown” (Schlosser 5). The modern business has taken to similar ideas not only for advertisement, but in many other ways like cubicles to represent an idea how as humans if we see or work in familiar objects or territories, we are more likely to “feel a sense of reassurance” because of the security in the familiar. It also makes me think how in some cases does advancement or ingenuity still exist in a market place. Ray Kroc, co-founder of McDonald’s, states that non-conformists destroy the ideal business system of “uniformity” and that “the organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization” (Schlosser 5). If the idea that a “fast food” mentality has taken over the modern business where “the tremendous success of the fast food industry has encouraged other industries to adopt similar business methods,” then how is there room for improvement brought on by ambition or initiative in the modern employee? The uniformity of the fast food industry seems to present no place for the ambitious “nonconformist” to come up with original ideas. This same workplace has adopted the use of young, part-time, unskilled teenagers to do these jobs because “their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control” (Schlosser 68). This setting where the companies have removed nearly every incentive to work under minimum wage and these “conformists” ideals uses young adults and teenagers with their own naive attitudes to create this massive industrial force. word count: 320 1. Will the workplace setting for the fast food industry where initiative and creative "nonconformity" are looked down upon lead to a future work environment or even nation where workers, especially children, will become completely devoid of any ambition to work? 2. Is it the buyers' or sellers' "fault" considering the fast food industry that has begun to promote a growth in obesity, crime, less education, and etc?
In Eric Schlosser’s novel Fast Food Nation the concept of fast food and its affects on society reveals how much food controls people and their actions. According to Schlosser, one of the main problems in the fast food industry is the way it has dominated the industry since its development. The fast food industry has driven out the need for independently owned restaurants that used to make each town unique. “America’s main streets and malls now boast the same Pizza Huts and Taco Bells” that every other town has compared to the individually owned restaurants with character (Schlosser 5). One of the biggest and most easily recognizable fast food chains is McDonalds. As “the nation’s largest owner of retail property in the world,” it is easy to identify the Golden Arches no matter where you are (4). This vast uniformity and impersonal relationship between people and what they eat is not what the dining out experience is supposed to be. The fast food industry takes away from not only the people who are just blindly consuming but also those whose job it is to prepare the food. When the vast majority of the people involved in the fast food service industry “are under the age of twenty” and those who the industry target are young children, it is easy to see how fast food has dominated the world in such a short amount of time. It has become like a cult in which one is indoctrinated in at a young age and often forced into for the rest of your life. In its destructive path it can take children into poor eating habits and putting them to work at menial wages, ruin small business, as well as transform other business models into ones of mass consumption through the means of cheap labor. Word Count: 302
I find that this section of the novel Fast Food Nation focuses on a different section of children's lives that was not focused on in Kozol's Savage Inequalities. Not to say that this was intentional, but rather the ideas the respected authors had were different, but merged on the subject of children. After incorrectly using the word "disrespect" as a noun, instead of a verb (Schlosser 79) , Eric Schlosser introduces the perspectives of those who commonly work at fast food restaurants, namely teenagers. Schlosser makes the claim that "most of the high school students I met liked working at fast food restaurants. They complained that the work was boring and monotonous, but enjoyed earning money, getting away from school and parents, hanging out with friends at work, and goofing off as much as possible" (82). The time spent afterschool for many children tends to be the time when studying and homework are done, and many are unable to work on such things when they are having to work full time hours, regardless of it being illegal for a student to work more than 20 hours a week. Connected to this, Schlosser states that "about half of [the students at Harrison High School] eventually graduate; perhaps fifty [of four-hundred] go to college" (80). This seems to go hand in hand with the economic state to which these children grow up in. One may recall from Savage Inequalities that the graduation statistics for those who live in impoverished areas is extremely low compared to that of wealthier districts. The situation presented in Fast Food Nation at Henderson, where "many of [Colorado Springs] poorest teenagers go to school" (79), shows that the children who go to work at the fast food restaurants are those who attend this high school. One would not have to analyze deeply to come to the conclusion that there is a direct correlation between the economic situations and those who choose these jobs for convenience. By convenience, I mean that the corporation that has been advertising toward his/her age group for his/her whole life tends to have the notion inside of him/her much like Eliza, who "had wanted to work at McDonald's ever since she was a toddler" (81).
{371}
When does the congratulation of success become a congratulation of greed?
Which should come first: equal distribution of tax-dollars to school districts or equal budget cuts for school districts?
3/28/11 In Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation” he talks about how the fast food industry essentially exploits teenagers and even the government. Schlosser says that “about 2/3 of the nation’s fast food workers are under the age of 20” (68). Basically, the industry survives, and thrives, on teenagers because they work for cheap, are easily controlled, and are easily replaced. Fast food industry employees “are by far the biggest group of low-wage workers in the United States” (72). Schlosser says the industry is making the machines easier to operate so that it costs less to train the employees. Fast food corporations are also somewhat circumventing the government system as well when the spend less on training and wages. They receive subsidies for more training than is required; essentially getting paid to give training that isn’t needed because it is so easy to operate s franchise. This problem, along with the unfair treatment of the employees and low wages, has been the cause of unrest in people like Schlosser. But these practices are merely the company’s way of capitalizing. This country was founded on capitalism, a key principle in our economy. Granted, the government should revise some of its tax laws and funding protocol, but the companies are simply doing what they have to do to make keep costs low and profits high. Though some of their methods are unethical, like overworking employees without paying them overtime, the companies are simply doing whatever they can to save money. It’s a fundamental principle of economics: keep your costs as low as possible to maximize your profits. So in my opinion, the fast food companies should not necessarily be penalized or scrutinized for doing whatever they can legally to capitalize. That is the American way, the American Dream. [300]
How have the various colossal fast food chains changed the nation, and, in a way, how do they control the life of an average American customer?
Are we somewhat setting ourselves up for failure in at least one aspect of life? Nutritionally, socially, economically, even politically?!
First of all, this book reminds me of the documentary, “Supersize Me”. That’s when I first realized how gigantic fast food companies are (and still growing ever bigger today). The amount of money spent on advertising all vegetables and organic foods combined was grossly miniscule compared to what just one fast food chain, like McDonald’s, spends every year one advertisements. Most of the time, the advertisements target children by showing commercials on cartoon television stations that kids watch. This is apparent when “96 percent [of schoolchildren] can identify Ronald McDonald” (Schlosser 4). A similar experiment was done in the documentary, where the kids were asked to tell the adult who the person was in a picture; nearly all shouted “Ronald McDonald” or “Wendy” at the familiar facea, but were puzzled when presented with pictures of then-president George W. Bush or a picture of Jesus. Fast food is everywhere—it’s omnipresence seems to outshine any other existence, even God at times. Technology used to “fight the cold war” and build “Japanese automobiles” is now being used to make fast food companies even bigger, faster, and powerful (66, 67). It appears that this new technology will soon not require the cheap, unskilled labor it relies on now, with the jobs of filling up drinks, frying food, placing orders, and other various tasks that can be done automatically without labor (67). Schlosser reports that, even though fast food companies employ most of the minimum wage labor, they provide some of the most jobs nationwide, so without even these minimum wage positions, how far can fast food companies with automated services put a nation into recession (8)?
Most of what Schlosser states, I can relate to, since I have worked at two separate fast food restaurants. Who would imagine that there is a 75 page manual of specific instructions on how everything is to be done (69)? I can—I’ve seen the Zaxby’s manual and even been reprimanded for doing something wrong. My new boss was observing all the employees—he was hired from outside, having no experience with Zaxby’s whatsoever—to get to know them as well as fix any habits we weren’t doing by the book. In watching me make a milkshake, he told me I did it wrong. Confused, having it done the way I was taught and had been doing for months, I asked him what I did wrong. He said, “you put the sprinkles, flavoring, then milk.” I responded, “well, yes, but what was I supposed to do?” He said, “it says in the handbook you always put the milk in first, then the flavoring, then any other toppings last.” I really felt like telling him that it didn’t matter because it was going to all get mixed up anyway, but I kept my mouth shut and just nodded, “okay.” I can also relate to the “common injuries” of “untrained teenagers”, especially burns (83). After a few months of working at Moe’s Southwest Grill, I had essentially lost feeling in the tips of my fingers or grew thick calluses from so many burns—the burrito steamers, the hot water underneath the pans of rice, beans, grilled veggies, and queso, quesadillas off the grill, cooking meat on the other grill, washing dishes, and the list goes on and on. In fact, that was one of the first things they told me when training me—“almost everything is scorching hot, but you’ll get used to it.” I also knew many coworkers my age that would go from school straight to work, sometimes even running across the parking lot as soon as the bell dismissed us from school, and worked all evening until after closing, which could be as early as 10 or as late as 1. Luckily for me, I lived out of town so I never stayed late to close and my parents wouldn’t allow me to work more than 10 hours a week (usually split up between 2-4 days). I think the reason, however, these restaurants get away with employing students for younger or longer than allowed by “The Fair Labor Standards Act” or any other law, is because these kids simply do not know about them and never complain because they “enjoy earning money” (82). Teenagers don’t think of “organizing a union” (83). On a busy weekend shift, I once worked my whole six or seven-something hour shift without a break. When I got home, I ate my meal and my mom asked why I did; when I told her it was too busy for me to take a break, she was outraged and surprised that I wasn’t allowed to take my break even though by law I should have taken one. The young and unskilled labor just doesn’t know any better. Word Count: way too much
It really is amazing how far the fast food industry has come in the past fifty or sixty years. Or rather “ridiculous” is a better word. With 90% of new jobs being those given out by McDonald’s, and 96% of America’s children recognizing Ronald McDonald’s face, it’s no wonder America is becoming an obese nation (4). Sure, I suppose one could argue that the fast food industry is good for the economy; it certainly keeps the money flowing. However, with as much money as the big-businessmen are raking in, one would wonder why they can’t at least improve the quality of the food or the working conditions a little. It doesn’t matter to them, though, because they are not suffering from the whole irony of the situation. The fact is that while we sit and eat our McNuggets while we watch our kids munch away at their Happy Meals, the fast food industry is taking a bite out of us. Here is a little fun fact for everyone who is reading this: a few years ago, the McDonald’s corporation decided and announced it was going to give full corporate backing to homosexuals. Great, that’s a big step for them, but that is not the point. The last I had heard (which was a year and a half ago), McDonald’s has withdrawn that statement, because so many people boycotted it that they started losing a fairly decent sum of money. That’s not to say they stopped supporting homosexuals altogether, but it is obvious the boycott was effective. This also happened to Pepsi and Wal-Mart, but the truth is that those two companies own so much that it is almost impossible to keep from getting a product from either. At least McDonald’s is mainly limited to food and a little bit of clothing. Imagine if, say, 30% of Americans who eat fast food regularly just stopped. The managers and board members would all panic and try to think of a way to bring them back, probably by slightly increasing pay, making working conditions a little better, and making the method of preparing the food a bit more… clean. Ask anybody who has seen the movie “Super Size Me” and the vast majority will agree that they would rather not have known just where that chicken nugget came from.
If working conditions were a bit better, do you think that people would be less critical of the fast food industry?
Suppose the government instates a law saying that all fast food restaurants must meet VERY strict conditions, including the method of preparing the food. Do you think that companies such as McDonald’s or Burger King would be able to adjust?
Fast food companies have now taken over America and all of the food system. Before, many Americans enjoyed the idea of dining in to healthy fully cooked meals at finer restaurants. However, due to the busy schedules of working Americans, there is less time for eating and more time to work or proceed to their normal lives. In “Fast Food Nation,” the author was able to capture the real meaning of labor force and the quality of the food in fast food restaurants. As Schlosser stated, “Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars” (Schlosser 3). The idea that fast food makes more money than higher education fascinates me, but after reflecting on how many times a day people dine in at a fast food restaurant, it makes sense. The idea that most Americans spend more money on fast food may be due to the fact that fast foods are usually cheaper and more convenient to get when you’re in a hurry. If you walk around to your local Wal-Mart or any store where they sell organic food, you can see that the prices are significantly different. Schlosser also states in “Fast Food Nation” that fast food is now a “fact of modern life” because most Americans are so dependent on it. I remember watching a video where the guy would continuously eat fast food three times a day to see the changes in him and I was surprised to see a family talking about their eating habits (Schlosser 7). They eat out at fast food because of the low prices and the feeling of being full after eating a hamburger for 99 cents. Not only is the quality of the food terrible, the labor workers are also receiving no benefits from working. I remember working at Arby’s and my manager would be so happy to see that his check reached five hundred dollars. I remember him smiling all day and working extra hard in order to receive the same amount on the next check. It amazes me that a fast food restaurant can make so much money in a day, but pay the workers especially the managers so low. My manager did everything in the store from cleaning to cleaning up oil spills from the frying area. I think there should be a state law illegalizing this type of labor force and more inspection for the quality of the food.
How is the fast food industry affecting small businesses and privately owned corporations, as well as American life as a whole?
In the introduction of the novel “Fast Food Nation”, by Eric Schlosser, Schlosser outlines the fundamental development of the fast food industry throughout the United States. Schlosser begins by describing Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He describes the pristine beauty of the mountain, as well as its serene and peaceful surroundings before revealing that it houses the largest air and space command center in the entire country. Schlosser writes, “And yet Cheyenne Mountain is hardly pristine. One of the nation’s most important military instillations lies deep within it” (Schlosser 1). Schlosser is comparing the mountain to the fast food industry in the United States, and is essentially saying that the fast food industry is deceptive much like Cheyenne Mountain. Schlosser’s main concern with the fast food industry in the United States is its eradication of small businesses and privately owned corporations, as well as its impact on the American economy. His view is similar to that of farm activist Jim Hightower who believed that the fast food industry would come to dominate the economy and put privately owned corporations out of business. Schlosser writes, “He viewed the emergence of the fast food industry as a threat to independent businesses, as a step toward a food economy dominated by giant corporations, and as a homogenizing influence on American life” (Schlosser 5). Much of what Hightower believed has actually turned out to be true because much of the food economy is now dominated by huge corporations and small businesses have almost become extinct. The rural areas have also been affected by the emergence of the fast food industry because many of the traditional family farms have now been taken over by corporate farms. These corporate farms are in high demand because the fast food industry is in need of uniform product. Schlosser writes, “Farmers and cattle ranchers are losing their independence, essentially becoming hired hands for the agribusiness giants or being forced off the land” (Schlosser 8). The fast food industry is literally affecting almost every aspect of American life, and is posing a major threat to small businesses and private corporations.
How is the fast food mentality applied outside of the fast food industry?
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of future is available for hard-working, low-income citizens?
The “industrialization” of fast food restaurant kitchens “has enabled the fast food chains to rely on a low-paid and unskilled workforce” (Schlosser 6). The fast food industry has overtaken the privately owned food industry and replaced it with a system so devastating, so far-reaching, that the individual has no power or say in the system. Reading this reminded me of “The New Slavery,” in which “today most slaves are temporary; some are enslaved for only a few months. . . it is not profitable to keep them when they are not immediately useful” (Bales 15). Fast food workers are forced into receiving low pay, and the average length of employment at a fast food restaurant is only four months. Each worker is not valued, especially because training for such jobs is almost nonexistent, thanks to technological advances in the kitchen. The fast food industry is so violent that it seems the only thing that is keeping them from outright slavery are protective laws on its workers. However, “the fast food industry. . . work[s] closely with its allies in Congress and the White House to oppose new worker safety, food safety, and minimum wage laws” (Schlosser 8). Within the new slavery, slaves are responsible for “high profits at a very low purchase cost” (Bales 15), and “without protection or alternatives, the poor become powerless, and the violent, without state intervention, become supremely powerful” (30). The fast food corporations profit tremendously from the underpaid efforts of its employees, and the protection of the workers is endangered by the establishment of large corporations. The large corporate offices have “helped McDonald’s franchises defeat literally hundreds of efforts to unionize” (76-77), and these efforts maintain an unfair, underpaid environment for McDonald’s workers and fast food workers everywhere. The corporations become almost supremely powerful, only slightly halted by a governmental system over which they exercise some considerable control.
Word Count: 313
“In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2001, they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars” (Schlosser 3). A majority of Americans that contributed to the $110 billion are teenagers that grab food on their way to school. I know when I was in high school, you could drive by the McDonald’s on your way to school and the parking lot would be full of students getting breakfast. To them it was just a cheap breakfast, which they liked, that they could take to school with them. They did not realize that it was bad for them. The other thing with fast food was that it was easy to get. A lot of places around the world have become more easily accessible to the common man. That is something that Schlosser focuses on when he talks about Colorado Springs; “subdivisions, shopping malls, and chain restaurants are appearing in the foothills of Cheyenne Mountain” (7). According to Schlosser, fast food is now “a fact of modern life” (7). I feel like this is a “fact” that we could live without. Schools around the world are starting to allow different fast food chains to sell food in their cafeterias and I feel like this is not going to help the schools get any better. They will not be bringing in any revenue to their schools for these lunches; all of the money will go to pay off the bills that brought the food in. “Colorado Springs was a sleepy tourist town in the early part of the twentieth century, an enclave of wealthy invalids and retirees, surrounded by richland” (61). All of this was before the fast food franchises came into the picture; with these new franchise came a new drove of people that needed jobs and needed places to live. With each new thing the communities were not ready for the amount of people, and the community exploded before the world around it was ready.
ReplyDeleteWord Count 345
Fast Food Nation
ReplyDeleteTo cut down on all the theft and death, why won’t fast food companies just make working conditions better?
Why would fast food companies hire people that cannot speak English?
It seems like in our society today, fast food corporations are taking over the world quite literally. They employ much of the work force and yet they take advantage of the youth that they hire. Schlosser calls it an “industry that both feeds and feeds off the young” (Fast Food Nation 9). They pick teenagers because “they are less expensive to hire than adults, but also because their youthful experience makes them easier to control” (68). These corporations pick teenagers that don’t have much of a choice, they need a job and need money whether it be to help their families or buy themselves a car, and because there are so many of them “when these kids don’t like the working conditions or the management they quit. Then they find a job at another restaurant, and they cycle continues” (83). The corporations also spend lots of money on ways to further de-skill the jobs and spend less on training their employees. By doing this, they can hire anyone off the street and if they leave it’s not a big deal because anyone can do the same job just as well. Schlosser says that “while quietly spending enormous sums on research and technology to eliminate employee training, the fast food chains have accepted hundreds of millions of dollars in government to subsidies for “training” their workers” (72). The fast food corporations are effectively ripping off the government without anyone saying a work. Even worse, when employees try to create a union, they either just fire them due to the low skills involved or try to talk them out of it with other tactics. For example, one McDonalds in Michigan fired the crew members and “the restaurant was shut down, a new McDonald’s was built down the block—and the workers who’d signed the union cards were not rehired” (77). And because of these horrid working conditions their employees steal from them and rob them at gunpoint killing employees and innocent bystanders and still, they don’t get the message.
Word Count: 340
One of the main things about this reading that I found somewhat shocking was that teenagers are essentially the driving force between many of these fast food restaurants. Schlosser writes, “about two-thirds of the nations fast food workers are under the age of twenty” (Schlosser 68). It is shocking to think that people as young as sixteen are employed at places like fast food restaurants, when many of them most certainly lack any sort of training at all. Schlosser explains that “teenagers are less expensive to hire than adults, and are easier to maintain (68). However, some of the teenage workers perform activities that are dangerous and against the law. “The injury rate of teenage workers in the United States is about twice as high as adult workers” Schlosser writes, and then later goes on to give an example of a worker who “uses the deep fryer and electric tomato dicer, even though its illegal” (82). So what about the adults that work at these restaurants to try to live on their own? They barely make enough to survive, but they continue to work there. Schlosser talks about the process of stroking, in which “the chains try to inoculate team spirit into their young crews” (74). These chains make it so they appreciate the work of their employees in order to get them to stay. This is partly the reason why some older employees stay longer. The company acts as if they appreciate their work, when in reality, it seems like many of these fast food chains care more about making money than the safety of their workers, even though they most likely know that the majority of their employees are teenagers. Another thing that was kind of surprising was the frequency that fast food restaurants get robbed. “The typical fast food employee steals $218 dollars a year” Schlosser states. (84). Also, violent crime seems to be quite prevalent in fast food restaurants, which aren’t places where I would expect to see such a high rate of crime. Despite these problems within fast food restaurants, the industry seems to show no signs of stopping, and will most likely continue to exist well into the future. (Word Count 371).
ReplyDeleteI feel that the points Eric Schlosser makes in Fast Food Nation not only describe the industrialization of modern business models, but also relates to the human mind and references these aspects to explain how fast food companies have taken such a large foothold in modern society. Huge brand name companies like McDonald’s and Taco Bell carry a sense of uniformity based on the idea that “customers are drawn to familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown” (Schlosser 5). The modern business has taken to similar ideas not only for advertisement, but in many other ways like cubicles to represent an idea how as humans if we see or work in familiar objects or territories, we are more likely to “feel a sense of reassurance” because of the security in the familiar. It also makes me think how in some cases does advancement or ingenuity still exist in a market place. Ray Kroc, co-founder of McDonald’s, states that non-conformists destroy the ideal business system of “uniformity” and that “the organization cannot trust the individual; the individual must trust the organization” (Schlosser 5). If the idea that a “fast food” mentality has taken over the modern business where “the tremendous success of the fast food industry has encouraged other industries to adopt similar business methods,” then how is there room for improvement brought on by ambition or initiative in the modern employee? The uniformity of the fast food industry seems to present no place for the ambitious “nonconformist” to come up with original ideas. This same workplace has adopted the use of young, part-time, unskilled teenagers to do these jobs because “their youthful inexperience makes them easier to control” (Schlosser 68). This setting where the companies have removed nearly every incentive to work under minimum wage and these “conformists” ideals uses young adults and teenagers with their own naive attitudes to create this massive industrial force. word count: 320
ReplyDelete1. Will the workplace setting for the fast food industry where initiative and creative "nonconformity" are looked down upon lead to a future work environment or even nation where workers, especially children, will become completely devoid of any ambition to work?
2. Is it the buyers' or sellers' "fault" considering the fast food industry that has begun to promote a growth in obesity, crime, less education, and etc?
In Eric Schlosser’s novel Fast Food Nation the concept of fast food and its affects on society reveals how much food controls people and their actions. According to Schlosser, one of the main problems in the fast food industry is the way it has dominated the industry since its development. The fast food industry has driven out the need for independently owned restaurants that used to make each town unique. “America’s main streets and malls now boast the same Pizza Huts and Taco Bells” that every other town has compared to the individually owned restaurants with character (Schlosser 5). One of the biggest and most easily recognizable fast food chains is McDonalds. As “the nation’s largest owner of retail property in the world,” it is easy to identify the Golden Arches no matter where you are (4). This vast uniformity and impersonal relationship between people and what they eat is not what the dining out experience is supposed to be. The fast food industry takes away from not only the people who are just blindly consuming but also those whose job it is to prepare the food. When the vast majority of the people involved in the fast food service industry “are under the age of twenty” and those who the industry target are young children, it is easy to see how fast food has dominated the world in such a short amount of time. It has become like a cult in which one is indoctrinated in at a young age and often forced into for the rest of your life. In its destructive path it can take children into poor eating habits and putting them to work at menial wages, ruin small business, as well as transform other business models into ones of mass consumption through the means of cheap labor.
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I find that this section of the novel Fast Food Nation focuses on a different section of children's lives that was not focused on in Kozol's Savage Inequalities. Not to say that this was intentional, but rather the ideas the respected authors had were different, but merged on the subject of children. After incorrectly using the word "disrespect" as a noun, instead of a verb (Schlosser 79) , Eric Schlosser introduces the perspectives of those who commonly work at fast food restaurants, namely teenagers. Schlosser makes the claim that "most of the high school students I met liked working at fast food restaurants. They complained that the work was boring and monotonous, but enjoyed earning money, getting away from school and parents, hanging out with friends at work, and goofing off as much as possible" (82). The time spent afterschool for many children tends to be the time when studying and homework are done, and many are unable to work on such things when they are having to work full time hours, regardless of it being illegal for a student to work more than 20 hours a week. Connected to this, Schlosser states that "about half of [the students at Harrison High School] eventually graduate; perhaps fifty [of four-hundred] go to college" (80). This seems to go hand in hand with the economic state to which these children grow up in. One may recall from Savage Inequalities that the graduation statistics for those who live in impoverished areas is extremely low compared to that of wealthier districts. The situation presented in Fast Food Nation at Henderson, where "many of [Colorado Springs] poorest teenagers go to school" (79), shows that the children who go to work at the fast food restaurants are those who attend this high school. One would not have to analyze deeply to come to the conclusion that there is a direct correlation between the economic situations and those who choose these jobs for convenience. By convenience, I mean that the corporation that has been advertising toward his/her age group for his/her whole life tends to have the notion inside of him/her much like Eliza, who "had wanted to work at McDonald's ever since she was a toddler" (81).
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When does the congratulation of success become a congratulation of greed?
Which should come first: equal distribution of tax-dollars to school districts or equal budget cuts for school districts?
3/28/11
ReplyDeleteIn Eric Schlosser’s book “Fast Food Nation” he talks about how the fast food industry essentially exploits teenagers and even the government. Schlosser says that “about 2/3 of the nation’s fast food workers are under the age of 20” (68). Basically, the industry survives, and thrives, on teenagers because they work for cheap, are easily controlled, and are easily replaced. Fast food industry employees “are by far the biggest group of low-wage workers in the United States” (72). Schlosser says the industry is making the machines easier to operate so that it costs less to train the employees. Fast food corporations are also somewhat circumventing the government system as well when the spend less on training and wages. They receive subsidies for more training than is required; essentially getting paid to give training that isn’t needed because it is so easy to operate s franchise. This problem, along with the unfair treatment of the employees and low wages, has been the cause of unrest in people like Schlosser. But these practices are merely the company’s way of capitalizing. This country was founded on capitalism, a key principle in our economy. Granted, the government should revise some of its tax laws and funding protocol, but the companies are simply doing what they have to do to make keep costs low and profits high. Though some of their methods are unethical, like overworking employees without paying them overtime, the companies are simply doing whatever they can to save money. It’s a fundamental principle of economics: keep your costs as low as possible to maximize your profits. So in my opinion, the fast food companies should not necessarily be penalized or scrutinized for doing whatever they can legally to capitalize. That is the American way, the American Dream.
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How have the various colossal fast food chains changed the nation, and, in a way, how do they control the life of an average American customer?
ReplyDeleteAre we somewhat setting ourselves up for failure in at least one aspect of life? Nutritionally, socially, economically, even politically?!
First of all, this book reminds me of the documentary, “Supersize Me”. That’s when I first realized how gigantic fast food companies are (and still growing ever bigger today). The amount of money spent on advertising all vegetables and organic foods combined was grossly miniscule compared to what just one fast food chain, like McDonald’s, spends every year one advertisements. Most of the time, the advertisements target children by showing commercials on cartoon television stations that kids watch. This is apparent when “96 percent [of schoolchildren] can identify Ronald McDonald” (Schlosser 4). A similar experiment was done in the documentary, where the kids were asked to tell the adult who the person was in a picture; nearly all shouted “Ronald McDonald” or “Wendy” at the familiar facea, but were puzzled when presented with pictures of then-president George W. Bush or a picture of Jesus. Fast food is everywhere—it’s omnipresence seems to outshine any other existence, even God at times. Technology used to “fight the cold war” and build “Japanese automobiles” is now being used to make fast food companies even bigger, faster, and powerful (66, 67). It appears that this new technology will soon not require the cheap, unskilled labor it relies on now, with the jobs of filling up drinks, frying food, placing orders, and other various tasks that can be done automatically without labor (67). Schlosser reports that, even though fast food companies employ most of the minimum wage labor, they provide some of the most jobs nationwide, so without even these minimum wage positions, how far can fast food companies with automated services put a nation into recession (8)?
Most of what Schlosser states, I can relate to, since I have worked at two separate fast food restaurants. Who would imagine that there is a 75 page manual of specific instructions on how everything is to be done (69)? I can—I’ve seen the Zaxby’s manual and even been reprimanded for doing something wrong. My new boss was observing all the employees—he was hired from outside, having no experience with Zaxby’s whatsoever—to get to know them as well as fix any habits we weren’t doing by the book. In watching me make a milkshake, he told me I did it wrong. Confused, having it done the way I was taught and had been doing for months, I asked him what I did wrong. He said, “you put the sprinkles, flavoring, then milk.” I responded, “well, yes, but what was I supposed to do?” He said, “it says in the handbook you always put the milk in first, then the flavoring, then any other toppings last.” I really felt like telling him that it didn’t matter because it was going to all get mixed up anyway, but I kept my mouth shut and just nodded, “okay.” I can also relate to the “common injuries” of “untrained teenagers”, especially burns (83). After a few months of working at Moe’s Southwest Grill, I had essentially lost feeling in the tips of my fingers or grew thick calluses from so many burns—the burrito steamers, the hot water underneath the pans of rice, beans, grilled veggies, and queso, quesadillas off the grill, cooking meat on the other grill, washing dishes, and the list goes on and on. In fact, that was one of the first things they told me when training me—“almost everything is scorching hot, but you’ll get used to it.” I also knew many coworkers my age that would go from school straight to work, sometimes even running across the parking lot as soon as the bell dismissed us from school, and worked all evening until after closing, which could be as early as 10 or as late as 1. Luckily for me, I lived out of town so I never stayed late to close and my parents wouldn’t allow me to work more than 10 hours a week (usually split up between 2-4 days). I think the reason, however, these restaurants get away with employing students for younger or longer than allowed by “The Fair Labor Standards Act” or any other law, is because these kids simply do not know about them and never complain because they “enjoy earning money” (82). Teenagers don’t think of “organizing a union” (83). On a busy weekend shift, I once worked my whole six or seven-something hour shift without a break. When I got home, I ate my meal and my mom asked why I did; when I told her it was too busy for me to take a break, she was outraged and surprised that I wasn’t allowed to take my break even though by law I should have taken one. The young and unskilled labor just doesn’t know any better.
ReplyDeleteWord Count: way too much
It really is amazing how far the fast food industry has come in the past fifty or sixty years. Or rather “ridiculous” is a better word. With 90% of new jobs being those given out by McDonald’s, and 96% of America’s children recognizing Ronald McDonald’s face, it’s no wonder America is becoming an obese nation (4). Sure, I suppose one could argue that the fast food industry is good for the economy; it certainly keeps the money flowing. However, with as much money as the big-businessmen are raking in, one would wonder why they can’t at least improve the quality of the food or the working conditions a little. It doesn’t matter to them, though, because they are not suffering from the whole irony of the situation. The fact is that while we sit and eat our McNuggets while we watch our kids munch away at their Happy Meals, the fast food industry is taking a bite out of us.
ReplyDeleteHere is a little fun fact for everyone who is reading this: a few years ago, the McDonald’s corporation decided and announced it was going to give full corporate backing to homosexuals. Great, that’s a big step for them, but that is not the point. The last I had heard (which was a year and a half ago), McDonald’s has withdrawn that statement, because so many people boycotted it that they started losing a fairly decent sum of money. That’s not to say they stopped supporting homosexuals altogether, but it is obvious the boycott was effective. This also happened to Pepsi and Wal-Mart, but the truth is that those two companies own so much that it is almost impossible to keep from getting a product from either. At least McDonald’s is mainly limited to food and a little bit of clothing. Imagine if, say, 30% of Americans who eat fast food regularly just stopped. The managers and board members would all panic and try to think of a way to bring them back, probably by slightly increasing pay, making working conditions a little better, and making the method of preparing the food a bit more… clean. Ask anybody who has seen the movie “Super Size Me” and the vast majority will agree that they would rather not have known just where that chicken nugget came from.
If working conditions were a bit better, do you think that people would be less critical of the fast food industry?
Suppose the government instates a law saying that all fast food restaurants must meet VERY strict conditions, including the method of preparing the food. Do you think that companies such as McDonald’s or Burger King would be able to adjust?
Fast food companies have now taken over America and all of the food system. Before, many Americans enjoyed the idea of dining in to healthy fully cooked meals at finer restaurants. However, due to the busy schedules of working Americans, there is less time for eating and more time to work or proceed to their normal lives. In “Fast Food Nation,” the author was able to capture the real meaning of labor force and the quality of the food in fast food restaurants. As Schlosser stated, “Americans now spend more money on fast food than on higher education, personal computers, computer software, or new cars” (Schlosser 3). The idea that fast food makes more money than higher education fascinates me, but after reflecting on how many times a day people dine in at a fast food restaurant, it makes sense. The idea that most Americans spend more money on fast food may be due to the fact that fast foods are usually cheaper and more convenient to get when you’re in a hurry. If you walk around to your local Wal-Mart or any store where they sell organic food, you can see that the prices are significantly different. Schlosser also states in “Fast Food Nation” that fast food is now a “fact of modern life” because most Americans are so dependent on it. I remember watching a video where the guy would continuously eat fast food three times a day to see the changes in him and I was surprised to see a family talking about their eating habits (Schlosser 7). They eat out at fast food because of the low prices and the feeling of being full after eating a hamburger for 99 cents.
ReplyDeleteNot only is the quality of the food terrible, the labor workers are also receiving no benefits from working. I remember working at Arby’s and my manager would be so happy to see that his check reached five hundred dollars. I remember him smiling all day and working extra hard in order to receive the same amount on the next check. It amazes me that a fast food restaurant can make so much money in a day, but pay the workers especially the managers so low. My manager did everything in the store from cleaning to cleaning up oil spills from the frying area. I think there should be a state law illegalizing this type of labor force and more inspection for the quality of the food.
How is the fast food industry affecting small businesses and privately owned corporations, as well as American life as a whole?
ReplyDeleteIn the introduction of the novel “Fast Food Nation”, by Eric Schlosser, Schlosser outlines the fundamental development of the fast food industry throughout the United States. Schlosser begins by describing Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He describes the pristine beauty of the mountain, as well as its serene and peaceful surroundings before revealing that it houses the largest air and space command center in the entire country. Schlosser writes, “And yet Cheyenne Mountain is hardly pristine. One of the nation’s most important military instillations lies deep within it” (Schlosser 1). Schlosser is comparing the mountain to the fast food industry in the United States, and is essentially saying that the fast food industry is deceptive much like Cheyenne Mountain. Schlosser’s main concern with the fast food industry in the United States is its eradication of small businesses and privately owned corporations, as well as its impact on the American economy. His view is similar to that of farm activist Jim Hightower who believed that the fast food industry would come to dominate the economy and put privately owned corporations out of business. Schlosser writes, “He viewed the emergence of the fast food industry as a threat to independent businesses, as a step toward a food economy dominated by giant corporations, and as a homogenizing influence on American life” (Schlosser 5). Much of what Hightower believed has actually turned out to be true because much of the food economy is now dominated by huge corporations and small businesses have almost become extinct. The rural areas have also been affected by the emergence of the fast food industry because many of the traditional family farms have now been taken over by corporate farms. These corporate farms are in high demand because the fast food industry is in need of uniform product. Schlosser writes, “Farmers and cattle ranchers are losing their independence, essentially becoming hired hands for the agribusiness giants or being forced off the land” (Schlosser 8). The fast food industry is literally affecting almost every aspect of American life, and is posing a major threat to small businesses and private corporations.
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