“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves” (Frankl 112). Over the past four decades, fast food has invaded every single corner of America. Fast food restaurants are present in museums, shopping malls, along the streets, and even near historical monuments. Fast food has blended into the backdrop of our nation, one that was once filled with beautiful landscapes and is now polluted by city lights and concrete jungles. Progress comes with a dark side, and this is especially visible in the fast food industry through bad advertising practices, poor treatment of workers, food safety issues, and large concentration of power in the industry. Now that fast food has wormed its way into every aspect of
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About two-thirds of the nation’s workforce in the fast food industry is under the age of 20 (Schlosser 68). In the corporation’s eyes, teenagers are perfect for fast food: you can get away with paying them low wages, they are easy to control, and they don’t need much training. According to Schlosser, the bonuses of many managers are directly related to how successful they are at cutting labor costs. In order to get a higher bonus, managers mistreat their employees, forcing them to work without pay, giving them food instead of pay for some shifts, and forcing teens to clean the restaurant on their own time. Teenagers are also made to work late-night shifts, even if they have school in the morning and homework to complete (Schlosser 75). This kind of treatment of workers is what composes the horror stories from behind the counter. Few problems like this occurred previous to the fast food boom, where employees and managers were not under as much pressure to increase the output of the restaurant. In order to prevent this treatment of workers, fast food corporations need to stop providing bonuses for the wrong reasons, and instead reward workers positively. Teens at fast food restaurants should be rewarded, not harmed, by the decision to take on another job after school (Schlosser …show more content…
This is the problem that overrules all of the other issues and means that the government can not do anything about it. Large fast food chains and packing plants spend millions every year on lobbying and billions on mass marketing (Schlosser 267). This enormous political influence that the fast food industry has means that Congress really has no control. If a bill is suggested to make one small food safety law, the food industry immediately lobbies to ensure that they won’t have to make any changes. Congress should ban advertising to children, stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, make tough food safety laws, and inspect packing plants, but it is impossible with the power the industry has received (Schlosser 267). This is the darkest side of the progress in the fast food
About two-thirds of the nation’s workforce in the fast food industry is under the age of 20 (Schlosser 68). In the corporation’s eyes, teenagers are perfect for fast food: you can get away with paying them low wages, they are easy to control, and they don’t need much training. According to Schlosser, the bonuses of many managers are directly related to how successful they are at cutting labor costs. In order to get a higher bonus, managers mistreat their employees, forcing them to work without pay, giving them food instead of pay for some shifts, and forcing teens to clean the restaurant on their own time. Teenagers are also made to work late-night shifts, even if they have school in the morning and homework to complete (Schlosser 75). This kind of treatment of workers is what composes the horror stories from behind the counter. Few problems like this occurred previous to the fast food boom, where employees and managers were not under as much pressure to increase the output of the restaurant. In order to prevent this treatment of workers, fast food corporations need to stop providing bonuses for the wrong reasons, and instead reward workers positively. Teens at fast food restaurants should be rewarded, not harmed, by the decision to take on another job after school (Schlosser …show more content…
This is the problem that overrules all of the other issues and means that the government can not do anything about it. Large fast food chains and packing plants spend millions every year on lobbying and billions on mass marketing (Schlosser 267). This enormous political influence that the fast food industry has means that Congress really has no control. If a bill is suggested to make one small food safety law, the food industry immediately lobbies to ensure that they won’t have to make any changes. Congress should ban advertising to children, stop subsidizing dead-end jobs, make tough food safety laws, and inspect packing plants, but it is impossible with the power the industry has received (Schlosser 267). This is the darkest side of the progress in the fast food