Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" is, first of all, "a fierce indictment of the fast food industry"
Everything ranging from the content of the food and the way it is made, to the lowest wages in all industries practiced in fast food outlets and to the 'burger culture', with everything this implies is thoroughly criticized in this book.
As a first criticism, one may notice that the author writes some 350 pages on the subject of fast food and the fast food industry finding almost no positive aspects whatsoever. It isn't much to say that, at the end of the book, you will be able to assimilate the fast food industry with some of the most criminal and degrading industries in the world, drug and human traffic, for example. It is not necessarily his vehemence (which almost doesn't exist throughout the book, as I will refer to further below), but the thoroughness with which he covers the disturbing aspects in the fast food industry, ranging from the managers and founders who barely have a high school diploma, to the "overworked and underpaid teenage workers"
and to the chemicals that are behind the tasty flavors we find in fast food outlets.
Generally speaking, many of these negative aspects should have their positive counterpart. For example, it is true that the teenagers are underpaid and overworked, however, the fast food industry provides excellent means to make extra money by working part time, stimulating teenagers to understand the value of money. Similarly, the successful managers should not necessarily be judged by their level of education, but rather by their success in...
Therefore from the results of this study alone it would be quite easy to conclude that access to fast food is responsible for increased obesity. Other evidence may however dispute this conclusion though. A very recent study by Morland & Evenson found examined the relationship between the presence of different types of food establishments and a number of different diet-related health outcomes, including obesity, in the southern region of the
"While a handful of workers manage to rise up the corporate ladder, the vast majority lack full-time employment, receive no benefits, learn few skills" (Schlosser 6). The companies actually receive tax credits for hiring low-income workers although "in 1996 an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor concluded that 92% of these workers would have been hired by the companies anyway" (Schlosser 72). "While the real value of the wages
McDonald's: Total Rewards Introduction to and purpose of the organization Historically, the fast food industry as a whole has a very high rate of employee turnover. Employees tend to be quite transient in their loyalties to these organizations, in part because fast food corporations often make very little investment in their workers and strive to give employees minimal benefits and pay. McDonald's has struggled in recent years with criticism for how it
Accordingly, the significance of the application of the conflict perspective to American food is that its accuracy is so blatantly valid that it has progressed almost unnoticed through our nation's history. Out of the philosophical roots of Marx, conflict theory has evolved and broadened its scope; today, it is most commonly used to evaluate the legal system, but the core conflict remains that between the proletariats and the owners
Other aspects of popular culture reflect this value as well, from the "roll-back" Wal-mart phenomenon to the speedy fabrication and marketing of most popular music, movies, and television shows. These trends also encouraged by the short attention spans of consumers. On the web, it has been shown that a particular site has less than seven seconds to load and attract the attention of the viewer before he or she
decision to purchase, use or consume the product of a particular brand is not simply a utilitarian decision that focuses on what goods a consumer wants, it is also a matter of the consumer's self-image. The customer asks himself, perhaps subconsciously, is he "the type of person" who eats at McDonald's, or uses Bayer aspirin? From there, the customer makes a decision to use, or not use, the product.
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