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¶ … Fast Food Nation" Chapter 3 "Behind the Counter"
Would you like to be exploited with those fries?
In Chapter 3, "Behind the Counter," of Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation Schlosser portrays an underage teenage workforce exploited by managers and often forced to work in unsafe conditions. Companies justify this by stating that young workers benefit from the discipline and skills learned on the job. However, time spent behind the fast food counter is time spent away from studying or building a resume for college with valuable extracurricular activities. Students are seduced with a relatively tiny paycheck to give up a better future. Furthermore, it is often the poorer members of the student population, who need a good college education the most to succeed.
Wealthier students can afford to take unpaid internships where they learn real skills. Wealthier workers can afford to take classes to improve their skills and get a promotion. Often, employers...
However, low-wage workers only receive training in limited, job-specific skills. Instead of subsidizing fast food companies, grants should be offered to organizations to students directly teach students transferrable skills, rather than to simply punch keys on computerized cash register. The question should not be: does such work prepare you for the real world, but what kind of real world does it prepare you for -- a real world with a future and a good income or a future in fast food?
The fast food jobs for which companies like McDonald's receive government subsidies are rapidly being eliminated. Almost everyone has walked into a fast food restaurant in which he or she is required to fill his or her own drink, select the burgers, and do more and more of the tasks once relegated to individuals working behind the counter. This means that technology and automation, along…
Work Cited
Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Mariner, 2012.
"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
Fast Food Nation" Chapter 3 "Behind the Counter" Process essay: The process of coaching children in youth sports In his chapter, "Behind the Counter," of his expose Fast Food Nation, the author Eric Schlosser highlights the darker side of working at a fast food restaurant. The labor is frequently young, often exploited, and regarded as a disposable commodity by the managers. In fact, it works to the company's advantage if there
Schlosser: Fast Food Nation The fast food industry has been infused into the every nook and corner of American Society over the last three decades. The industry seen to have originated with a few modest hot dog and hamburger of Southern California have been perceived to have extended to every nook and corner of the nation, marketing an extensive range of food products to which affordable customers are found widely. Fast
" A study asked the public which attributes were the most important for a fast-food chain; among the respondents, cleanliness ranked first, followed by the wish to have hot food actually served hot. "The idea that fast food should be juicy (not dried out) placed eleventh on the list" (Gershman, 1990, p. 176). According to this author, Wendy's took two of its product attributes, hot and juicy, and based their
Many tourists have their picture taken in front of the McDonald's sign or with the Ronald McDonald statue outside the restaurant to document their contact with an exotic culture. " (1999) 5) Location, location, location - Over a period-of-time, Kwan's study notes that "...as the number of fast food outlets increased, the reasons why people go to fast food places changed. All the interviewees who have become accustomed to the
In-N-Out has never directly competed with McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. It remains small, disdains high volume sales, and still offers as fresh a product as it did in 1948. Patrons, who might be angered at a Bible verse if they saw it on the wrapper of another chain burger continue to come back to In-N-Out. The level of food quality and service makes even California's many liberal skeptics