Summary and Critical Response - Assignment Example

Some skills are learnt in these workplaces, Etzioni claims, but they are often not a good example. Money earned in these jobs is spent by teens to support themselves, in poorer areas, or saved for a major item, but more often it is used to buy trend items, with little lasting value, according to Etzioni. He concludes the article by advising balance in activities for teenagers, so that the desire to earn money does not prevent a well-rounded educational process. (199 words) Critical Response to the article “Working at McDonald’s” by Amitai Etzioni Amitai Etzioni in the article “”Working at McDonald’s” examines the phenomenon of teen employment in the United States.

The writer’s central claim is that the kind of employment that is offered to teens, and their widespread joining of such employment, is becoming a problem due to the inappropriate nature of the jobs they are able to get. At the outset, the writer acknowledges that very few scientific studies have been carried out to examine the nature of jobs at places such as fast-food outlets. This concession may strengthen the argument presented, because it suggests that the writer is going to persuade the reader with logical argument based on personal observations.

A point of view is going to be proposed, for the audience to be convinced by. On the other hand, it may weaken the argument, in that not enough scientifically proven fact exists to strengthen what is being claimed. The latter is true. This article presents an almost entirely personal point-of-view, and generalizations so wide that the reader would have to question even the most simple of Etzioni’s claims. An important example of generalization is that there are more traditional teen jobs, which are much better for young people than current ones.

The claim is that the traditional lemonade stands, which teach the value of entrepreneurship, and paper routes, to learn the skills of hard work and regular, good service fit into the American work ethic better than jobs currently(according to the writer). Not only is it a generalization to propose that every youngster in the past benefited from these “wholesome” jobs, it is also an appeal to the emotions of Americans, generally, in that the writer presumes that everyone believes that the old way of life in the USA was better than the current one.

Other generalizations follow: that all teenagers with very few exceptions spend their money unwisely; that most fast-food outlets are poorly managed and do not allow for the employee to take initiative; that all teenagers’ school education is badly affected by part-time work. Added to these sweeping statements, the writer also appeals to the reader’s emotions, and exaggerates the actual conditions of work for teens. He uses negative terms such as “pot party” to describe these workplaces.

Any parent would not be happy with the possibility that a child’s place of work could be described in this way. Etzioni further proposes that the kind of work available to teenagers causes the continued poverty of sections of the American population: “