Fast Food Nation - When Bigger, Faster, and Cheaper is Not Right - Assignment Example

 When some people think of fast food, they remember its delicious scent and flavor, and they might not agree that the concepts of “justice” and “equality” are applicable to the comfort food that fast food represents. Fast Food Nation (FFN), written by Eric Schlosser, begs to differ, as it illustrates and criticizes how food is made in America. This paper examines how cultural values and beliefs and socialization are influencing and are being influenced by the political system, as well as the changes (and resistances) regarding these issues. It also identifies examples of concepts of freedom, order, equality and justice. It further determines the social dilemma that the book grapples with and evaluates Schlosser’s dim view of the impact of fast food on American politics, health, culture, environment and workers. This paper supports the book's main argument that the collective lens of bigger, faster, and cheaper is not always right, especially in the context of the fast food industry's framing of this lens, because it negatively impacts numerous stakeholders. Schlosser argues that our cultural values, which focus on bigger, faster, and cheaper production and consumption, have created behemoth fast food companies that can influence politics. For instance, FFN says that fast food companies earn millions to billions from their local and international branches. Hence, they have the money to support political campaigns. As a result, one form of injustice contributes to another form of injustice. The first form of injustice is the injustice of being big. Big fast food companies have ousted smaller restaurants, in the same way that Wal-Mart has killed mom-and-pop stores. The second form of injustice is political injustice. In 1972, Kroc donated $250,000 to President Nixon's re-election campaign (Schlosser 37). During this time, the fast food industry was lobbying for the “McDonald's Bill,” which would permit employers to pay sixteen and seventeen-year old workers 20% less than the minimum wage, or $1.28 an hour instead of $1.60 (Schlosser 37). This bill is unjust, because these laws ensure that the government protects business interests over public interests. Bigger and faster production also relies on technological advancements that cannot bear as much revenues as originally intended without federal government support. FFN argues that the “reverence” for technology not only changed what people eat, but how their food is produced (Schlosser 6). Technology, however, also relies on a dependable transportation system. Fast food companies and agricultural companies lobbied for the federal government to pay for highways that would directly benefit the former. During this time, trolleys were the major transportation system, not cars and buses, and so highways benefited certain companies more than consumers or citizens. The federal government gave in to the demands of these capitalists and devoted millions to building highway systems. Socialization in America follows the lens of “survival of the fittest” and made the political system a system for the fittest too (Schlosser 37). Ray Kroc used this language when he responded to a reporter's analysis of the fast food industry in 1972: “This is not [an industry]. This is rat eat rat, dog eat dog...You're talking about the American way of the survival of the fittest” (Schlosser 37). The political system follows the same realist ethics in its policymaking. Some examples are the wars that America engaged in, so that it can establish and protect its international political and economic hegemony. The way people relate to follow human beings has followed this competitive, zero-sum thinking. Resistance to the fast food industry, however, aims to change the system and this resistance commonly hails from concerned activist organizations. Jim Hightower, a farm activist, argued as early as the 1970s that “bigger is not better” (Schlosser 5). Bigger means that large companies are ejecting small mom-and-pop restaurants out of the business. Bigger also means that companies are pulling political strings that make it easier for them to practice unjust labor laws and unsafe food practices. Parents and non-government organizations also question marketing to children and demand healthier food options. FFN depicts core concepts of freedom, order, equality and justice. Fast food imposes order through its concept of uniformity. Fast food companies applied assembly line principles to making food. In addition, they favor hiring teenage workers who they can exploit by paying them lower wages and no benefits. Technological progress also saw widespread application in the industrialized kitchen. Small kitchens were designed to “manufacture” standardized food (Schlosser 69). With this kind of system, companies are no longer bothered by the need to retain highly-skilled workers (Schlosser 70). Thus, the fast food industry changed the social order, because by changing how food is made, it has changed how employees are treated. In addition, FFN depicts the loss of freedom after the “industrialization of the kitchen” (6). Since fast food companies have become the biggest employers in the nation, workers will find themselves “float from job to job” (Schlosser 6). They cannot find other jobs, because they have low skills and these fast food jobs do not improve their skills also. In Taco Bell, almost everything is made outside the restaurant and either arrives frozen or dehydrated. This makes the cooking process very simple. A Taco Bell employee says: “Everything's add water” (Schlosser 69). When jobs require no thinking and skills, employees are left low-skilled and hopelessly tied to their jobs. Schlosser stresses the injustice of the fast food system to workers. The fundamental principle behind the injustice is how workers are viewed. Schlosser applies the term “throughput,” which the business historian Alfred D. Chandler coined (68). Chandler argues that a high level of throughput is essential to the mass production system and fast food owners applied this principle by combining technology and low wages (Schlosser 68). Thus, employers are seen as mere means of production, in Marxian language, and not as human beings anymore. In addition, Schlosser notes that though the restaurant industry is the nation's largest employer, it also pays “some of the lowest wages” (6). This is because the fast food industry is designed to reap high profits by squeezing labor wages too. The primary social dilemma in the book is that the fast food industry has created an American culture that no longer questions its products and systems. Schlosser firmly believes that as long as Americans lay back and eat cheap fast food without knowing how they were made, America will suffer from social injustice. The poor might be getting by, thanks to inexpensive fast food and earning from low-wage work for fast food companies, but these solutions, however, are short-term fixes with long-term consequences. FFN pushes Americans to be critical of the fast food's industry long-term consequences on their politics, health, culture, environment and treatment of workers. FFN also deals with social dilemma and one of the social dilemmas that I want to focus on is marketing to children. FFN describes how Kroc copied Disney's children marketing strategies. Kroc stresses: “A child who loves our TV commercials and brings her grandparents to a McDonald's gives us two more customers” (Schlosser 41). I believe that companies should not advertise to children. Gunter, Oates, and Blades explore the issues that advertisement to children generate. Some of the issues include influencing children who are not yet prepared to understand the intentions and content of advertising (Gunter, Oates, and Blades 9). I believe that young children have not yet reached the intellectual and emotional maturity required to properly analyze and respond to advertisements directed to them. It would be “wrong” to manipulate children to make or influence purchasing decisions, and it is even worse to market unhealthy food to them. I find it unethical and distasteful, in particular, that food marketers use the “nudge factor” or “pester power” to improve sales, where they aim for children to “nag their parents and nag them well” (Schlosser 43). This paper proceeds to evaluating the book's diverse views on different issues. I agree in whole with Schlosser’s dim view of the impact of fast food on our politics, health, and environment. America might tout itself as an economic liberal with a “small government” mindset. In reality, agricultural and fast food industries receive generous government subsidies and also influence employment policies through lobbying (Schlosser 8). This connection between fast food and politics is wrong, because politics would no longer promote the public interest, but focus on the interests of capitalist fast food owners instead. Furthermore, fast food has truly made many Americans fatter and sicker through its flavorful, but fatty, salty/sweet fast food. Finally, fast food is a huge threat to the environment, because of its high-rate production of non-biodegradable wastes. I also partially agree that fast food industry has negatively affected the treatment of workers. On the one hand, fast food companies pay some of the lowest wages in the nation. Fast food work is also monotonous and repetitive. On the other hand, fast food industries offer millions of jobs to the unemployed. This is better than having no job at all. Not all fast food restaurants also pay low or offer no or low benefits. These restaurants want to differentiate themselves from other companies through their fair labor conditions and regulations. I also agree in part with Schlosser’s stark view of the impact of fast food on our culture. FFN says that fast food has become a “fact of modern life” (7) and so it has become a metaphor for modern American culture. Fast food embodies the cultural frame of America: bigger and faster production and consumption is better, because it makes more money in the short-run. Fast food also stands for the competitiveness and individualism of American culture. I cannot, however, discount the fast food system's innovations, which is part of the American culture. For instance, McDonald's Speedee Service System enabled the working class to “finally afford to feed their kids restaurant food” (Schlosser 20). From the point of view of workers, this is a great benefit. They work long hours and need to outsource cooking to the restaurant business. Nevertheless, I do agree that this system should not sacrifice the quality of food. If the government can subsidize fatty and sugary fast food, it can also subsidize healthy fast food options, such as salads and other sandwiches. Also, even Schlosser agrees that the fast food industry did not come from the rich, but from the lower-class entrepreneurs, such as Kroc and Sanders, who worked hard to become the wealthy pioneers of the fast food industry. Fast foods, hence, also stand for the great American work ethics and the possibilities of the American dream. Fast Food Nation defies business literature that sings praises about fast food companies and their efficiencies. FFN opens the minds and hearts of readers to the grave injustices within the fast food industry and the injustices that this industry directly and indirectly produces. I agree with Schlosser that the fast food industry has negatively affected consumers, workers, small businesspeople, politics, and the environment, but I also believe that this industry promotes positive work ethics in terms of creative entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, I admit that Schlosser is right. Business innovations should never overlook the core concepts of justice and fairness. Business innovations should be ethical, social innovations too. Works Cited Gunter, Barrie, Oates, Caroline, and Mark Blades. “Issues about Television Advertising to Children.” Advertising to Children on TV: Content, Impact, and Regulation. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2005. 1-13. Print. Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001. Print. Read More