Corrupt And Ungenerous The Fast Food Industries example essay topic

Fast Food Nation Ch. 1 Fast Food Nation: The Darker Side of the All-American Meal is very interesting and stimulating. The author, Eric Schlosser, makes excellent points in all his chapters, for example in the epilogue he describes how we can make a difference and that is by not buying fast food and by going somewhere else to eat. Also is chapter ten, he explains how the fast food industry is like a circus. However, not every chapter is as critical for people to read as chapter one. Chapter one is the most important chapter because it describes how fast food originated (the founding fathers), the chapter shows how corrupt and back-stabbing the fast food industry has become, and how gullible Americans can be.

In chapter one, Schlosser describes how the "Founding Fathers" started the fast food industry. They are Carl N. Karcher, Richard and Maurice McDonald, Glen W. Bell, Dave Thomas, Harland Sanders, and William Rosenberg. Many of the men grew up similarly. For example, most of them were foster children or adopted, they never finished school, and came from poor families.

Also all of the men could not keep a job. They had many different jobs. For example Harland Sanders worked as a farm hand, a fireman, lawyer, delivered babies, sold insurance door to door, and many more. When you read chapter one it really makes you wonder why they are so similar and how amusing it is that they all worked the same.

The "Founding Fathers" started the fast food industry. They fight with each other to see who can get more. In a way instead of being fathers they act more like brothers, trying to get more than the other and trying to get more attention. Chapter one also shows how corrupt and ungenerous the fast food industries have become. For example when Carl Karcher was betrayed by his friends and fired.

He was the one who hired them in the first place and they turned around and stabbed him in the back by firing him. That right there just shows how far they will go to get what they want. The fast food industry also is very ungenerous because of the way they treat their employees. In chapter one Schlosser describes how the McDonalds brothers fired everyone and just had employees do one job so that they would have fewer workers and would have to pay less money. That was in 1948, and now today the overworked and over-managed young food zombies in fast food restaurants are being trained to accept a lifetime of deadening and unfulfilling jobs. They learn early that making suggestions and demands will get you fired.

Fear plays a large part in this kind of work. People let this happen because by unquestionably accepting the corruption of their food, Americans have come to accept the corruption of just about everything else - low pay, out-of-reach health care, corporate corruption, irrational wars, tax breaks for the rich, and presidents of the United States. Today there are thousands of fast food restaurants and millions of people who actually believe this are the way the food industry should be. In chapter one, Schlosser describes how gullible Americans can be. On page 20, Schlosser describes how the McDonald brothers threw away all their dishes and glassware and replaced them with paper cups, plates, etc. Even today the furniture, plates, utensils and cups are plastic.

You are completely disconnected from the natural world. All the decoration is advertisement. It's no wonder so many people wear corporate logos on their clothes and think its right to put advertisements in schools. They " re completely desensitized. Life doesn't exist outside of commercials. Fast food restaurants create a false sense of plenty.

They offer access to a ready supply of condiments, sugar packets, straws, napkins and coffee cream - things that cost the restaurant almost nothing and do not have any real value. They also offer a false sense of control. You appear to have many choices - a Big Mac, a cheeseburger, a quarter pounder, a double quarter pounder or a 'Big 'N' Tasty' - but they " re all pre-packaged, frozen, pre-cooked hamburger. If you want to be radical, have fried chicken, fried fish pieces, even flatbread sandwiches. But you have no control over portion size, or the way your meal is cooked.

One of the ways we learn who we are is by the choices we make. Americans let this happen. Now fast-food corporations are infiltrating our public schools, in the form of funds in exchange for advertising. The deliberate marketing soft drink and fast-food companies direct at the youngest of children is wrong.

It seem that Americans have just become so used to the fact that McDonalds is always there for when they are running late and do not have time to fix dinner. Or to calm their children down if they are acting up. Fast food industries make it so easy for people to be lazy. The number of obese adults and children in America has risen directly alongside the increase of fast-food restaurants and has extracted high personal, physical, and financial cost to the nation. In the end Americans are like guinea pigs for the fast food industries, being used to see what they can do and how far they can go.

In all, chapter one is the most essential chapter to read. It has the beginning to how things are the way they are. It is important to read chapter one because it is where everything starts. In order to understand the whole book it is vital to start from the foundation, the groundwork.

Chapter one describes how the fast food industry started by telling about the founding fathers. The chapter also describes about how the food industry can be back stabbing, and the chapter also shows how easily controlled and gullible Americans can be.

Bibliography

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: the dark side of the all-american meal. New York: Houghton Muffin, 2001.