Fast Food Nation Analysis

Submitted By VioletDesan
Words: 740
Pages: 3

Fast Food Nation

The most serious problem in the country today that we face is greed. Greed is an intense and selfish desire for something, such as wealth, power, or food. Greed is the effect that has taken over the fast food industry. Greed now threatens even more such as the government trying to maintain a pliant labor pool that the fast food industry takes advantage of.
In the novel fast food nation written by Eric Schlosser he takes a deeper look into the fast food industry and how it has altered America. In the novel Schlosser speaks on how the fast food industry has had many consequences in order to make our fast food with a low-cost and profitable. Schlosser also states that fast food changed the way beef and poultry are grown, fattened, slaughtered, and processed. The greed of corporate to make more money and rush things instead of letting nature occur has been responsible for the destruction of the meat cutters and packers union. In chapter 8 of the novel Schlosser discusses the treatment of workers in the meatpacking industry.
A job in the meatpacking industry is brutal, its one of the most dangerous jobs in the United States. The injury rate at a slaughterhouse is about three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory (172). Many injuries in meatpacking factories go unreported because most workers are illegal immigrants and have no power and can possibly lose their job. Instead when a worker is injured on duty, they are only moved to an easier position. If the injury is serious enough, the worker may go home to recover. One of the biggest reasons why so many injuries occur in the meatpacking industry is the increasing speed of the assembly line. The IBP revolution is directly responsible why there are so many hazards those meatpackers now face. Because of the demand for meat is increasing, along with the profit, every company now try’s to produce beef as quickly and cheaply as IBP. While the meatpacking industry just keeps worrying about the next plan to make things faster and their greed to gain more profit their workers are being taken advantage of and suffering being maintained in low paying work pool.
Fast food jobs are meant to be for teenagers because companies know that teenagers will work for the low wages because most likely still live at home with parents and have no real bills to pay but that has changed. Instead of teenagers that are working for some extra money adults that can’t find work and need to support their families are now doing the jobs. The summer of 2013 and still well into the fall season fast food workers have been going on strikes happening all over the country fighting for their right to have a wage where they