Fast Food Nation Essay

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The Changing of the Food Industry “In many respects, the fast food industry embodies the best and worst of American capitalism at the start of the twenty-first century – its constant stream of new products and innovations, its widening gulf between gulf between rich and poor” (Schlosser 6). In 2001 Eric Schlosser published “Fast Food Nation.” Eric Schlosser’s early 21st century muckraking text, “Fast Food Nation,” attempts to shed light on the consequences of the fast food industry on American society. The rise and growth of the fast food industry, like the meatpacking industry, illuminates the evolution of the American dream in post-World War II America. “Fast Food Nation” is a book about fast food, the values it embodies, and the world …show more content…
The fast food industry advertises through children’s clothing lines, commercials, magazines, internet, and billboards. Some have even created new ways of advertising. McDonald’s created a television show to help with advertising. Kids are so drawn into fast food through all of the different ways fast food industries advertise. They advertise that you can go to any of their establishments, anywhere in the United States, and be served the exact same thing. “Customers are drawn to the familiar brands by an instinct to avoid the unknown. A Brand offers a feeling of reassurance when its products are always the same everywhere” (Schlosser 5). Each item will look and taste the same anywhere. The restaurant itself will even look and feel the same. “The basic thinking of fast food has become the operating system of today’s retail economy, wiping out small businesses, obliterating regional differences, and spreading identical stores throughout the country like a self-replicating code” (Schlosser 5).
The McDonald’s corporation is responsible for 90 percent of the country’s new jobs and it’s estimated that one out of every eight workers in the United States has worked for McDonald’s at some point in their lifetime. McDonald’s, alone, employs near one million people every year, which is more than any other corporation in the United States (Schlosser 4). The growth of the Rock Mountain region is growing rapidly and is the fastest-growing economy in
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