Reyn's Fast Food Nation Response

I understand Debbie’s infuriation with the fast food restaurants and the way they treat their employers. However, I don’t think it’s the teens that deserve most of the sympathy, but rather the older employees who have no other choice than to work at such a place. The way I see it, being a former teenager, is that they are too young to be complaining about bad working conditions. If you don’t like your job, quit! It’s as simple as that. For teenagers who actually need the money, they can find another job. There are so many other jobs besides working at a fast food restaurant that will hire teenager just as easily. Many teenagers, however, are just too lazy to research and simply go for the stereotypical teenager job at the fast food restaurant. Teenagers have a home, they have food, they have everything needed to survive at the bear minimum. Older workers, on the other hand, who live on their own, independent of their parents, don’t really have a choice. They need a job to survive and can’t simply quit. Also, many of the older employees at fast food restaurants didn’t go to college and don’t have the qualifications for other higher paying jobs. Like I said before, there are many jobs which will hire teenagers just as easily as a fast food restaurant would. This, however, is not the same for older workers. Many of these “easy” jobs (i.e. clothing stores) look for young, energetic teenagers and wouldn’t higher the older workers. Thus, the only choice for these under qualified oldies is to work at a job which will higher them, for example fast food restaurants. With that said, I agree with Debbie that the working conditions of fast food restaurants should be improved, not only for the teenagers, but more for these older workers.

Unlike Debbie, I’m not too surprised that the fast food industry pays minimum wage to a higher portion of its workers than any other American industry. The fact that there is such a huge resource of employees for the fast food industry (i.e. teenagers), allows the fast food industry to pay minimum wage. They don’t have to attract workers with high pay, the workers willingly come to them expecting minimum pay. If a worker decides to quit, it’s no big deal, the industry simply hires the next unlucky person in line. Thus, there really is no need for them to raise their pay, as there is always going to be a constant supply of workers who are willing to work for minimum pay.

Something that I agree one hundred percent on with Debbie is her criticism of the slaughterhouse conditions. These conditions, compared to those in fast food restaurants, are truly unacceptable. Once the conditions become a threat to human life, action should, without question, be taken. I was shocked to read that even with work related illness, injuries, and death, the efforts to improve the safety of the workplace declined. According to Schlosser, “when the working conditions…became more dangerous…the federal government greatly reduced the enforcement of health and safety laws” (Schlosser 178-179). How in anyway does that make sense? I really don’t know. Obviously something needs to be done.