QTPC #28 Fast Food Nation

(1)    Quotation: On page 229 Schlosser writes, “The chain earns the majority of its profits outside the United States, as does KFC.” This is seconded by “…a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Mecca set new sales records for the chain, earning $200,000 in a single week…” on page 230. I was really surprised by KFC’s success rate outside the United States. I just feel like KFC is so specific to America, I mean Kentucky is in its name and how many people outside the US really know much about Kentucky. I would think if anything Burger King would follow closely behind McDonald’s not KFC.

(2) Talking Point: “You shouldn’t eat dirty food and water,” official told me. “But we still think we can give animal’s dirty food and dirty water.” Schlosser writes this on page 202. Although it’s not really shock to me that animals are being feed disgusting things that I would never dare to eat this quote really got to me. I mean we are technically eating what the animal ate when we are eating the meat from the animal. If we feed the animal contaminated, disease infested food, we too will be eating contaminated, disease infested food. It’s not okay to treat animals as garbage disposals especially when that food will later be sold to people who will eventually eat it.

(3)    Connection: On page 242 Schlosser mentions McDonald’s addition of the Super Size Fries. This mentioning of Super Size Fries reminded me of the movie Super Size Me. I actually first saw this film in my 7^th grade health class. This documentary researches the health risks that are developed with the over consumption of McDonalds by a man who eats nothing but McDonald’s for entire month. He experiences first hand the problems that could happen when McDonald’s is over consumed, which turned out to be devastating to his health.

QTPC #27 Fast Food Nation

(1)    Quotation: While reading about Kenny Dobbins on page 187, I couldn’t understand why any worker, especially someone working in the meatpacking industry, wouldn’t want to be unionized. Don’t they want to feel like they have some power over the company? That there is a minimum to their work and if the company doesn’t reach it, they could feel like they have the opportunity to speak out against it? I mean, it wasn’t like he was foreign to the United States or didn’t speak English.

(2)    Talking Point: Schlosser writes a paragraph on page 178 about cleaning-crew deaths over the past ten years. This paragraph was just about the hardest thing I have ever had to read. Actually I couldn’t even finish the paragraph because it was just too horrible to think that this happens to anyone. These deaths weren’t just disturbing, but really horrendous and it saddens me that these people willingly take and endure this job because they have no other options. OSHA really needs to step up their game.

(3)    Connection: “There is shit in the meat.” The more I read this book, the more I am surprised at how much the movie stays true to the book. They also seemed to be able to put a lot of the different aspects of the book with its storyline. The main storyline of this book was about the “shit in the meat.” Mickey’s head marketing executive went to Colorado to see firsthand how the meat is becoming contaminated with poop. He went to the lab and found nothing but, what seemed to him, complete cleanliness. Obviously the tour guide didn’t show him the entire plant because as we all know from reading the book, the meat is getting contaminated with poop at the plant.

QTPC #26 Fast Food Nation

(1)    Quotation: “…a workplace accident in which a man feel into a vat and got turned into lard. The plant kept running, and the lard was sold to unsuspecting customers.” This quote on page 152 was disgusting. I would never go to a restaurant even considering suspecting that human lard is mixed up in the hamburger I am eating and to have that actually happen is astounding. Although plants have since been cleaned up and more closely inspected, this thought is disturbing.

(2)    Talking Point: “Cattle were herded up wooden ramps to the top floor, where they were struck on the head with a sledgehammer, slaughtered, then disassembled by skilled workers” wrote Schlosser on page 152. Although I have realized that there is a lot of animal cruelty in this world and I do like my meat, seeing this actually written as a nonchalant fact was saddening. I mean these animals have feelings too and deserve to be treated better. This was also shown in the movie Fast Food Nation by a cow just getting shot in the head. It’s so sad to see and I think there needs to be a gentler strategy in killing animals rather than explicit death.

(3)    Connection: On page 160 Schlosser writes about the average worker at the Greeley beef plant. He wrote, “The average worker quit or was fired every three months.” This turned out to be about a 400 percent turnover rate. This section reminded me of Nickel and Dimed. In Nickel and Dimed Ehrenreich wrote about the want ads and how they were really just a way to get people to apply so a company has back up whenever someone gets fired or quits. They did this because there was, as well, a large percent of turnovers which is very likely in low wage jobs.

QTPC #25 Fast Food Nation

(1)    Quotation: On page 34 Schlosser quotes Ray Kroc when he said, “If you believe in it, and you believe in it hard, it’s impossible to fail. I don’t care what it is-you can get it!” This quote, I think, is really inspiring. I mean Kroc didn’t always have it easy, he had to work for what he got and this quote really helps me to believe that when you set your mind to something, you can really achieve your dreams.

(2)    Talking Point: “The basic thinking behind 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.” This quote makes me uneasy. As much as I like the fact that in America truly hard work can actually get you somewhere, I don’t like how this hard work can turn into a massive overload in which a company can start to take over. I like that back in the day towns differed, not just the same thing but in a different place. Small business need to be kept alive as well as big companies.

(3)    Connection: In 2006 a movie based on this novel, appropriately called Fast Food Nation, came out. I recently watched this movie and a quote on page 7 matches perfectly with a scene in the movie. “Most of the taste and aroma of American fast food, for example, is now manufactured at a series of large chemical plants off the New Jersey Turnpike.” In the movie Don Anderson, played by Greg Kinnear, is the head marketing executive for a fast food chain called Mickey’s. In one scene he is seen smelling the latest manufactured food scents that will soon be used on the foods in his latest Mickey’s campaign. To think actually happens is disgusting.

QTPC #24 Nickel and Dimed

(1)   Quotation: “Work hard and you’ll get ahead.” Ehnrenreich writes this on page 220 with saying that in today’s society you can sweat all you want and work till your legs give out, but you won’t get much farther at all. I agree with what she writes. Today is not just about working hard by giving your labor, but working hard to get an education to receive a degree of some meaning. In today’s society hard work doesn’t mean anything, but a 4.0 can mean the world. But I guess in all reality that isn’t fair. Some people did not have access to get a decent enough education growing up to even try or have enough confidence to get a degree in something.

(2)   Talking Point: “Drug testing is another routine indignity. Civil libertarians see it as a violation of our Fourth Amendment freedom from ‘unreasonable search…’” writes Ehrenreich on page 209. When I read this I was a little shocked. I mean, people aren’t willing to get drug tested because they are in violation of the Fourth Amendment? That’s just an excuse for the drugies to not get drug tested. I mean does the public really want people who are high all the time working? Don’t we want to discourage people from using drugs? Drug testing not only helps weed out the drugies from the workforce, but helps in discouraging drug use. That is stupid to make excuses for those who do not have the will to just simply say no.

(3)   Connection: Ehrenreich writes on page 203, “In the first quarter of 2000, the poorest 10 percent of workers were earning only 91 percent of what they earned in the distant era of Watergate and disco music.” My grandfather, a worker of that not so distant era, worked in a General Motors factory for over 30 years. His biggest check was for $32,000 and that was enough to support his family of four. This was enough money to own a house, send his children to school, and have well over enough food on the table. How could times have changed so drastically? Today, $32,000 is nothing or rather very very little.

QTPC #23 Nickel and Dimed

(1)   Quotation: Barbara writes on page 125, “By my indiscretion involved the only drug usually detected by testing, marijuana, which is fat-soluble and, I have read, can linger in the body for months.” When I read this quote I was utterly shocked. What is she doing smoking weed when she knows the majority of all low wage jobs require a drug test? I was just shocked that a woman trying to do research about low wage work was smoking pot. She is a grown woman already; it’s time to grow up especially when work is involved. I was also surprised that drug tests cannot not and do not detect drugs like cocaine or heroin. I mean those aren’t rare drugs, they are pretty much the opposite actually and do a lot more harm than weed.

(2)   Talking Point: Although I agree with Ehrenreich when she talks about a union at Wal-Mart, I disagree with the fact that she is placing it inside the other workers heads. Honestly, I do not take her seriously. A low wage employee doesn’t think those thoughts because they don’t want the risk of losing there job if they bring it up. I mean for her it’s simple to rebel against authority because she has a better life to go back to in a few weeks, but what do the other employees have? Nothing. It’s stupid to bring up a topic like that when the other employees aren’t. Isn’t she supposed to be putting herself in their shoes, acting as they act? She doesn’t ever do this in any job situation. She is always cheating.

(3)   Connection: About two years ago my mother decided to work at Wal-Mart during the holidays for some extra money. Well, she has been working ever since and I can tell you she absolutely hates it, although it is helping pay the bills. She also has two other jobs so she is not solely dependent on Wal-Mart, nor does she work full-time, but if you’d ask her anything about it, only negative words would be spoken. I can relate to some of the stories Barb is writing about just because my mom almost says the exact same things. Walking too much, no rest, little breaks, always on the go…

QTPC #21 When the Levees Broke

(1)    Quotation: “The politicians forget who they are working for; they are working for the people. They need to stop thinking about themselves.” This man is exactly right. The politicians have a job because we elected them, we should be their boss, but as we all know, it isn’t like that. They only think about themselves and how they can gain more power.

(2)    Talking Point: The granddaughter who was with her mother and grandmother was talking about how the government is keeping New Orleans , especially areas like the lower ninth ward, devastated because they are trying to discourage the residents from coming back so big companies can build and remodel the entire area. It’s sad to say, but she is probably right. Although I can see the benefits of the remodel, I would never want it to happen. New Orleans is a unique place and all those residents make up that uniqueness. Those residents should instead be welcomed back.

(3)    Connection: When I was in fourth grade my family and I drove down to New Orleans one spring break. After watching this documentary, I am really thankful that I got a chance to see New Orleans before Katrina. I was really young so I couldn’t fully grasp how special the city is, but I do know it was different than any other city I had been too. Very unique.

QTPC #23 Nickle and Dimed

(1) Quotation: On page 59 Ehrenreich writes, “What these tests tell employers about potential employees is hard to imagine, since the “right” answers should be obvious to anyone who has ever encountered the principle of hierarchy and subordination.” This is so true! I always think that when I am taking tests like that. The “right” answer is so obvious in comparison to the “wrong” answers. This is later proven on page 107 when she writes, “This kind of thing hardly ever happens, he says, because the Accutrac test is almost 100 percent reliable in weeding out dishonest people (with the exception of me, of course).” See, she easily defeated the system, as can many others. I don’t see how these tests can judge others. I think an interview is much more effective.

 

(2)    Talking Point: Ehrenreich writes on page 46, “I resolve to give him all my tips that night, and to hell with the experiment in low-wage money management.” Okay, she was being a good person and breaking the experiment to help someone else, so I can admire this quote, but at the same time it’s an experiment that depends on money. She is forgiven this time for breaking the experiment, but on page 88 she does it again. She writes” …so I fall back on the support networks of my real-life social class, call the dermatologist I know in Key West, and bludgeon him into prescribing something sight unseen.” I’m not even half way through the book and she is already bluntly stating how she is breaking the experiment.  How am I supposed to take her seriously if she doesn’t take the experiment seriously herself? She is losing credit with me.

 

(3)    Connection: When Ehrenreich is working at the nursing home she writes on page 62, “…scuffle briefly over who sits where.” This reminded me a lot of my grandfather. He used to go to the table and be like “Okay…Jasna sits there…Adam sits there…Sophia sits…” It was very cute and this quote matched perfectly with what he used to do.

QTPC #22 Nickel and Dimed

(1)    Quotation: On page 19 continued to 20, Ehrenreich writes “she dips into her own tip money to buy biscuits and gravy for an out-of-work mechanic who’s used up all his money on dental surgery.” I thought this was very nice. I mean this woman doesn’t have a lot, but the little she does have, she helps someone with nothing in return. It’s nice to know that there are people like that. She even inspired Ehrenreich to pitch in, which shows how pure goodness of the heart can spread.

(2)    Talking Point: One topic Ehrenreich brought up that I never thought about was about the want ads. She found out that want ads are “the employers’ insurance policy against the relentless turnover of the low-wage workforce.” This is a little surprising, but at the same time pretty practical for the employer. The idea behind the want ads is for the employer to keep a list of potential employees because they have seen that low-wage employees usually mean temporary.

(3)    Connection: While working at the Hearthside, Barbara worked with a Haitian bus boy. While on work, she helped him with his English whenever she could manage to talk. This reminds me so much of my mom. My mom lived in Taiwan for 3 years and through that she was able to learn and now understand some Taiwanese, among other Asian languages, and can now understand English through a very think Asian accent, although very broken. She often helps them with their English pronunciation.

QTPC #20 When the Levees Broke

(1)    Quotation: “I came back to nothing. No help. No home.” This quote really saddened me. At the very least help should be immediate. I mean people were coming back months later with no improvement. What are they supposed to do then? Everything they had known was gone and now they had no one to help them get back on their feet. It’s awful to know that the government had failed in such a miserable way.

 

(2)    Talking Point: There was one story in today’s section given by a son of a father who had recently passed away from lung cancer and a mother who died six days later. This story really made me sad. The father had started and built up a roofing company that was doing really well pre-Katrina. After Katrina, everything was gone. I think it’s so sad to think about that when you are dying; you know you really have nothing to show for your life. I mean this man made something of himself and then when he died, everything he had worked so hard for was gone. I would at least want to be able to hold onto hope that my business will continue on once I have passed but this man couldn’t even hope.

 

(3)    Connection: People were saying that the real people to blame for the disaster of New Orleans were the engineers who built the levees that broke. Somebody even said “somebody needs to go to jail.” This really made me think of Purdue. Purdue is well known for its engineering and if I was watching that part of the film being an engineering student, I would get a little nervous. I mean what you design really does mean life or death sometimes, and unfortunately the people who built the levees in New Orleans did a terrible job.