QTPC #28

QTPC #28

Readings

Fast Food Nation pg. 225-288

(1) “Future historians, I hope, will consider the American fast food industry a relic of the twentieth century – a set of attitudes, systems, and beliefs that emerged from postwar southern California, that embodied its limitless faith in technology, that quickly spread across the globe, flourished briefly, and then receded, once its true costs became clear and its thinking became obsolete” (pg. 288).

(2) Do you really think that the fast food industry will just go away?  Will we be able to return to the family farmer and family own business that know their neighbors, and care about the quality of their services?

(3) I really hope that we do move away from the fast food industry trend, and the use of technology in everything we do.  I agree that technology is great and without it we would not be able to accomplish as much as we do today, but when is enough, enough?  My connection to my quote comes from the Ecotopia book that I read.  I truly believe that in order for our country to turn around and start making sense to the general public we need to take a good hard look at how we are accomplishing things and see if what we are doing is right for the public.  We need to get in touch with nature, our roots, and what this country was founded on and created.  We as a nation have lost our humanistic outlook on life and that is creating these types of industries that feed on unaware people who are not given the proper information that they have a right to.  We need to wake up and look around and ask ourselves, is this really what we want people to remember us by?

QTPC #27

QTPC #27

Readings

Fast Food Nation pg. 169-222

(1)  “Sex, drugs, and slaughterhouses may seem an unlikely combination, but as one former Monfort employee told me:  ‘Inside those walls is a different world that obeys different laws’” (pg. 176).

(2) This book shows the good side of workers comp, but there is also a bad side.  For example many workers anymore use workers comp when they have an injury outside of work, and only report it once they are at work saying that they received the injury while they were working.  For every good part of a law or organization there is a bad part as well.  Until people learn to not abuse the system whether they are the manager or employee there will always be programs such as workers comp that will used in which ever way is best for that person.

(3) I have never worked in a slaughterhouse but I have worked in the food industry, so I understand the pressure from management to work extra hours and longer shifts just so they can use up their cheap labor force.  Because I was a student at the time working in the food industry I did not work over 40 hours a week, but many times I worked more than 8 hours on one shift.  I do understand that working 8 hours is not that bad but it is when you are a student and you homework and projects that need to be done, and you are working till 12 or 1 a.m.  Employers many times take their employees for granted and will use or abuse their work ethic any way possible, just like the managers in the slaughterhouses.

QTPC #26

QTPC #26

Readings

Fast Food Nation pg. 99-166

(1)  “They are independent and self-sufficient, cherish their freedom, believe in hard work – and as a result are not paying the price” (pg. 145).

(2) Why is it that our country has reverted to treating people in so many inhumane ways, and relies on the work of unskilled workers?

(3) There were quite a few connections that I made with this part of the reading.  One of them was with the movie “Open Range” which is about cattlemen there were called free rangers and allowed their cattle to roam free over the countryside.  As time went on cities and towns did not like free rangers so they began outlawing them, and causing problems with their cattle by scaring them off everywhere or stealing them.  This movie really connects with my quote, because the two main characters in the movie embodied the very essence of independence and freedom.  Another connection that made in this reading is with the decline of skilled butchers.  Because my dad has worked in the grocery industry for most of his life, he told me that one of the hardest group of people to hire is skilled butchers or meat cutters.  Anymore there are grocery stores like Walmart that buy their meat pre-cut just like McDonalds or any other restaurant.   It is very rare to find a grocery store that actually cuts its own meat in house, and therefore it is harder to find a skilled meat cutter that actually knows what he or she is doing.  This decline in skilled workers is due to the stronghold that major slaughterhouse and meat processing plants have on the meat industry and market.  We have allowed these big companies to take away the individuality of a worker just for the sake of low cost and higher profit.

QTPC #25

QTPC #25

Readings

Fast Food Nation pg. 1-88

(1) “Had the big auto companies been required to pay for the roads – in the same way that the trolley companies had to lay and maintain track – the landscape of the American West would look quite different today” (pg. 16).

(2) Recently I have been learning about Peak Oil in my earth atmospheric science (EAS) class, and that deals with the prediction of when the world will have used up 50% of the available oil in the world.  Many experts predict that the creation of suburbia and sprawled out fast food areas are to blame for the U.S.’s major dependence on oil, is this true and if so what needs to or should change?

(3) One great connection that I made in this reading was that the week after I began this book my EAS class watched a documentary called “The End of Suburbia”, and in that video they discussed how the GM deal with the trolley companies changed the way Americans dealt with cars and transportation to and from places.  It made me really frustrated that we are bailing out an industry that ever since the automobile became a major part of transportation in this country has not been taking care of business and being not only fiscally but socially responsible to the U.S.  To look back and see how the auto industry has used its influence and power to not only manipulate the government, but also the very people that buy and used these cars into thinking that by buying these American made cars we are supporting companies that claim to support Americans.  The only way the auto industry has supported Americans is through jobs which is monetary, but not through the community.  Companies whether it is the food, auto, financial, etc industries have seem to have lost their way and what it really means to contribute to the greater good of humanity, instead we have allowed our greed and lust for materialist possessions take over our lives.

QTPC #24

QTPC #24

Readings

Nickel and Dimed: “Evaluation”

(1)”The first thing I discovered is that no job, no matter how lowly, is truly ‘unskilled’” (pg. 193).

(2) Does everyone truly believe the quote above, that every job no matter how low in wages is not ‘unskilled’?

(3) My connection relates to the quote provided above.  I also believe that every job no matter how low in wages or social status can teach each one of us something that could be useful in our life.  I am very passionate about this; I do not believe it is right for one person to look down on someone else’s work.  Everything everyone does is important in the running of our country/world.  I have worked a variety of jobs and from each one of them I have learned something that I will remember and use the rest of my life.

Extra Credit

Extra Credit QTPC

“Rap 2 Reformation”

(1)    “Those that are best for my Muslim nation are those who treat their women best.”

(2)    Napoleon talked about the treatment of women and compared the world of Islam to the industry world of music.  He said that the music industry degrades women more so than Islam followers.  Is this true, or is it an unfair comparison.

(3)    Attending this motivated speech was very inspiring.  Napoleon the rapper went through quite a few life altering experiences, and it was because of those occurrences he turned to the religion of Islam to become a Muslim.  A connection that I made with Napoleons speech was when he was discussing growing up in New Jersey and how he felt the only way to make it off of the streets was through either drugs or the music industry instead of through the education system.  When he talked about this part of his life it reminded me of Savage Inequalities and how many of the students felt like their education was not providing anything for them so they turned other activities such as drug dealing.

QTPC #23

QTPC #23

Readings

Nickel and Dimed: “Selling in Minnesota” pg. 121-191

(1) “What you don’t necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you’re actually selling is your life” (pg. 187).

(2) Were your perception of the blue-collar working class Americans transformed or reinforced by Nickel and Dimed?  This is a question that is posed at the end of this book and I think it would be a good before and after question that should be addressed while reading this book.

(3)  One of the major parts of Ehrenreich’s experience in Minnesota was the rental situation among the housing sector.  My parents rent out four different homes in Fort Wayne, and I can say that it definitely depends on what type of landlord you have as to what type of service or treatment you are given in regards to your housing.  After renting a house here in West Lafayette, I did feel at times that I was being taken advantage of my situation.  The rent for a house near Purdue is around $1200 or more a month without utilities.  A house very similar to the one that I rented here at Purdue would cost around $800 a month without including utilities.  I do understand that location should be taken into consideration, but the condition of my house was not even comparable to a house that my parents rent out near IPFW (a college in Fort Wayne).  It just amazed me how different landlords treated their tenants.  So I can understand kind of what Ehrenreich went through looking for someplace to live that was close to job opportunities and provided the basic amenities needed to live within a household.  It is very frustrating to read this book and keep thinking that the only way out of such a situation is education, but recently what is considered a good college education is not enough anymore.  People who receive a liberal arts degree could only have waitressing jobs or any other type of minimum wage job instead of what they actually went to school to study.  The society and situation in which we all live now is creating an environment where the people who are at the top will continue to stay at the top and the people in the middle will not be able to receive any social mobility, and it is even worse for the lower class.  When will the point come where people just sit back and reevaluate the situation before us and realize that what is occurring now is not working and there needs to be some checks and balances put into place?

QTPC #22

QTPC # 22

Readings

“Scrubbing Maine” pg. 51-119

(1) “It’s good to know that something is cheaper than my time, or that in the hierarchy of the company’s values I rank above Windex” (pg. 74).

(2) How does everyone feel about the idea that there is a job for everyone out there, and that certain people are made for certain types of jobs?  Kind of like what was discussed in Savage Inequalities.

(3) I have never worked in a maid service company before, but I have worked with a catering company where we had to cook, clean, setup, and serve for weddings and other events.  So in a way I could relate to the never ending cleaning, except as a caterer we had to clean all of the silverware, plates, platters, bowls, etc individually.  After awhile our hands would get really tired and then your feet start to hurt from being up and moving for at least 9 hours.  Personally I actually enjoyed these types of jobs because of all the different people I was able to meet and interact with during my whole shift.  I think that any job can help educate someone and if they work really hard at what they do they will be rewarded some way or another.  I understand that many may not believe in this, and that is fine.  Life is not fair and it seems like over the past few decades what seems to become more unfair is getting closer and closer to home and is ruining all the ideals that we as human beings hold dear.

QTPC #21

QTPC #21

Readings

Nickel and Dimed pg. 1-49

(1) “The only thing to do is to treat each shift as a one-time only emergency: you’ve got fifty starving people out there, lying scattered on the battlefield, so get out there and feed them!” (pg. 33)

(2) How does everyone feel about raising the minimum wage?  Does it seem right to raise the minimum wage but not raise the rest of the wages such as for the middle class?

(3) One of the connections that I made to this book was when the author was talking about her manager at Hearthside.  My dad is a manager for a grocery store chain and I talk to him quite a bit about his job.  My dad has been in the grocery store business since he was 16 years old, so he has moved up from being a bagger to managing a few stores.  I understand that my dad may be the exception among managers, but it seems that managers of people who are making minimum wage are given a bad rap due to the way their bosses treat them.  I know that my dad a few other people that I know who managers are not against the minimum wage being raised.  I personally believed that the minimum wage should be raised, even though I make higher than minimum wage it does not bother me that my wage will not be raised.  People should be paid the amount that they earn, and it seems reading this book and based on my own personal experience the minimum wage needs to be raised.

QTPC #20

QTPC #20

Readings

“When the Levees Broke”

(1) “I’ll fly away, Oh Glory
I’ll fly away; (in the morning)
When I die, Hallelujah, by and by,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away).
When the shadows of this life have gone,
I’ll fly away;
Like a bird from prison bars has flown,
I’ll fly away (I’ll fly away)” (The song the band played at the end of the documentary.)

(2) If there were to be another Katrina next year what different steps would be taken to evacuate the people, would the government react in the same way?

(3) The only connection that I could make to the end of this documentary was how the director framed each person that was interviewed with a picture frame.  I have seen this in other documentaries that I have seen before.  I think that it is an interesting way to give credit and give the idea of being a portrait of each person.