Fast Food Nation Chapter one

Fast Food Nation Ch.1

Fast Food Nation: The Darker Side of the All-American Meal is very interesting and stimulating. The author, Eric Schlosser, makes excellent points in all his chapters, for example in the epilogue he describes how we can make a difference and that is by not buying fast food and by going somewhere else to eat. Also is chapter ten, he explains how the fast food industry is like a circus. However, not every chapter is as critical for people to read as chapter one. Chapter one is the most important chapter because it describes how fast food originated (the founding fathers), the chapter shows how corrupt and back-stabbing the fast food industry has become, and how gullible Americans can be.

In chapter one, Schlosser describes how the “Founding Fathers” started the fast food industry. They are Carl N. Karcher, Richard and Maurice McDonald, Glen W. Bell, Dave Thomas, Harland Sanders, and William Rosenberg. Many of the men grew up similarly. For example, most of them were foster children or adopted, they never finished school, and came from poor families. Also all of the men could not keep a job. They had many different jobs. For example Harland Sanders worked as a farm hand, a fireman, lawyer, delivered babies, sold insurance door to door, and many more. When you read chapter one it really makes you wonder why they are so similar and how amusing it is that they all worked the same. The “Founding Fathers” started the fast food industry. They fight with each other to see who can get more. In a way instead of being fathers they act more like brothers, trying to get more than the other and trying to get more attention.

Chapter one also shows how corrupt and ungenerous the fast food industries have become. For example when Carl Karcher was betrayed by his friends and fired. He was the one who hired them in the first place and they turned around and stabbed him in the back by firing him. That right there just shows how far they will go to get what they want. The fast food industry also is very ungenerous because of the way they treat their employees. In chapter one Schlosser describes how the McDonalds brothers fired everyone and just had employees do one job so that they would have fewer workers and would have to pay less money. That was in 1948, and now today the overworked and over-managed young food zombies in fast food restaurants are being trained to accept a lifetime of deadening and unfulfilling jobs. They learn early that making suggestions and demands will get you fired. Fear plays a large part in this kind of work. People let this happen because by unquestionably accepting the corruption of their food, Americans have come to accept the corruption of just about everything else - low pay, out-of-reach health care, corporate corruption, irrational wars, tax breaks for the rich, and presidents of the United States. Today there are thousands of fast food restaurants and millions of people who actually believe this are the way the food industry should be.

In chapter one, Schlosser describes how gullible Americans can be. On page 20, Schlosser describes how the McDonald brothers threw away all their dishes and glassware and replaced them with paper cups, plates, etc. Even today the furniture, plates, utensils and cups are plastic. You are completely disconnected from the natural world. All the decoration is advertisement. It's no wonder so many people wear corporate logos on their clothes and think its right to put advertisements in schools. They're completely