Dangers of Franchises

Chapter 4 is mainly concerned with franchises. Schlosser goes into detail about how difficult Ray Kroc was to some of his initial buyers to stay competitive. The fees for entry as a franchisee on top of pressure from the owners seems to put a lot of stress on new entries to the field. Schlosser mentioned the study done by Bates that proved that all these factors amounts to more pressure than starting a new business from the ground up. I have spoken to an owner of a Chick-Fil-A before and that seemed to be a very efficient system of starting new franchises. The corporation pays for the land and construction of a new building but limits the owners of each franchise to the top .1% of applicants because they ensure the person looking to start one has a background in business and a plan for the future.

Government Subsidies

I want to take the time to comment on the government subsidies mentioned in chapter 3. I am surprised to hear about how a large percentage of the money granted by the government for training was spent in research to eliminate workers. Although I think in some cases the government is too involved, there are some like these where the money they give out should be more regulated. Schlosser says that many of the employees of these fast food giants are inexperienced and obviously taken advantage of by their superiors. Possibly a shift in where the focus lies, like to the employees doing their job well and receiving recognition, a change would be seen in the productivity and quality of output.

Post Hoc in Chapter 2

In class today we talked about a few types of fallacies. Chapter 2 contains an example of a post hoc fallacy where Schlosser associates the similarities between Kroc and Disney's successes as a result of Kroc copying Disney. Although this is entirely possible, The claim is not supported by the text and leaves room for error. Both founders were very successful in their own endeavors because they knew strategies towards recognition by the public. This could be a result of two men finding out similar tactics on their own, not one replicating the other. This fallacy slightly discredits the author and questions the validity of his statements towards the progresses of the fast food industry.

Chapter three's examination of worker's in the fast food industry contains an important logical fallacy that renders Schlosser's argument unreliable. Schlosser is attempting to portray the expendability of workers and even full restaurants in a fast food chain and depict the workers of these restaurants as unmotivated to financially succeed and uninterested in unionizing. While this is true in Colorado Springs, where Schlosser's research is collected, it is not necessarily representative of the nation as a whole. This generalization fallacy makes the reader unsure of what to trust among Schlosser's facts as they are based on a small  percentage of workers in the fast food industry. Fast food restaurants are nationwide therefore Schlosser should investigate the work population of the entire nation and where they fall into the issues he asserts are plaguing the fast food workers of Colorado Springs.

Carl Karcher's personality as his business began to take off is that of a man hell-bent on advancement and success and he never looks back nostalgically on the "good old days." He says at the end of the chapter "the road here was gravel, and now it is blacktop," demonstrating the pride he feels in bringing Anaheim into the modern era. Today, as things in the United States have gotten even further than Karcher could've believed, less people hold this non-sentimental viewpoint. At the time Karcher moved to Anaheim from his rural home in Ohio, the country was just beginning to enter the modern era of mass production, large monopolies, and prosperous businessmen. Karcher spent the earlier part of his life living in a more personalized and simple America that seemed boring to a man of his age. Today, however, we are born into this industrialized America and the idea of mom and pop stores and restaurants appear more wholesome to us compared to the cheap, mass-pleasing corporations that litter our country. People call the times before such industrialization "the good old days" because every meal was different at restaurants and people were customers not consumers. This is something Karcher did not predict about the creation of chain restaurants and the advancement of retail as a whole.

In chapter one of Fast Food Nation, Schlosser portrays Carl Karcher as a catalyst of the rise of fast food restaurants in Anaheim, and in turn the country. I, however, disagree with this portrayal. I think Karcher was merely a cog in the machine of the fast food restaurant revolution. Without Karcher the fast food boom would have still taken off; another restaurant chain, such as McDonald's which had already been established, would have picked up the slack and led the revolution. America, at the time, was a country intent on moving forward and becoming more advanced and productive than others in the world after World War II and was filled with driven, intelligent individuals who were looking to fulfill the American dream. Karcher was one of these individuals and is simply a demonstration of a man jumping on the train to convenient eating, but not the conductor.