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Reports are out: modern day meatpacking is still considered to be one imposing extreme hazard to the worker. This is only one of the many modern instances of ethical injustice as employers continue to intimidate their workers from creating unions, as described with Fast Food Nation and McDonald's. It is a marriage of Sinclair's eye-opening description of the meatpacking industry and Schlosser's depiction of contemporary business ethics. 

This is a great source and annotation showing how the horrors of the meatpacking industry first brought up in the Jungle, and later in Fast Food Nation are still going on today. The terrible ethics of these big businesses are still a problem to this day.

You guys bring up valid points. Honestly it gets frustrating hearing the same topic being incessantly repeated, but it still is a good source about these novels and the poor treatment of the workers. I like how your second quote even relates it to modern times, just like FFN

This article discussed the controversy on what it means to be a human being. As the field of genetic engineering is quickly growing, ethical concerns arise, particularly what constitutes a human being. If scientists were to create entities that functioned like humans, but did not look like them, there is a question to how they would be treated. This is much like the monster Frankenstein creates, who functions much like a normal human, but is denied equal treatment by others. 

"At the heart of Frankenstein is the tension between the power science confers on individuals and the just restraints of community. Frankenstein, both creator and creature, stands not for science in general but for the acquisition of scientific power foolishly pursued without the wisdom of the world"

This source takes a detailed look at the ethics of science, and how the novel was written as a commentary on these ethics. This also follows the pattern of Shelly's romantic side, as she created Frankenstein to have a lack of personal connections, and for it to be his downfall.

Comments on the tractor driver in The Grapes of Wrath, and how he had to do what was right for his family. Also discusses other ethical/unethical examples in other works.

"The novel is remembered largely for its graphic descriptions of rivers bubbling with pollutants, slaughterhouse floors flooded with blood, sick cattle being slaughtered, rat dung being canned with the meat, and, of course, workers falling into boiling vats and being cooked down with the lard"

This article argues that the popularity and purpose of The Jungle came from the way Sinclair used vivid description of the meatpacking industries treatment of the workers and their terrible business ethics.

The argument of who is in more risk of an occupational hazard: a McDonald's part time employee or the chain manager, it's a difficult decision to realize... of course, that was a sarcastic statement. Corporate giants and its executives have been indulging themselves in countless benefits including the benefit of proper health care while its typical kitchen employees struggle to keep up with quota demands set by greedy managers, providing an education for themselves and trying to raise children in order to maintain a family. This excerpt is clear proof of the sickening business ethics large corporations now follow: not to protect its workers, but rather the privileged who wallow in their own wealth. 

Through the sequence of events Shelley constructs, she clearly represents her beliefs on parental responsibility and the side effects that can ensue when this necessity is denied. In having Victor play the role of the rejecting father, and treating his creation with repulsion and disgust, one can see how Shelley makes her reader aware of the moral evil involved in parental neglect. lots of other quotes and links to other sources inside here, pretty much touches on every moral outrage shelley brings up

This article appeared in a business magazine, and relates the practices in Fast Food Nation to real life business strategies.

"In a nation where kid-targeted fast-food spots have been panned as a cause of childhood obesity, there has been much media speculation that the world's most famous spokes-clown was disappearing from McDonald's advertising"

This source does not directly take a stance on fast food but it does show how McDonalds is always updating their ad. campaigns to avoid bad publicity and continue marketing to children. This is an example of their terrible business ethics.

This article by PBS chronicles the evolution of the workers in the meat packing industry. The article tells of the meat packing industry revealed by Sinclair to present conditions. The average hourly wage for meat packing workers has fallen since the 1970's. The article also tells of the poor working conditions "Fast Food Nation" describes and how meat packing is one of the most dangerous jobs in America.

Schlosser says in his book how he feels that little has changed since the times of the chicago meat packing trusts, and this pbs article speaks in support of that claim. It gives examples of how conditions in 2005 are "that the working conditions in America's meat packing plants were so bad they violated basic human and worker rights"

Meatpacking industry through the years. This article highlights the way that the meatpacking industry and its ethics/conditions have changed (or not) throughout the years. It argues that things are pretty much as bad as the times of The Jungle.

This article gives historical information on the meat packing industry of the early 1900's. The article tells of the progressive movement of the age which supported reforms. The article tells of the response to "The Jungle" and the innovative aspects of the new processing regulations. The article also gives a short biography about Sinclair's childhood to his death.

"Unskilled immigrant men did the backbreaking and often dangerous work, laboring in dark and unventilated rooms, hot in summer and unheated in winter." The article shows how cruel the conditions of the factory worker were. And since the work force was unskilled and immigrants, they were often taken advantage of because they knew no better

The ethical issues addressed in The Jungle and how they relate to the bills passed after the publication. It talks about how Roosevelt responded to the book and passed many new restrictions on the Chicago meatpacking district, as well as businesses all over the country.

He's raised on grass and hay and lives happily on a pasture by the ocean. His meat is free of antibiotics, but can we afford to eat it? We can't afford not to. Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won't bite one another.

This passage describes how the ethics and sanitation of the meat-packing industry has not changed from the time of the jungle. Although some government reform and social reform has come about, it is still despicable.

"In larger ranches, they often had to buy their groceries from a high-priced company store." The lack of ethics was not uncommon during this period. Many of these stores made it so that the farmers were eternally in debt to them and were then forced to continue working for them for less and less. The Joads experience with this was no different.

This article sums up abuse and bad business ethics from The Jungle to today. The reasoning used is that the meat industry simply abuses their power because they can. Profits are once again the overall goal for the businessmen that run our meat industry.

This is the "kill to birds with one stone" philosphoy but in a negative way. By the greed that pursues the corporations, it not only gives the workers poor conditions but endangers the lives of the consumers also. the lack of ethics which hurt the people are not important to making profits

It seems that no matter who the corporations had to degrade to make a profit they are willing to do it. They have absolutely no problem endangering anyone, whether its the workers with the inhumane conditions they are pressured into because of their economic circumstances or consumer because of their ignorance, the underlining message to the reader is that there is nothing they would not do.

The Kosher meat industry is supposed to provide the highest quality meat while having high standards of business ethics and righteousness. The source shows that even in the Kosher industry, identity theft, child labor, and other unethical practices are abundant. However not only in 2008 have Kosher plants done wrong , they have been breaking the rules for years. This string of arrests has stirred much controversy in the Jewish community.

"Mohandas Gandhi said that a nation's moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals."

This article brings up a very important point to the discussion of ethics, or lack of, in the meat packing industry. While many readers who read The Jungle or Fast Food Nation focus on the treatment of the worker or food safety, animal welfare is also a chief concern of these books, and even in plants today. Throughout the past century, people and groups, like PETA, have fought for better conditions for animals in the slaughterhouses. These are places where chickens don't have enough room to flap their wings, pigs cannot turn around, and sick cows are sometimes dragged to the slaughterhouse.

That's a good point. They do actually have to do really tough work, just like everyone else, except they can't make ends meet just because their jobs are deemed insignificant and their corporations are full of greedy aristocrats. These people suffer and are just disposed.