APEngLangper711-12

"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.

Response to a Times article defending the changes brought upon by American writers. The original article stated "it is tyranny that has most often drawn writers into politics," this tyranny can be found in the Bosses from the Jungle, the plantation owners from GOW and the corporation owners in FFN.

"...Scarcely mentions the Mexican and Filipino migrant workers who dominated the California fields and orchards into the late thirties, instead implying that Anglo-Saxon whites were the only subjects worthy of treatment." This brings together both The Grapes of Wrath and The Jungle. The quote refers directly to The Grapes of Wrath saying that it focused only on the Anglo-Saxons and that they weren't the only ones being poorly treated; tying in The Jungle since it was solely about Lithuanian immigrants and their mistreatment.

"The most evident and substantial theme that Steinbeck employs in The Grapes of Wrath is simply an outcry against the ill treatment of all migrant workers. The Joads function as a symbol of the migrant working family, their horrific existence, and the effects that poverty has upon them. In penning The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck is generally calling for an end of man's inhumanity towards his fellow man, while he is specifically calling for a more humane treatment of the migrant worker."

"The Joads are very real people, which allows the reader to sympathize with their plight. As one critic states: "In the fate of one such family - the Joads of Oklahoma - Steinbeck has told the fate of all" (Kronenberger, 24). Certainly, the tale of the Joads parallels countless numbers of migrant peoples during the depression." This illustrates that the Joads weren't the only ones to suffer during this time and that it was in fact most of the country.

"Jurgis Rudkus and his bride Ona are crushed by a series of blows that suggest parallels between the treatment of the livestock and the workers employed to process them." This alludes to the fact that the workers were treated no better then animals by those whose only goal was to make as much money as possible.

"In 1970, Americans spent about $6 billion on fast food; in 2000, they spent more than $110 billion" This is incredibly shocking since employees are payed minimum wage meaning most of the profits end up in the pockets of the executives.

This quote shows that the economic system in America in unjust and provides poor condtions for the worker. The women of Grapes of Wrath are seen as symbols of the poor and demonstrate the theme of economic injustice

Nine Food and Drug Administration scientists have written a letter to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to fix the "broken" organization.

The FDA was created when Theodore Roosevelt was sickened after reading The Jungle. The meat industry was a sickening one in the late 1800s, but conditons have not gotten much better. Scientists writing to Obama about the failures of the FDA have cited that most of the money and resources goes into drug safety, while "the food side of the agency has lurched from one crisis to the next." This article shows that while Sinclair made food safety a relevant topic in America, the fight for clean meat is still not over.

This illustrates the tough working conditions during the Great Depression through the "Joads struggle to find low-paid work". Due to the fact that the Joads are a symbol for the many migrant workers in the 1930s, this "struggle" was clear throughout the United States.

This article displays the McDonald's ignorance when it comes to their workers. In this unfortunate case, a McDonald's employee was left to work long hours without rest, falling asleep on the wheel and colliding with another vehicle, claiming the employee's life. Should a worker at this fast food joint die because he was just working for minimum wage? 

"Most camps and subdivisions were located close to towns or small cities and Okies encountered much discrimination and bigotry when dealing with local Californians" This speaks to the hardships that not only the Joads suffered from but that all the migrant workers had to deal with. They were good people that were for the large part hardworking, honest, and the backbone of the picking community. Though without these people many of the plantations would have failed they were not treated like the crucial aspect of the farms that they were, they were treated unethically and inhumanely.

Another act of ignorance on McDonald's part-- most employees are not trained to clean a flooded basement. Another question that should be raised is why allow a fast food joint to be operational when a basement is flooded and chemicals and bacteria float with all that stagnant water. Worker conditions are poor because of the poor environment the company is not so urgent on maintaining. 

If any executives of these major corporations were tossed into a situation that these workers were dealing with they would not hesitate to complain and shut down the restaurant immediately. It seems the larger the corporation the more and more disconnected the upper management becomes to the people that are doing the dirty work and the people that are actually making their money

About the "McLibel" trial's appeal, in which the British Court of Appeals found that McDonald's does bear responsibility for the poverty of its employees.

He government is set up to help the minimum wage workers survive by providing programs that set a standard for the industry. However, these programs are obviously ineffective proven by enrenreich's novel. It shows how the government can trick people into thinking they are being helped

"The United States has had more experience than other countries with such plans, which are meant to eliminate the adverse effects of fluctuating employment on living standards. The most successful examples have been found in the consumer goods industries, which appear to be affected less by fluctuations in the economy."

This man read Nickel and Dimed and decided to more ambitiously test the situation of the poor by living the experience for a full year, with no money or car. He further sacrificed his lifestyle for the sake of journalism, and accomplished much more than Ehrenreich

It is interesting because Ehrenreich admits herself that the way she is conducting her experiment is somewhat inaccurate due to her possession of a car and emergency funds. This man is more dedicated and his findings are less biased.

I hope that this guy didn't whine about trivial bullshit (pardon my French) the whole time. Reading "Nickel and Dimed" was unbearable because of Ehrenreich's inability to cope with even the slightest change of plans. There was seriously a few paragraphs committed to how she can't handle caffeine and flips out when she has it, followed by her profound distress over having to call Menard's to ask about her possible wage.

The author was contacted by an old boss and able to make a concession or two for the employers, talks about the cycle of the poor not being politically represented, and other commentary by the author