This chapter discusses what goes on behind the counter at a McDonald’s. What happens is that the workers are forced to act a very specific way when working. That not all, the managers go through a special school that programs them to act a specific way. The school is called Hamburger University, a school founded by McDonald’s. This schooling could take years on average, and instructs managers on how to handle situations and equipment. The locations have to buy updated video tapes to train the employees that get employed there. The employees have to act in a specific way, like always smiling. If someone is caught not smiling they get reprimanded. The window workers are allowed to act natural to a very small degree. This is allowed by McDonald’s so the workers don’t seem like robots. Other than that, most of the job is smiling and being nice. The workers wait for some type of equipment to tell them when to do something like flip the burger. A lot of the work done behind the counter is assisted by some automated device. McDonald’s is currently experimenting with a full robotic crew member. It does almost all the work while a real person normal deals with human interaction. So far there is only one location, but other locations are using touch menus. This allows the customers to come in and place there order rather then waiting in line.

3/10/2019

This chapter discusses a study about low wage work. This study was someone living as a person in poverty. The test subject had to conserve her financial reservoir while getting a job. The subject did secure a job, but at what cost? They had found a job and were able to find a cheap place to live. They had to sacrifice everything that comes with a living space to afford it. There were no fans, ac, heat, and no furniture. Most of the meals consisted of food from fast food value menus. The commute was terrible, at best it would take 45 minutes to get to work. The work environment was in terrible shape. The employees had to be on their feet for ridiculous hours while being observed by managers. If caught doing nothing the management gave them work that was even worse then what they had. The subject eventual took on two jobs since they couldn’t afford to live off one. This put even more stress on them has they had no time to eat. All-in-All it worked for a small amount of time before it became too much. The subject eventually walked out on one of her two jobs ending the study. This study was to show how hard it is to survive on low wage jobs. The subject was by herself, but some have child/families to take care off. This just shows how low wage jobs are not enough to make a living off of.

3/10/2019

One day I was talking with my brother and my dad heard our conversation. We were talking about seeing Captain Marcel when it hit theaters. My dad expressed his dislike towards the female lead movie. We did explain how it was a side kick keeping the legacy of the original hero going. He simply said that he didn’t care, and how he didn’t want to see it. My father was raised during the 60 and the early 70’s so I can understand why he thinks like that. Some might try covering for him by saying “he liked Wonder Woman”. He stated how he only liked that movie because the actress playing Wonder Woman was hot. He stays true to that out-dated ideology of super heroes being mainly men. He later found out how the rest of us were going to see it and got upset. Even though he said he didn’t want to see that movie because of the lead, he still got mad. My brother even told him what he said, and my father just ignored it. This isn’t the only thing he has a problem with, he can’t stand homosexuals on tv or in movies. I understand how tv and movies are being saturated with super strong female leads, among other things but that’s no excuse. He will go so far as stop watching it because of certain themes present. For example, if there are homosexuals kissing in his tv show he will never watch it again. He told me that he can be multiple seasons in, but will stop watching if he sees homosexuals kiss.

3/10/2019

The “Fight For $15” is a movement for fast food workers to get paid $15/hr and get union membership. Originally I saw this as something bad for the economy. On Friday I asked my teacher about it, and he changed me view. He explained how people would have more money that they could spend on things. This is due to the fact that people who aren’t rich normally spend money very fast. Their spending would cause more growth due to more money in circulation. This sounds great by what would happen to prices at these fast food places? Well since the fast food industries is normally comprised of big corporation prices will inflate. Those big corporations like McDonald’s or Jackinthebox might raise prices to keep their pockets filled. This can cause consumers to lose spending power due to them not having enough. As for the union part, that should be fine. Normally unions are in a factory setting, but they should still be counted in. Fast food worker is a low skill job that gets under-appreciated. Normally fast food workers get overworked, under paid, and even last second notice on schedule change. What might discourage the unionization is employers threatening to hire only nonmembers. This could lead to people still getting screwed over. On the other hand, the encouragement is the mistreatment of workers. I do feel that they should be part of the union, but not go as high as $15. I feel that a good paid would be $12.00-$12.50 /hr. That way the price inflation won’t be so hard on the consumers.

3/9/2019

Beats by Dre is a cultural pedagogue because they show how lazy my generation is. Beats is a headphone brand that production cost is low but market price is high. They show how gullible people are when is comes to celebrities. Beats are only valued so high because they were made by a rapper called Dr. Dre. This is a good example of a free enterprise; they can legally do that. With a free enterprise companies can have high prices for low production cost items. This reveals how a decent amount of people will buy things simply because a celebrity made them. Beats were manufactured in California, but those factory workers still get paid a lot less. Most of the revenue generated goes to the higher ups like the CEOs, investors, etc. None of these ideals are considered common sense, but they are still highly practiced amongst some.

3/9/2019

In class we discussed about importing/exporting. They both can be good and bad for our economy. The good about importing is that we can get more of something for a lot cheaper. The good about exporting is that we can acquire more revenue. Since we have to ship it, that normally justifies an inflate of the price. The bad part of importation is losing jobs in our own country. For example we import steel from Japan, that caused a lot of American steel mills to close. A lot of people lost their jobs, increasing poverty rates in America. The problem with exporting is that they might focus more on the goods going out then the goods staying. Since they would generate more revenue they would focus on keeping that revenue up. This could shift focus into importing goods, impacting the quality of goods that stays here. Everyone has something that is imported, just look in your closest. I looked at 10 articles of clothing and 6 was made in China. Rhodes clothes were 3 button up shirts, 2 pairs of shorts, and 1 pair of pants. 3 other button up shirts were made in different countries; 2 in Bangladesh, and 1 in Mauritius. Finally, 1 pair of shorts were made in the Philippines. This just shows how heavily America relies on imported products. The corporations do this simply to save money on material as well as labor.

3/8/2019

The tittle May be misleading, but I am talking about the company Apple. Apple is a company that produces goods like phones,iPads,iPods, etc. the company was originally founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. The company was founded in Job’s garage, where they created the first Apple computer. The computer was lacking basic parts like a case,keyboard, and even a monitor. They added that later on, but Wozniak left after awhile due to diminishing interest of it’s daily run. Jobs replaced Wozniak with PepsiCo’s John Sculley. This backfired later, as there was a dispute that made Jobs leave. Jobs opened a new company which was later bought by Apple and got a CEO position. Apple later went on to build a name for itself as a reliable brand. That’s how I along with many others feel when it comes to Apple. Apple has lost some reliability by making phone repairs harder to due. Their products have become more expensive, and they even went as far as making parts hard to get. Their own repair services has trouble getting parts since they have to request them. They fear that some repair stores will sell off extra parts as third party sellers. This oppresses those who can’t afford a new one or have their service fix it. All-in-All I feel like Apple is a good brand that still retains most of its reliability. I feel like it lost some customer support by neglecting their customers. If only they made their products more obtainable and more manageable more would buy.

3/8/2019

This chapter takes about the labor associated with fast food. In the fast food business employed make low wages, have unpredictable schedules, and lack of job security. For example, there was a mom mentioned in the book about how she struggles to find childcare services. Her struggle is due to her employer informing her that she has to come in at the last minute. This isn’t a surprise seeing how corporations like McDonald’s don’t care about employees. The corporations only care about getting the most profit they can. This can cause unfavorable work conditions, especially over borders. Normally companies like Nestle get their ingredients from other countries. This way they get the ingredient for a lot cheaper then from home. The employees from those other countries also suffer from the corporations greed. In those countries they don’t pay the employees as much or worry about work environments. Regulations over borders are a lot looser, saving the company money by ignoring the employees more. The employees might feel alienation towards their jobs, impacting their self. There was a movement in the U.S for $15 wages. So far, only a few states has a bill putting that $15 wage into effect. They were also fitting for a union for fast food employees that didn’t take as well. The main problem was less then 7% of U.S works being a part of a union. They find it easier for unions to be hosted in more of a factory setting than some McDonald’s.

3/8/2019

This page asked if you have ever bought anything to fit in. I however can’t recall ever doing such a thing. When I was in jr.high and high school I didn’t care about fitting in. I was that goth/emo kid so I didn’t care about groups. When I bought something it was because I had some kind of interest into it. During seventh grade I would only hangout with one person. In eight grade I would always be by myself; I would even push people away. In high I did get better, but I was more of a loner. I prefer being by myself doing my own thing. When I didn’t have school I would stay inside on the Internet. I was never really social, even know I find it hard to be. Because of that I didn’t feel like it was necessary to fit in. I do have somewhat of a bad memory so there might be a purchase or two that was made to fit in. Other than that, I only made purchases that fitted my interest.

3/6/2019

This section was about a study conducted by Stanley Milgram. Stanley was a social psychologist that conducted a study testing obedience in Americans. The study had two participants, the learner and the teacher. The roles were decided by a random hat draw. The study went as followed; the learner would have to answer a question. Every question he got right nothing happened, but for every question wrong they would receive a shock. The shock went from 15 volts to 450 volts, instructor said the shocks would only hurt not kill. The questions were memory based; they would need to know the word sequence. It started out basics, and would progress in difficulty as time passed. At a certain point the learner would complain about the shocks hurting too much. It escalated to them mentioning a heart condition diagnosed in the past. The teacher would show signs of hesitation, but the instructor would calmly tell them to continue until they did. What surprised Stanley was that most participants would go to the highest voltage. He rewritten the script for the study multiple times, it wasn’t until the end that there was a change. The change was the percentage of participants who refused to continue the shocks. That change only occurred when the participants had to hold down the learners for their shocks. There were still more then half of the participants who went to the highest voltage. That change made Stanley realize that no matter who, a person will obey an authority figure most of the time. When I took introduction to psychology I had to talk about this very study. I had to write why someone might go through with an order like that. The main reason I found was that the burden of being responsible was lifted. In the original reading the instructor told the teacher they wouldn’t be responsible if something went wrong. For me, that was the major reason for most of the participants going through with it.

3/4/2019