Review of Fast Food Nation

I had wanted to read this book for a long time ever since Deneng said it was an interesting book about a year or so ago. But I simply could not find where it was hiding at Toa Payoh library. So when I needed a book to make up the minimum order over Amazon, I decided to buy it. And I certainly wasn't disappointed. For a fiction book, it wasn't dreary. The story telling style made it highly readable and the fact that it had so much accusations about McDonald's and other companies but the author never got sued went some way to proving it had to be mostly right and thus highly convincing.

The first part of the book predictably went about describing the rise of the fast food industry which really took off after WWII. As cities grew in size and boundaries were pushed back, fast food restaurants began sprouting all over the place. Perhaps more importantly was the invention of the automobile, which allowed large scale inter city travel and thus major highways were built. People needed to take breaks while travelling and thus drive thru fast food restaurants began to appear along highways and this contributed immensely to their growth.

The second slightly disturbing part concentrated on the marketing efforts of McDonald's and other chains. They targeted small children explicitly, believing that they would in turn bring their parents and grandparents. And they made huge use of child psychology. So the idea that Ronald McDonald's was your friend, Happy Meal coming with small toys, those children clubs that they ran, and even the small little playgrounds that they had were all designed to get you hooked. Hooked until you would frequent them even when you are an adult, even when you die. How scary! I think I am glad to say that I wasn't a victim. I did like some of the toys and Happy Meals but I certainly wasn't hooked. Think back to Hello Kitty queue days....*shudder*

The book then got slightly more disturbing. It now went on to the people who worked in the restaurants. Those people that you see behind the counter and in the kitchens etc. I had heard all along that McDonald's job is shit and pays shit as well blah blah but all along I had thought "well yeah, its a simple job, so of course the pay is low". But this book showed the other side of the story. That the major fast food chains had deliberately kept wages low. Since they were big and powerful and often contributed funds to politicians, they were able to oppose minimum wage laws from being implemented. At the same time, they were also strongly anti labour unions, firing any employee who attempts to join unions blah blah. In addition, they threw out my favourite economic theory in the process. There is this theory about how specialization for workers would lead to higher productivity and thus good for firms as well as good for workers as they earn higher wages due to their productivity. But when fast food chains made workers specialise in doing certain stuff in kitchens, they also had machines which were "idiot proof" so to speak, taking the skill away from the job. And thus they were able to fire workers as and when they wish since training another worker is damn easy. And this also makes wages low.

The next section well and truly got me very very disturbed. It talked about the food sources of the fast food chains, how the french fries taste so nice because of the flavouring. But the most disturbing part of all are the meat packing factories in the USA. In the USA, meat is processed by several large meat packing factories and in turn these factories provide meat for the few fast food chains. Like the fast food chains, the meat packing firms wield enormous power over politicians and so are able to keep wages low, and continue to have poor working conditions etc. But thats not the only thing. It's one thing to work in poor conditions, but it's quite another thing to have to risk your life in your job. The book describes how cheap and unskilled Latino workers are forced to cut meat quickly to keep up with production speeds, risking being cut by knifes held by other fellow workers who are working very fast as well. Others risk having their hands crushed or their heads ripped off. Yet some others have to stand in ankle deep pools od blood. And others have to expose themselves to chlorine and stuff when they clean the meat packing factory at night. I nearly wanted to puke at the details written in the book. A weird sense of injustice came over me and I was really angry at the fast food chains and meat packing factories. I nearly swore never to eat another fast food meal again. That was how disturbed I was by that section. But then I realised that sweatshops of other brands for clothes and shoes might also have the same problem. Would I boycott them as well?

In a way, this represents the long standing problem in Economics of efficiency and equity. From the meat packing firm's perspective, there is a steady flow of cheap Latino labour, so why not make use of it? Using them is efficient. Forcing them to work faster and harder is productivity. But as a society, do we want to progress down that path? Do we just want to be concerned about the numbers? whether we fulfill the production quotas? whether we keep costs to the minimum in whatever way we can think of? So much so that when people die, we simply replace them with another guy. BECAUSE THEY ARE CHEAP? Or do we sometimes have to stop and take stock of ourselves and think: "Hey that guy is a human too. He is not just a number in the payroll, or a money making machine. Let's give him a break. And give him what is humanly acceptable, not just what is economically acceptable or what will look best to your bottom line. It is a struggle, and we are no nearer a solution than when Adam Smith wrote the Wealth of Nations. Socialism tried to be equal, but "some people turned out to be more equal than others". Sweden tried to be a welfare state and achieve economic efficiency at the same time, but they also failed to a large extent. I hate having limited knowledge....

Well I guess I will continue to eat my KFC because I like it a lot. But I will give McDonald's or BK a miss next time, simply because their food sucks in my opinion. I don't want to be swept into a vegetarian movement or an anti sweat shop movement just because of a book, because like what Li Yeng said we must take everything with a pinch of salt, and I also feel I would need to learn more about such issues before I make a stand. But at the same time I hate the feeling of just typing on my blog and moaning about how traumatised I am by the conditions described in the book.

HOW?