This essay is an investigative report on "Fast Food Nation".

Essay by LuppeyCollege, UndergraduateA+, October 2005

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Many people blindly go to fast food restaurants without thinking "what lies behind the shinny happy faces of every fast food transaction" (Schlosser 10). Eric Schlosser's book "Fast Food Nation" looks to change that. Schlosser's intentions when writing this book was to inform the reader of the dark side of the fast food industry. Schlosser pulls from numerous sources to support his arguments. While he neglects to include some information that may conflict with his argument, overall, he used his sources properly and truthfully.

In the chapter entitled "Behind the Counter", Schlosser points out that "increasing the federal minimum wage by a dollar would add about two cents to the cost of a fast food hamburger" (Schlosser 73). In the note on page 309, Schlosser cites an article entitled "Impact of Minimum Wage Increases." The article displays several scenarios within a number of studies that show how an increase in minimum wage would cause a very slight spike in the price of fast food.

The article researched minimum wage increases in past years and the affect they had on the price of food. In 1992, minimum wage was increased fifty cents and the price of fast food was only raised approximately one cent.

The article supports Schlosser's argument that for every dollar increase to minimum wage the price of fast food would rise a mere two cents. Schlosser includes this statistic to illustrate the greedy behavior of the corporations running the fast food industry and to disprove the argument that raising the minimum wage would be a costly measure. It was a universal belief that the fast food industry did not want a minimum wage increase because it would cost them a large amount of money to continue the operation of their companies. Schlosser uses his resource...