Posted on 12/25/2013 10:57:28 AM PST by thecodont
Since he wrote "Fast Food Nation" more than a decade ago, muckraking author Eric Schlosser has noticed a sympathy gap in the food movement that he helped foster. Some foodies seem to care more about the treatment of the animals they eat than the workers who prepare and serve them.
"It's not all foodies by any means," Schlosser said. "But the food movement can get sidetracked into wealthy, upper-middle-class people caring about food as status, caring about food as pleasure. I'm a huge supporter of animal welfare, but the compassion for the abuse of animals is so much more excessive, I think, than for low-wage workers in this country."
That is changing, as interest in the plight of low-wage restaurant workers is becoming part of the national conversation - from President Obama calling for a higher minimum wage, to one-day strikes by fast-food workers this month in 100 U.S. cities, to Pope Francis denouncing the wage inequality in a world where CEOs of fast-food chains are making 1,200 times as much as line cooks.
Supporting workers Now, some of the most influential voices in the food movement - including Monterey resident Schlosser, best-selling author Michael Pollan and pioneering Berkeley chef Alice Waters - are chiming in.
They are connecting the dots between different camps in the food movement by saying it's impossible to care about eating sustainably produced food when food service workers are not making sustainable wages.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
What we want is a world where everyone gives us everything we desire for free.
Obama promises it - so it must be true.
Good grief.
This guy is a huge lib, but to his credit he wrote an excellent book (well researched too) about nuclear weapons safety and the Damascus Arkansas Atlas missile accident.
Title is “Command and Control”.
Now what is interesting is that the “food luminaries” of the “food movement” have discovered that their brand of gastronomic elitism has generated a “sympathy gap” for the people who work at lower wages at fast-food establishments. Watch the nervous maneuvering of the progressives as they desperately search for a political bookend to keep things from falling off the shelf.
"Inequality" is the new "War on Women." Problem is, is that the sheeple and LIVs are going to lap this up and the Dems will likely hold the Senate and may make inroads in the House.
Just another reason why the Republican Party is atrocious at messaging and counteracting leftist talking points.
This answer to this “movement” will be a vast increase in food prep and service automation and more low skill workers ending up on permanent unemployment. The dependency fostering left will probably like the outcome while piously supporting new Federal programs to help the unemployed.
a commonplace defect in modern day “do-gooders” is that almost all of them want YOU to pay for their various projects
What in the hell is a “food movement,” and how could such a thing possibly have different “camps” in it? Doesn’t anybody speak English in the blue states anymore?
“Food movement”? Do they ever tire of coming up with “revolutionary” BS?
If only rich people weren’t so selfish, we could ALL be rich!
Apparently they can’t burn wood in their fireplaces but they have plenty of other people’s money to burn.
I remember when food was just food and there was no ideology attached to it.
This should push forward automation in fast food, as well as the end of this industry being a gateway into the world of work for many of America’s youth.
Future fast food workers will make more, but they’ll almost all be adults with enough know how to keep the robots working. The folks standing out on the fast food picket lines whining about not getting paid more to police the parking lot will take their permanent place in the ranks of the unemployed.
I recommend to those who are so strident about the 15.00 minimum wage, etc that they get together, buy or start a franchise, and operate it based on the ideas they espouse (just to show the rest of us low-lifes how easily it can be done).
I think recent history is enough to see the true motive. If Fast Food become unaffordable, no one will eat Fast Food. They have been targeted and demonized by the nazis, and now we are watching the trained attack dogs close in.
>>What in the hell is a “food movement,”<<
It’s what happens approximately 30 hours after food is ingested and passes through your intestines. I don’t feel I need to go into more detail.
The only real food movement is from farm to market, market to consumer, consumer’s alimentary canal and trash pickup service.
In other words, communists and other social justice types.
You hit the nail on the head.
If it’s that easy to run a business and pay these low level workers $15 an hour, and still make a profit for the business, let them show us how it’s done.
I have worked in the finance end of a major fast food company. And based on my experience, the biggest single expense in a fast food franchise is paying the hired help.
The profit margins are smaller than many people think in an individual fast food franchise location. If the help had to be paid $15 an hour, there would be fewer jobs, and the cost of the products sold would have to be higher.
There are other costs too that people don’t know about. In the fast food company I worked in, the franchisees paid 8% of their gross sales off the top, to the Corporate level, as a royalty. They also were locked into buying all of their supplies from certain favored vendors, chosen by Corporate.
My overall point is that while fast food places are profitable for the most part, they are not able to just absorb a doubling of labor costs at the crew level, without either significant job cuts, or significant price increases in food sold.
And if food prices at fast food places went up drastically, it’s predictable that the customers will hit the drive thru much less often. Total gross sales could easily decline, resulting in even more job losses.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.