About Article The Fast-Food Factories: McJobs Are Bad For Kids by Amita Etzioni
In the article, “The Fast-Food Factories: McJobs Are Bad for Kids” the author Amitai Etzioni share’s his judgments how fast food jobs affects teens in the long run. Young teens pull their focus away from school, to make money instead. Working is not the best option for young teenagers, however under some financial status many students have no choice but to work. According to Etzioni, “these jobs undermine school attendance and involvement (Etzioni 1)” meaning that jobs have an effect on a student’s school involvement and attendance in unacceptable ways. In Etzioni’s article Mcjobs are bad for kids,” he uses pathos and logos to inform parents that working long hours at low skilled lines of work has no good outcome and only issue away from their children’s education.
Etzioni’s goal is to mark the importance of school and how work can greatly affect a young teen’s education. He writes that jobs conflict with school activities and how it gets in the way of student’s school attendance. Etzioni uses studies in his article to show facts about what working while in school does to a student. The first study said most students who were employed did the not work in the next four years. He tries to suggest different methods that schools could do to help this obstacle. The author is not against working, however he believe that students should work at a place where it can help them become better and lead them in their way to becoming an adult after school.
Etzioni’s audience choice is towards the parents of young teens. Etzioni’s purpose for writing this article is to let parents know the effects and what it can do if their child works at a fast food place. “There is just no way such amounts of work will not interfere with school work” (Etzioni1). Etzioni talks about how working long hours can affect a student’s ability to learn. Student’s might be working too many hours causing them to be exhausted and not wanting to do their school work, as it is no longer their first priority.
However he does write about how parents can prevent having their child in a situation like this. His solution was, instead of working at a fast food place, to work in a better environment, perhaps a group at school to provide work to have a better environment for students. By doing this, students are able to gain life skills instead of how to flip burgers. The second audience is towards the working teens. Although he does not say straight forward like he did to the parents, the reader can tell it was made towards them too. He talks about all the down sides of low end and shows with studies their study the unemployment rate.
Etzioni’s tone in the article was thoughtful and serious. From the beginning the author refers fast food jobs as “Mcjobs” signifying that they are very low end jobs, there creating a serious tone, in the fact that he sees these jobs as a ‘weak link.’ He then goes on and talks about what can happen to a students and why parents should prevent this from happening. He is being thoughtful about make his work a lot more knowledgeable about the issue he is trying to speak out about. His tone allows the reader to understand point of view.
Etzioni uses a lot of logos in his work. Everything he talks he back up with logic behind it. For example, he talk about the effects the jobs can have while in school. A large number of working hours a week can hurt and bring down wanting to do school work. From it, instead have students only look at work as the most important thing in life. He goes on saying one third of young teens, ranging from fourteen to seventeen, works 30 plus hours a week (Etzioni 1). Mr. Etzioni said that 80 percent of the people working in fast food work more than 30 hours per week. From that perspective they are at a disadvantage, if a student is working more than 30 hours per week, they don’t have time for school work or extracurricular activities.
In conclusion, in the article “The Fast-Food Factories: Mcjobs are Bad for Kids,” Amita Etzioni got his point across quite well. From the start you were able to understand the point he was trying to get across, which was that school is important and students need to fully focus on that instead of working. It was easy to figure out who his audience was, because in the beginning he says what the piece is intended towards. His ‘serious’ tone helped the reader to understand what his position in this topic stood. All of his use of pathos, logos, and tone makes it an effective piece to be able to analyze.