Talking point: On page 241 Schlosser mentions that tastes for foods develop in childhood and it is difficult to lose that taste as an adult. This, along with advertising fast food to children at a very young age, adds to the obesity epidemic. Children get a taste for fast foods, and can’t lose it in their adulthood, so they keep going back for more.

Connection: I made a connection with Maus when Schlosser describes the German town of Plauen. It was a place where a lot of German refugees went after their hometown was destroyed. It reminded me of Spiegelman trying to find a safe place to hide during the Holocaust.

Talking Point: I found it interesting that some workers think that it’s a good idea to use methamphetamine while on the job. A slaughterhouse is dangerous enough when you aren’t high.

Connection: When Schlosser described the work conditions for the late-night clean up crews, I made a connection with the show Dirty Jobs. Having a short period of time to clean up the mess left behind from three to four thousand cattle that were slaughtered during the day is rough. The number of hazards, from machinery to the conveyer belts, add danger to the job. Having to wash down everything while the building reaches temperatures of over one hundred degrees is unimaginable.

Talking point: With the statement above, along with the fact on page 115 that claims, “today the typical American eats about forty-nine pounds of fresh potatoes every year-and more than thirty pounds of frozen french fries. Ninety percent of those fries are purchased at fast food restaurants.”, it is obvious why there is an obesity epidemic in our nation.

Connection: I made a connection with the smells of Greenly, Colorado described in the book to the smells of a town nearby my hometown. Whiting, Indiana borders lake Michigan and is home to many steel factories. The smell that comes from the factories can be found throughout the town.

Talking point: I found it interesting on page 72 when Schlosser says “all the executives agreed that ‘zero training’ was the fast food industry’s ideal, although it might never be attained.” The way I see this, if there was “zero training” involved, then what is the purpose of hiring people when the machines would be doing all the work? Obviously it would leave a lot of people unemployed, so I don’t believe there ever can be a level of “zero training”.

Connection: The connection I made was when the book discusses Pizza hut’s Book-It! program. I just remember participating in the program in elementary school and thought it was a neat program.

Talking Point: With the kind of pay that these people receive, it’s almost impossible to live a “normal” life without a second job. I think Ehrenreich did a good job in displaying that throughout the book.

Connection: The connection I made with this chapter of the book was how similar the writing style was with Kozol’s Savage Inequalities. In both cases, the author raises a question and then goes on to answer it based on their observations. In the case of this chapter, Ehrenreich  explains why workers don’t fight for higher wages or stick up for themselves, and throughout Savage Inequalities Kozol investigates why public city schools are segregated and underfunded.

Talking point: I found it funny how she admits to using marijuana and saying how that’s the only drug that can be detected in drug tests when applying for a job. I would think that employers would care about testing for more serious drugs like LSD as opposed to marijuana, which isn’t even that bad of a drug.

Connection: I have a friend, who has worked at Menards for a little over a year now, and I was telling him about the situations in this book, and they are very similar to what he went through. Ironically enough, he works in the plumbing section, which is the position Barbara would’ve had if she worked at Menards.

Talking point: Mutah brought up a point that is very true in today’s society. He said that before converting to Islam, he had this pre-conceived notion that Islam is a violent religion that is only for men. He had these thoughts because of the media. It just got me wondering how many things are there that we as Americans gain bad impressions of due to the media?

Connection: The connection I made with this speech was with the scenes from Savage Inequalities. Mutah’s description of the ghetto that he grew up in (with drugs, crime, and a poor education system) matched those that Kozol showed us in Savage Inequalities.

Talking point: I was just appalled at the working conditions these women go through. They have such a low-paying job that four of them together couldn’t come up with two dollars in pocket change. Their work is very demanding, yet they don’t have the proper nutrition to keep working the way they do. Given the number of jobs available in Maine, I’m surprised that these women still work here and don’t try to find work at a better place, even if it does mean giving up a week’s paycheck.

Connection: My grandpa has a woman stop by once a week, maybe every other week, to clean his house. I can say that I know for a fact that the working conditions she goes through are much better than what the women went through in this book. The pay is better and, unlike the images portrayed in the book, she interacts with her “clients” very often.

Talking point: The author isn’t really living this low-wage life the way she should if she wants to experience it to the fullest. Something such as living out of a car she will refuse to do. I give her credit for trying this out, but she isn’t committing one-hundred percent. 

Connection: I made a connection with the state of the economy. Our nation is currently towards the end of a recession and we are starting to get back to the previous state the economy was at a couple years ago. But still today current wages are low given the standard of living. This is assuming that the person even has a job because it is very hard to find one today.

Talking point: I found it surprising how many people believed that the government purposely blew up the levees. It just shocks me that someone would believe that our own government would purposely kill thousands of its citizens.

Connection: The connection I made with this section of the documentary was with Savage Inequalities. At one point in this portion of the documentary, the topic was crime in the city returning just months after Hurricane Katrina hit. Everyone interviewed agreed that the school system had some, if not all, of the blame. The conditions, poor funding, schools falling apart, etc., were very similar to the public school systems portrayed by Kozol in Savage Inequalities.