Summary Of Working At Mcdonald's By Amitai Etzioi

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In the essay, “Working at McDonald’s,” Amitai Etzioni shares his strong belief that working, especially at McDonald’s type restaurants, is bad for teenagers. I would agree that working is not a good thing for teenagers under some circumstances but at other times it is good. First, jobs affect school involvement and attendance in bad ways. Second, jobs often provide “on the job experience,” but much of the time the experience taught is useless. Third, fast food jobs may provide a disadvantaged status. Fast food jobs can also provide an advantaged status. Finally, workers can learn to manage their money by making mistakes with money before they get into the Real World. First, the author writes that jobs conflict with school activities and …show more content…

Etzioni states in his essay that fast food jobs provide a disadvantaged status for workers in the future. This I believe is only true if you look at this issue from one side. Mr. Etzioni said that 80 percent of the people working in fast food work more than 30 hours per week, and 58 percent of high school seniors say working affects their school work. 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 extra curricular activities which play a big role in what college they get accepted at. Also if their grades drop as a result of work they will have a harder time getting into college and the way to a good job is through …show more content…

Etzioni explains that working jobs doesn’t teach teens good money habits. First of all, I don’t believe it is McDonald’s job to teach kids how to use their money. One of the biggest advantages to having money at that age is that they can completely mess up and it won’t affect them in a dangerous way. Having money to spend can teach kids to spend their money wisely. The first several times they see something they want they will buy and find out later when it goes on sale that they messed up. Also teens try to borrow money all the time to get what they want quick. Often times they will end up in debt, but lucky for them they’re young enough that their parents can bail them out. If they don’t have the chance to make these mistakes before they move away, the consequences could be much more

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