homework 24

the book I read was Tuesday's with Morrie by   this book illustrates a variety of different perspectives focused around illness and dying. one being the perspective of a person who although  is not faced by any immediate threat of death but feels very unfulfilled in life. It also offers the perspective of a person who is in a position in which they have to witness someone close to them dying. Lastly, the perspective of a person who was actually experiencing death. All these perspectives come together within the book to give a more vivid and encompassing image of humanity as a whole. Tuesdays with Morrie is a book about a former student and a professor at a university we developed a very deep and meaningful relationship with each other. who also are often talked with each other about the very controversial subjects such as the meaning of life itself this student due to seeing him on a television show was able to meet again with his professor who was unfortunately dying. the book is the account his student made of the time before he died and of the relationship they had.
Evidence:
1.page 15 "after the funeral, my life changed. i felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain."
2.page 33 "what happened  to me? i asked myself. Morrie's high, smoky voice took me back to my university years, when i thought rich people were evil, a shirt and tie were prison clothes, a life without freedom to get up and go-- motorcylce beneath you, breeze in your face, down streets of paris, into the mountains of tibet-- was not a good life at all. what happened to me?"

Illness and Dying intro

From when i was a child i was never taught much about illness and dying; i only knew them as taboo topics that aren't very enjoyable and shouldn't be approached. Eventually through school and by other means i was exposed to much more information on illness and dying. This gave me the perspective on it that i have today. I feel that some of the social norms about death and illness is where you're taken when sick or dead. throughout human history the procedures and locations applied to the sick/dying have changed in various ways but one things that remained constant is the place the dead is taken is roughly the same for everyone within a society, and the same goes for the place people take the sick. in africa at some time period a sick person may have been sent to a witch doctor and that would be where anyone who was sick in the society was taken to. Now you are simply taken to a hospital where current doctors can tend to your needs. One unusual thing i would have to say about my thoughts on illness and dying is that i don't feel either of these things when not applied to me affect me emotionally at all.

Chapter Homeworks 4-7

Fast Food Nation:
(sorry for the late post on these.. just found my flash drive, this is all i have.)


Chapter 4- "Success"
Fast food restaurants continued to expand cities like Pueblo, Colorado That before to the opening of many fast food restaurants didn't have pretty much anything; are starting to catch up to the more industrialized cities within Colorado. Fast food restaurants have used the method of franchising to expand their individual businesses but now currently run them focused around real estate because it gives them more control over their franchises. 

This chapter focused on all sides of the franchise process and touches on how the fast food restaurants have become stricter with how franchises run their businesses. It also shows the fast food chains from the franchises perspective which is more innocent and is more like the story of a person trying to make a living compared to the company who is leasing space to the franchise takes advantage of the franchise itself and the workers.


Chapter 5- "Why the fries taste so good"
 jr simplot rose from the humble profession of a potato farmer, to easily one of the largest potato distributing companies. Following that, the amazing success of Mcdonalds and the franchise's need for potatoes to make french fries gave Simpolt the opportunity to be their provider and make a lot of money. Since it was in the best interest of the potato companies to be suppliers for fast food restaurants they sold the potatoes at drastically lower prices in turn helping them and fast food restaurants make tons of money. Although in turn they ended up hurting lots of common farmers who now are run out of business or make very little profit because its difficult to compete with the rising monarchs of the potato industry. The fries originally had more saturated fat than a hamburger, per every ounce. This was due to the oil that they were fried in; The oil the french fries are made in gives them the signature taste that buyers love but is very unhealthy.

The chapter does a nice job of illustrating how the nature of the fast food industry in itself is exploitive and the more the fast food restaurants discover ways to maximize profits while paying a meager amount for supplies; the more people who work for the companies and other workers related to their businesses in some way are hurt and continue to face more difficulties. The maximization of profits for fast food restaurants comes at the expense of many farmers and workers incomes and livelihoods'. It is a very basic example of the rich only benefiting and the poor left to suffer.


Chapter 6- "On the Range"
The meat packing industry has done very similar things to farmers as what has the fast food restaurants did to the potato farmers. Dominant meat packing companies have taken over the market, and have been basically running local (traditional) farmers out of business. The chicken industry specifically is regulated by large companies. Many (traditional) farmers are in debt and have very little control over the product that they were once proud to supply. Mcdonalds has successfully ended the time in which a local (traditional) farmer can  grow crops and make a decent profit from the cattle and crops they possess.

In the chapter the author feels some sympathy towards small scale farm workers because more industrialized/dominant companies have as i stated before; run them out of business. Mcdonalds along with other big fast food restaurants are dependent on the exploitation of these people and therefore could care less about many workers profit to ensure they maximize their own. Another example of what i think of as a Pac-Man mentality.


Chapter 7- "Cogs in the great machine"
The meat packing industry essentially gave the job of packing meat to a low skill factory worker, blatantly similar to McDonalds "speedee system". This transformed the meat packing industry and hurt the workers. The revised meat packing system enabled the owners of these companies to take advantage of their workers more easily and efficiently ceteris paribus their profit increases.  Modernized meat packing plants are cautious of labor unions and do their best to prevent any unnecessary unrest within the workers that could result in a cut in their profits. The modern meat packing industry has also deeply impacted many small communities in negative ways.

The chapter again illustrates different parts of the food industry as a whole that are relevant to the fast food industry; just like the fast food industry the meat packing companies often exploit and mistreat their employees. It expresses how the intentions/goals of the executives of these companies are purely financial and they would most likely go to many lengths and would be willing to step on the heads of many people to increase their profits.

My Thesis

The U.S. will never become the wholesome place that it is widely portrayed to be due to the nightmarish industrial atrocities of "Big Business". The incentives to increase profit by reducing costs that industrialized business is based on has lead to the creation somewhat nightmarish dominant practices.

Homework #9

I feel that the main tools that the people in freakonomics put to use were statistics, surveys, and tests. For example the part in the movie where they were explaining how the names that did or did not affect a person's life long term. The African-American scholar use statistics to help explain why he feels the names did not affect someone's life. Although the Middle Eastern scholar use surveys and tests to prove why he feels that a person's name does deeply effect their future financially due to discrimination that cannot be avoided by people. the people who wrote freakonomics developed their ideas through evidence gathered from all three of these tools. Although they look through a very specific lens when reviewing the information collected through these tools to allow them to have a better grasp on the information presented in front of them.
I believe that freakonomics is a very good example of than average citizen looking for the hidden truth within what we are taught to believe our whole lives. Although I do feel that something as simple as this movie is nothing but a mere steppingstone on the path to truth that the masses are just starting on. Freakonomics is nothing more then breaking through the outer wall of a massive fortified fortress of lies that we the people with are very ignorant happy lives have just become aware of about.

Homework #8

Growing my own food was a new experience but not a bad one. It was very interesting to raise sprouts on my own seeing how they developed over time, at first it just felt like a chore to have to cater to them everyday and because of that the sprouts ended up rotting and dying a couple times. But through trial and error I was eventually able to successfully grow healthy sprouts which I later eat with my meal as homework. The experience of eating sprouts I grew was not very pleasant but very interesting nonetheless. the process of growing the sprouts did not seem very sacred to what was on the other hand somewhat unpleasant and obviously forced. In the future I would like to be able to have the opportunity to grow and produce my own food once more but the next time our rather what I grow to be something I'm actually okay with ingesting.

Family Foodways

my family may not have affected how I pick the food I eat as much as other people, because it is always been my personal motto to eat what you want or do not eat at all. I often put this belief of mine into effect as a young child because no matter the situation I would always eat what I wanted to or choose not eat that all. This habit has carried on into how I am today. Although on the other hand my younger brother was not as lucky as me; or maybe just not as stubborn, nonetheless he was limited throughout his life when it came to trying different foods. My stepfather's father was raised in a different generation his background being more rural he came from a time period with much more strict and traditional rules. His family I imagine being one that lived on a farm, ate some of the farm animals, my stepfather due to seeing how these animals were prepared became a person who has, as an adult does not eat pork. Also someone who doesn't eat that much of any other farm animals. This rule of his also trickle down to my younger brother which caused him to miss out on some of the simple but exciting things in life. My mother's father on the other hand was raised to eat those same foods and also was trained to clean his plate completely at every meal. This ideology gave my mother a traumatizing blow as a young child because one year when she went to visit her relatives in the southern states. She was introduced to unpasteurized cow milk which to someone who wrote that the city is not always a very tasteful experience, but due to the ideology my grandfather was raised under my mother's relative forced her to drink the milk. The taste was so disgusting that she developed the urge to vomit but was forced to finish the cup before stepping out to vomit. I don't quite understand how every generation's ideology about food came into being. I just hope to keep my position on the outside of the norm created by the foodways in America.