Evaluation Essay

An Evaluation on Working at McDonalds After reading this essay by Amitai Etzioni, I could see why he is promoting teenagers to pay more attention to their academics and education rather working at fast food restaurants like McDonalds. He provides many studies done to prove his thesis clearly. One of the few studies is a 1984 study by Ivan Charper and Bryan Shore Fraser which says that teenagers do not pay attention to what skills they develop because they only care about finishing their working hours and earning money. Another study by A. V. Harrell and P. W. Wirtz in 1980 which said “ among those students who worked at least 25 hours per week while in school, their unemployment rate four years later was half of that of seniors who did not work”( Axelrod and Cooper 281). Etzioni argued that many of the students who worked part time were end up unemployed or they were had a low skilled job. Etzioni provides appropriate support for his essay by using statistics data like “58 percent of seniors acknowledged that their jobs interferes with their school work” (Axelrod and Cooper 282). These studies do provide a strong argument but these studies do not show or tell about the circumstances that force certain teenagers to work at fast food restaurants. In this essay, I will evaluate the logic of Etzioni’s argument. While his logic is appropriate and convincing, his arguments also have missing points. There are many circumstances that force certain teenagers to work at fast food restaurants. There are many reasons to it like to gain “experience” that many job require filling out on their form, family financial situation, and not able to find any other job. I think the idea that many places do not hire because of no experience in a particular field such as a cashier (for most teenagers) is just unreasonable. All I am saying is that companies like Wal-Mart, BJ’s, Best Buy, or Shaws should hire teenagers who apply there so that they can gain enough “experience” and work