Professor Burkett
English 1123
September 13, 2012
Teenagers Working
In the essay “The Fast Food Factories: McJobs are Bad for Kids,” Amitai Etzoni argues that children should not work jobs during high school that will not be educational to them. He states many children are working fast food restaurants and these jobs are teaching them minimum skills to use in the world. Many high school students get used to the low-end jobs and the money they are making and never set their standards higher. Working these jobs in high school allows the teenager to receive money and they think it is big bucks and they start to feed whatever it is they are craving, according to Etzoni. Once they feed the craving they cannot stop and so they get caught up and do not save money to start a second chapter of life, Etzoni stated. Amitai talked about the way teenagers made money back in the day with lemonade stands. He stated lemonade stands taught teenagers entrepreneur skills, which prepared them for the life ahead. Amitai also mentioned how teens are training teens. He stated many fast food restaurants never have an adult person on duty and the teenagers who have no sense of direction are telling the other teens what to do. I seriously had never looked at it in the way Amitia put it. I think it is good for a teenager to have a job because it helps them appreciate life more. They actually see the worth of items. I never looked at it as it was not teaching a teenager anything. I am still going to stick with my theory though, because teenagers who come from two parents homes and are used to their parents purchasing everything, this teaches the teenager to appreciate their parent’s dollar. I would agree though that the teenager who does not have parents could definitely fall into the category of purchasing things they should not. They will also fall into the category of not saving and will never learn. Some teens will come from