Fast food companies are overwhelming their locations throughout the lower class neighborhoods. I believe the government should intervene in the mass production of the fast food industry which is taking over the poorer communities. There are many ways this can be addressed such as providing classes in schools which educates kids in eating healthy, through some sort of taxation on fast food companies that targets the “ghettos”, or even trying to stop the brain washing of these fast food companies that uses the media to advertise them. The fast food industry is leading Americans to an unhealthy lifestyle which increases many illnesses such as high-blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart attacks, and many more.
In the “Harper’s Magazine”, Greg Critser speaks about how fast food companies have been aggressively targeting the poor inner-city communities. Statistics shows one of every four hamburgers sold by McDonald’s is purchased by inner-city consumers who happen to be young black males. Critser also talks about how his local McDonald’s gets bombarded with low-income laborers getting out of work in the evening; mix with them are young black kids that are grabbing a bite to eat after school. During the evening rush that McDonald’s has, they try to promote their “Super Size Your Meal” through signs that reads, “If we don’t recommend a supersize, the supersize is free!” By supersizing a meal, teenagers are consuming more than half of their recommended calories for the day. This causes the teens diet to be so poor which causes physical activities in young teen boys and girls to drop be half.
A class in schools on healthy eating that is mandated by the government could be a mean to approach this situation. If kids are educated in a healthy eating lifestyle, Americans as a whole would be much healthier. Personally, when I was a teenager, I was unaware of recommended calories and diets that a teen should have. If I didn’t have knowledge on eating healthy, then I wonder how many teens out there don’t know about how to have a healthy lifestyle. This shows that teens need to be thought these things. And if the government regulates a mandated class in schools, the number of illnesses in Americans would drop.
Seeing how the government is taxing indoor tanning salons gave me the idea of a taxation being placed on these fast food companies. By the government taxing the indoor tanning salons, the number of people using indoor tanning dropped due to higher prices being charged. If the same idea is done to fast food companies, I believe the same concept would happen. It will cause fast food companies to increase their prices which would result in the decrease in sales.
Now a day, the media has a high influence on individuals. In order to address this situation, the government would intervene in the media. Fast food companies are using the media as their number one way of advertisement. I consider this as brainwashing since it influences individuals’ way too easily. I encountered this last year during the super bowl. Hunger wasn’t crossing my mind until commercials were over flooded by Dominoes’ Pizza commercials. This caused me to pick up my phone and order some Dominoes Pizza. Now that I look back, I realized that the media influenced me into ordering the pizza; which in fact caused me to eat unhealthy. If the government took control of what get aired by the media, individuals would be healthier.
There are many ways the government could address the situation we are going through at the moment with fast food companies targeting the poor neighborhoods. This can be done by blocking what the media airs, mandating a class on healthy eating in schools, or even taxing the fast food companies themselves. This is a serious concern that needs to be looked at. As I age and become enlightened with knowledge, I will put my all into addressing this; I now expect the same from you.
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