Wednesday, March 18, 2020

Comparison Between the Jungle and Fast Food Nation

Comparison Between the Jungle and Fast Food Nation The Jungle is a book written by a journalist who aimed at bringing out the kind of life experienced by those who had migrated to the United States. Although, the novel was then interpreted and used to expose the situation of the health that was being experienced in the industry (Sullivan 1996).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Comparison Between the Jungle and Fast Food Nation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The book elaborates on the harsh conditions of people who migrated to the United States. The Jungle talks more of the problems that people both employed and unemployed faced out off the high level of corruption in by the leaders in the state. The writer of the book came up with suggestion on what ought to be done to eliminate the issue of minimal salaries among the citizens, hence, improve the living standards of the people in the United States. The writer of the novel brings out the picture of America as a natio n that is experiencing various food problems as a result of fast food cuffs, hence, threatening the lives of many citizens in the region (Cecilia 2004). Despite of their advantage of having numerous food supplies in the region, people in the state continue to suffer instead of enjoying the food resources. The writer feels that this is a problem that people created for themselves due to their unhealthy practices that lead to death as well as severe illnesses. There were numerous similarities in the United States on the way people were treated by the government as well as their day to day life. Both the state faced almost common problems as well as close kind of hardship despite of the differences in the kind of resources that were found in the two regions (Jacobs 2010). The writers did not only focus on the problems that the citizens were experiencing but also viewed at the possible solutions that could employed to diminish the problems in the two regions. In the writing, the writer elaborated on the problems that come hand in hand as a result of poor planning by the government, corruption as well as minimal wages among the employed citizen, thus, making the lives of the citizen difficult (Sullivan 1996). With the increased level of poverty in the United States, many people and mostly the immigrants face the greatest challenge in trying to meet their daily needs. However, there are some people who are concerned with the low living standard of the members of the states, for instance, the writer of fast food nations who went to an extra mile by organizing for supervision on the meat packing facilities but his effort fails to work out as people allocated to perform the duties were so reluctant to notice the poor hygiene in the plants. This does not help much in improving the already low level of living in the region reason being that the government was not concerned with its people (Tichi 2004). This could have been enhanced by the fact that the government in the region was also corrupt making the situation even worse.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More In both states, the major cause of health problems came as a result of cattle rearing by the citizen. However, the problem was not alls about the rearing of the animals but the processes that followed after the animals were ready for consumption. For instance, in the United States, the writer discovers that the level of cleanliness in the meat plant was low as those concerned could only clean them only when there was going to be an inspection. This, therefore, portrays how much the citizen consumed unhealthy meat from the company. Nevertheless, the efforts of those who tried to expose the kind of unhealthy activities taking place in the regions were cut short by those who wanted to hide the true face of the governance in the region. This was done by reporters who said that t he information given by the writer were just false allegation and that they were misleading since they were baseless. As well, in America, the state of the unhealthy conditions was also experience by the citizens. As in the United States, the hazardous practices were also taking place in the meat companies. The processing of meat was found to be unhygienic for human consumption but the people in the states consumed it without their knowledge. In the United States, the conditions were worse as compared to those in America (Jacobs 2010). The reason behind this was because the carcasses from pigs, chicken as well as from horse were incorporated into cattle feed. Thus, these kinds of practices were the major cause of diseases like bovine spongiform encephalopathy commonly known by the people in the regions as Mad Cow Disease. The consumption of the unhygienic meat not only caused diseases in those who consumed it but it also led to introduction of detrimental micro organisms like E. col i in the meat, hence, this could eventually lead to sickness among the citizens. In the same state, there were other diseases like obesity which was also a threat to the health as well as to the lives of the citizens. Teen labor was also a challenge to the immigrants of the United States as every member of the family was expected to work to aid in supporting the family. This was after the family became a victim of the con men as well as schemes that exhausted their saving. The situation was even more terrible as it diminished all what the citizens had saved to a point of not being in a position to pay for the cheap accommodation that could be easily acquired in the low standard houses known as slums (Sullivan 1996). This lead to eviction of the immigrants leaving the members frustrated.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Comparison Between the Jungle and Fast Food Nation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The different o ccupations as well as lifestyle of the family change their lives from that juncture. This was greatly contributed by the harsh condition they faced at workplace. The situation at work place was made worse by the hardships they faced such as accidents that occurred at workplace as well as deaths of the members of their family that with proper conditions as well as planning could have been avoided. Sexual harassment is also a problem in the two states especially in the United States where the level of security was poor as well as the migrants lacking a government that would cater about their wellbeing (Tichi 2004). Also, the kind of government that was found in the region was so corrupt, hence, no one could promote the security in the region. Those who could not speak English in both novels, that is the immigrants, were discriminated as they could not acquire good jobs as well as they were not counted as important to the society and hence, they could not associate with the others in t he community. This led them be with no choice of the kind of jobs to do, hence, ending up doing the hard jobs which could only afford them minimal salaries thus making their living harder. Lack of well paying jobs, led to poverty that was elaborated by how people died of simple conditions that could have been prevented if the people earned enough. The writer narrates of how a character by the name Ona died when giving birth due to lack of capital to pay for medical attention. In addition to this their younger son drowned in the streets that were muddy. This elaborates on the low living states the immigrants experienced yet no one was concerned to improve their way of life (Jacobs 2010). The main characters of the novels are among those who went through these hardships as well as the disappointments in their lives. They were so much into promoting the way of lives of those who experienced similar difficulties. However, their efforts were cut short by those who dominated the region su ch that ay time they came up with a way of improving the state nobody could side with them making the situation hard for them. In conclusion, the novels bring out the kind of life that people face especially in a land that is not theirs. The people of the United States as well as America represent a vast number of people who live below the poverty levels. The kind of living they experience as well as the neglect from the government. The novels can, therefore, be used to bring out to the issues that the government ought to look into to improve peoples way of living. Jacobs, Jane. Introduction to The Jungle. NY: McGraw-Hill. 2010.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Sullivan, Mark. The Condemned-Meat Industry. NY: Our Times, 1996. Tichi, Cecilia. From the Jungle to Fast Food Nation. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2004.

Monday, March 2, 2020

Presidents Elected Without Winning the Popular Vote

Presidents Elected Without Winning the Popular Vote Five U.S. presidents have taken office without winning the popular vote. In other words, they did not receive a plurality regarding the popular vote. They were elected, instead, by the Electoral College- or in the case of John Quincy Adams, by the House of Representatives after a tie in the electoral votes. They were: Donald J. Trump, who lost by 2.9 million votes to Hillary Clinton in the  2016 election.George W. Bush,  who lost by 543,816 votes to Al Gore in the  2000 election.Benjamin Harrison,  who lost by 95,713 votes to  Grover Cleveland  in 1888.Rutherford B. Hayes, who lost by 264,292 votes to Samuel J. Tilden in 1876.John Quincy Adams,  who lost by 44,804 votes to  Andrew Jackson  in 1824. Popular vs. Electoral Votes Presidential elections in the United States are not popular vote contests. The writers of the Constitution configured the process so that only the members of the House of Representatives would be elected by popular vote. The Senators were to be selected by state legislatures, and the president would be selected by the Electoral College. The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1913, making the election of senators to occur through popular vote. However, presidential elections still operate under the electoral system. The Electoral College is made up of representatives who are generally selected by the political parties at their state conventions. Most states except Nebraska and Maine follow a winner-take-all principle of electoral votes, meaning that whichever partys candidate wins a states popular vote for the presidency will win all of that states electoral votes. The minimum electoral votes a state can have is three, the sum of a states senators plus representatives: California has the most, with 55. The Twenty-Third Amendment gave the District of Columbia three electoral votes; it has neither senators nor representatives in Congress. Since states vary in population and many popular votes for different candidates can be quite close within an individual state, it makes sense that a candidate might win the popular vote across the entire United States but not win in the Electoral College. As a specific example, lets say the Electoral College is only made up of two states: Texas and Florida. Texas with its 38 votes goes entirely to a Republican candidate but the popular vote was very close, and the Democratic candidate was behind by a very small margin of only 10,000 votes. In the same year, Florida with its 29 votes goes entirely to the Democratic candidate, yet the margin for the Democratic win was much larger with the popular vote win by over 1 million votes This could result in a Republican win at the Electoral College even though when the votes between the two states are counted together, the Democrats won the popular vote. Calls for Reform In general, it is very rare for a president to win the popular vote yet lose the election. Although this has only happened five times in U.S. History, it has occurred twice in the current century. In 2016, Donald Trump lost the popular election by nearly 3 million votes, about 2% of the total votes cast. Discussion for reform of the Electoral College dates to the first years of the Constitution and has frequently been the topic of scholarly discussion. Defenders of the Electoral College argue that its violations of majority rule are an example of constitutional provisions that require super-majorities to take action. The Electoral College allows a minority to take an action- that is to select a president- and it is the only device of its kind in the Constitution. The primary way to change it is to amend the Constitution. Since the way states count votes can affect who wins and who loses, electoral reform is by its nature political: if a party is in power, the method used to get it there is not likely to be a target of change. Despite the current climate in that Democrats support change while Republicans do not, scholars believe that the situation is only temporarily one that swings towards one party or another: One proposal called the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact (NPVIC) is a sub-national reform to the Electoral College in which states agree to commit their electoral votes, as a unit, to the winner of the aggregate, national vote.  Sixteen states have signed on to date, some of which are Republican-controlled. One major purpose of the Electoral College was to balance the power of the electorate so that votes in states with small populations would not (always) be overpowered by larger-populated states. Bipartisan action is required to make its reformation possible. Sources and Further Reading Bugh, Gary, ed. Electoral College Reform: Challenges and Possibilities. London: Routledge, 2010.Burin, Eric, ed. Picking the President: Understanding the Electoral College. University of North Dakota Digital Press, 2018.Colomer, Josep M. The Strategy and History of Electoral System Choice. The Handbook of Electoral System Choice. Ed. Colomer, Josep M. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2004. 3-78.Goldstein, Joshua H., and David A. Walker. The 2016 Presidential Election Popular-Electoral Vote Difference. Journal of Applied Business and Economics 19.9 (2017).Shaw, Daron R. The Methods Behind the Madness: Presidential Electoral College Strategies, 1988–1996. The Journal of Politics 61.4 (1999): 893-913.Virgin, Sheahan G. Competing Loyalties in Electoral Reform: An Analysis of the U.S. Electoral College. Electoral Studies 49 (2017): 38–48.