POL 300 Day 12: March 1

Since more young adults are now working longer hours at fast food restaurants what steps should be taken to insure they are not being overstretched?

I think that there should be more money given to the labor department to ensure that practices like this don't take place. For example, having unannounced inspections making sure that they are not overworking young people or that they are not being mistreated by working off of the clock, etc. It should be mandatory that kids get permission to work from the school they attend and their parents, especially if the child in question is not doing well in school. They should be banned from working past 10pm and starting work no earlier than 7am. Most importantly, HUGE fines should be placed on restaurants that violate these rules (such as forcing them to shut down for a day and be fined at least $10,000) so they stop the illegal practices in fear of losing more money.

Imagine you are a consultant for the federal government. What recommendations would you make to limit the number of federal loans going to establish franchises? What benchmarks would have to be made in order for companies to qualify for these loans?

This is a fairly obvious answer to me. We should stop all loans given to fast-food restaurants, period, given they are not hard jobs to learn considering most everyone is responsible for one task and one task only. It makes no sense to give money to an industry that is making enormous profits consistently when there are other industries that provide long-term jobs to people to go along with wages that one could support a family on. If a company is going to receive loans from taxpayers, they must show that the money will actually help people over at least two years; far more than the average fast-food employee sticks around. Also, I think that industries that give their employees benefits (healthcare, dental, education benefits, etc.) should be rewarded for treating their workers well. It is simply a waste of taxpayer money to "teach" someone how to put mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup on a bun.