When talking in class about how Mcdonalds sales is sometimes taken care of by someone who is thousands of miles away completely blew my mind. Braverman says that this division of labor is the fundamental principle of capitalism. The sales representatives for McDonalds have certain requirements to fulfill in their line of duty. One is clicking a red box on the computer screen in 1.75 seconds or less; also they take one person's order in say New Mexico and while the next person is pulling up, the representative takes another order from someone in Denver, Colorado. If one looks at this situation from a capitalist standpoint they would absolutely love it. The higher up people in Mcdonalds makes a lot of money off this requirement because in the big picture, one customer while the other customer drives up to order can make a lot of profit, especially with a worldwide company such as Mcdonalds. I do not know about this situation personally however I know I have been exploited in a manner than the work I do, pays dividends of more than I completed. Working on a farm my whole life I saw/did plenty 'dirty jobs'. I call this making use of the lower end people in your business with returns of large amounts of cash. I would have to shovel mud into rice levees, clean out beaver dams, and mow/weedeed every day while only recieving five dollars per hour. I know the work I did was worth more than I recieved. I did not complain though which I think a lot of people do to not upset anyone. I am not sure if this is the correct thing to do but how can people complain without fear of losing their jobs? Braverman and his talk of division of labor creates many edges. Indeed it does create more of each good with marginal costs at a minimum since there are skilled workers present. But when thinking of division of labor, what are some other options other than our capitalistic views on making profit which says a lot of our outsourcing and division of labor?
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First of all, I do not think it is right for the person to be constantly taking orders and clicking on a red box to be paid less than the person watching over them and insuring the work gets done. It seems to me that the actual order person is doing way more work, additionaly that work is more tedious and brain numbing. However, if I was the actual worker, I would prefer this system to working in the actual fast food restaurant. What is happening is that, the worker is sacrificing some rights and benefits for other benefits. For instance, the worker does not have to flip burgers, does not have to come home smelling like grease. However, the worker no longer gets to personally communicate with other workers in the restaurant, and has to perform one tedious task all day long. I would not like to have either one of these jobs, but I believe there is some sort of choice in the matter. I am sure that there are other fastfood places out there where the worker could actually work within the restaurant. I doubt that the worker has no other choice in the matter. Although it is not a great choice at least one exists. If taking orders through a computer all day is tedious, I am sure they would have no trouble finding a job flipping burgers, or hostessing at a restaurant, or shelving books at a library, or folding clothes at a store, or even mowing lawns. They can get an entry position at many different places, giving them a choice and freedom of where they want to work.
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