In the fast-food industry, I would support the consumer as opposed to the industry, since the sector is known to exploit customers while trying to meet its own business objectives. The companies operating in the fast food sector emphasize in generating profits. These firms are willing to go to extreme lengths to realize their goals. These corporations usually add unneeded ingredients, including corn characterized by high fructose, sugar, and chemicals to their products, which end up reducing food’s nutritional value. They strip food vital nutrients, such as vitamins and fiber when manufacturing them while they add metabolic disruptors, such as sodium nitrate, aspartame, and hydrogenated oils, which lead food to carry more calories and minimal nutrients. Consuming these products leads consumers to develop illnesses. The companies also ensure that the food is addictive and cheap making it appealing for low-income households that cannot manage to purchase organic foods. This serves as the major reason as to why towns characterized by individuals in the low-income group have higher chances of suffering from the obesity pandemic. The firms in the fast-food sector make their food cheap at the expense of health in order to allow them to generate huge profit. Additionally, the fast-food corporations try generating profits through their marketing strategies. They might label food as ‘healthy’ or ‘natural’ although the claims that they make regarding health are meaningless since for FDA regulations prevail concerning the claims. The organizations spend billions of dollars yearly marketing, which indicates that they realize increased benefits from selling their products. Even while consumers prefer getting good deals from these companies, the fast food firms exploit the poor families through supplying the products based on demand (Ohannessian, 2017) . In this vein, I would argue that the practices by these companies are unethical and unjust, while I would support the need for consumers to refrain from purchasing from these firms for the betterment of their health and wellbeing.
Capitalism plays a significant role in corporate decision-making. For instance, in a capitalist society, significant competition prevails which drives organizations to improve the quantity and quality of the products and services they offer to consumers. Organizations need to seek ways of differentiating themselves form their rivals to allow them to acquire sufficient share of the market. Rivalry serves as a natural feature of a capitalistic society while bigger firms serve as the dominant forces in those markets. Capitalism also influences decision making mostly because the economies are reliant on minimal involvement of the government in the market. Firms in a capitalistic sector usually adjust their business operations based on government taxes and regulations. The changes might be negative or positive to the entire economic environment. The enterprises make decisions depending on the involvement of the government within the economy. With the American society serving as capitalistic in nature while many fast food organizations are competing, it is crucial for consumers to make a choice concerning the food that they consume. Consumers’ money equates to votes for products that they wish to keep purchasing (Vitez, 2018) . Here, they should make informed decisions before purchasing products offered by fast food establishments, which ends up harming their health.
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From my perspective, I do not believe that it is possible for corporations to cater for both their interest and those of the consumers conjointly. Companies in the fast-food sector are driven by the urge for generating increased income thus the reason as to why they are willing to go to excrement lengths to ensure that they continue surviving in the market place. As such, they adopt misleading advertisements, which encourage consumers to purchase their cheap and unhealthy products. These companies also have major influence over the political environment indicating that they have significant influence on the laws and regulations drafted to govern their operations. As such, they always put their interests before the ones of the consumers.
References
Ohannessian, S. (2017). Fed up: the ethics of the American food industry. Retrieved from https://medium.com/fhsaplang/fed-up-the-ethics-of-the-american-food-industry-63bf740c745
Vitez, O. (2018). What does capitalism mean in business? Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/capitalism-mean-business-3895.html
