Question: Why do you think Taco Bell tacos are so cheap? Because they profoundly skimp on the cost of ingredients and serve you Grade R beef that is completely devoid of nutritional value?
Hell no. Meat is cheap as hell in this country.
No, it’s because they exploit the lower classes of the American workforce, relying on profoundly cheap labor to slop some Baja Sauce on top of your Chalupa.
That’s why that shit’s basically free. And you’re too baked to care.
The fast food behemoth couldn’t keep serving you cheap tacos, couldn’t keep you happy and bloated, if the behavior wasn’t tacitly condoned by the U.S. Congress.
That’s right, the Taco Bell lobby, the Taco Bell Franchise Management Advisory Council, doesn’t want its employees to unionize or qualify for health care.
But you can’t fuck over a large group of people if the old white men in Washington aren’t down with it. So how do you keep them happy? By sending a shit ton of tacos to Congressional staffers who will go apeshit over them.
Just look at this goober, who thinks he’ll be Secretary of the Interior one day, go crazy for three dollars worth of shit tacos.
https://www.instagram.com/p/1wH9PLLHlL/
He thinks he’s making a difference in the world.
But I shouldn’t just shit on him. No, I should shit on the whole industry, which wants to make it harder for workers to unionize, and who are gleefully passing out taco prizes to people just so they’ll tell their bosses to suppress a fundamental right. From The Intercept:
Last year, the [National Labor Relations Board] issued complaints against McDonald’s as a “joint employer” of both franchisees and workers, a determination that will make the parent company liable for labor violations by franchise owners. The move could pave the way for labor unions to begin organizing fast food restaurants.
YUM Brands, the franchiser of Taco Bell, like much of the fast food industry, has ramped up lobbying to defeat the joint employer ruling. Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress have pushed to use a fairly obscure procedure called the Congressional Review Act to strike down the ruling.
So eat those tacos, staffers.
They were built on the broken backs of American labor.