Actor James Franco wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about how McDonald’s was there for him when no one was. By that, he means that McDonald’s offered him a job when he was a struggling actor and couldn’t find a job anywhere else. He had dropped out of college and had very little work experience. The McDonald’s job put a roof over his head, until he was able to get his first big acting break.
He writes:
I was treated fairly well at McDonald’s. If anything, they cut me slack. And, just like their food, the job was more available there than anywhere else. When I was hungry for work, they fed the need. I still love the simplicity of the McDonald’s hamburger and its salty fries. After reading “Fast Food Nation,” it’s hard for me to trust the grade of the meat. But maybe once a year, while on a road trip or out in the middle of nowhere for a movie, I’ll stop by a McDonald’s and get a simple cheeseburger: light, and airy, and satisfying.
Well, some people didn’t like his op-ed.
Mother Jones called it an offensive nostalgia trip.
Offensive to whom?
They’re mad that he focused on his “rosy experience.”
Eh, not really. Franco didn’t pretend like it was a glamorous job with excellent benefits. It was, overall, a pretty fair assessment about his time working at a fast food restaurant.. He even mentioned getting treated poorly by customers at the drive-thru and front counter.
It was a job. A job that he needed because he wouldn’t have been able to support himself, otherwise. It was better than the alternative of not having a job at all. It paid the bills while he was able to seek out acting gigs.
I don’t really care about defending McDonald’s. I just don’t understand how his experience is offensive. Because he didn’t focus on the wages of McDonald’s workers? He didn’t call for the government to raise the minimum wage for them?
Actually, McDonald’s Corp. has already announced that it’s going to raise worker wages by 10% and offer annual paid time off– without government telling them to do so.
Entry-level workers at McDonald’s don’t make a lot of money. But those jobs can be a good thing for people who have few other options like once-struggling actor James Franco.
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