With the advancement and expansion in the global trade, the invention of standardized hand tools helped bridge the gap between manufacturers, suppliers and buyers of different nations. Standards are required in hand tools for quality assurance, safety, performance, size, accessory consideration and for easier construction and assembly. Due to these requirements tools are universal. For example one may own two saws by two different saw manufactures and only own one saw blade set that fits both machines.
Using a plastic card to charge for products and services has become a way of life. Some people use them for the convenience of not carrying cash and others use them so they can purchase an item they cannot yet afford. The credit card has changed the way we interact with and perceive money. The expression “I’ll just buy it now and worry about paying for it later” has some very real consequences. Credit card debt can follow someone for a lifetime. If only the minimum was paid on a $1,000 bill with an 18 percent annual rate it would take 12 years and $1,115 in interest to pay off. Today credit card companies are targeting college students because they have that mentality of, “I’ll just buy it now and worry about paying for it later”, and they have their whole life ahead of them to pay back the debt they accrue in college. But with lower-than-expected salaries after graduation and higher-than-expected living expenses, plus hefty student loan payments, make handling credit card debt all the more difficult for students and recent grads. Sure it is convenient to have what we want now and pay for it later, but it also feeds our greed, contributes to the lack of saving and allows us to live outside of our means.
Some trace the modern history of fast food in America to July 7, 1912 with the opening of a fast food restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small glass windows and coin-operated slots. Automats remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The company also popularized the notion of “take-out” food, with their slogan “Less work for Mother”. Although that sounds promising for Mothers, fast food poses some concerns. Fast food began as small family-run businesses and quickly grew into large multinational corporate businesses, which have radically transformed agriculture, meat processing, and labor markets. While the innovations of the fast food industry gave Americans more and cheaper dining options, it has come at the price of destroying the environment, economy, and small-town communities. It shields consumers from the real costs of their fast and convenient meal, both in terms of health and the broader impact of large-scale food production and processing on workers, animals, and land. Some of the large fast food chains are beginning to incorporate healthier alternatives in their menu, however some people see these moves as a commercial measure, rather than an appropriate reaction to ethical concerns about the world ecology and people's health.
