I am very sympathetic to the working poor. There are way too many people out there, who work as hard as humanly possible and simply cannot make enough money to support themselves. I have heard every argument concerning how people are able to pull themselves out of their situation through education, motivation, etc... There is at times validity to that line of thinking. But riddle me this? Who is going to do those jobs if nobody is willing to work them? Someone has to work those low paying positions. I do my best to treat everyone with dignity and respect. I don't care where you work, or how much education you have. If you aren't out to hurt others you are OK in my book. So when I come across a person who is working what some would consider a menial job, it makes no difference in the way I will treat them.
I just got home from grocery shopping at Walmart. It was such a depressing sight. The workers there truly are the working poor. They look absolutely terrible. I mean the vast majority of workers literally had on poor quality clothing and shoes. Their overall appearance was simply stated, unkept. It made me insufferably sad. But right now, I'm getting angry about it. Why in the world would a multi-billion dollar company choose to keep their employees in poverty? Corporate greed has gone entirely too far.
Walmart spends more money in China than the US government by the last stats I'd heard. And your workers can't even get a livable wage? Shoppers can't get an open register? Out of 20 -30 registers even on a holiday weekend and the first of the month, Walmart won't open more than 5 registers? I am starting to feel a moral obligation to frequent other businesses that do a better job of taking care of more then their executives. No I don't think that anyone should live a lifestyle of waiting for handouts. But I do think that when it comes to corporations, they need to compensate the people that are in the trenches working hard.
The commercials state: "You could pay more, but why?" Hopefully I just gave you a couple of good reasons to consider. I'd rather pay more to a company that is not purposely taking a loss to put fair priced companies out of business. That is better than supporting improperly contorted definitions of capitalism! THAT'S WHY!
it's been going on for years, this is Capitalism at it's finest, the sad thing is, we (loose term) for Americans, think that socialism is unfair. wow, this is just sad, great post.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I really walked away from there troubled. at this point I feel like perpetual support of this chain violates my conscious.
ReplyDeleteIf only more an more people felt that way. But it's mostly people living below the poverty lime that will comtinue to go there. When we live in a world where bread and milk is more expenses than cookies and soda we will comtinue to have trouble.
ReplyDeleteA line of reasoning I totally understand and empathize with. But as I always say. Healthy cuisine is cheaper than open heart surgery! It's pay me know or pay me later ;)
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