My rant of the day: Im proud of WalMart. $16 billion in profits and they wont pay their associates any more because it may drive up prices and therefore have an effect on the Shareholder value. Well, why stop there? I mean, cant we just force people to work at WalMart for nothing? That would certainly help drive prices lower. Heck, why dont we just replace all those people with machines? If they didnt want to be forced into working at WalMart then they should have thought of that before they were born into a poor socioeconomic environment. Really. I mean, you have to admire how savvy WalMart is at busting up unions and treating their workers not as human beings, but as depreciating assets with very little value. They use all the typical arguments that one hears from corporate apologists such as: if they didnt want to work at WalMart then they should have gone to college, and they are welcome to leave and work elsewhere. Really, because its that simple in life when one is born into poverty to just change ones socioeconomic environment. Its that simple when you are trying to make ends meet and have very little safety net to just get a new job or take on the crushing debt of a college education. Really, people are condemned for not going into huge amounts of debt or leaving their existing employer, even though they are making an entirely rational and intelligent decision to avoid debt and no guarantee of being able to pay off that debt. Its like when someone is working 50 plus hours a week yet they were told they would only work 40. Is it not reasonable to expect them to come back and say hey, Im working many more hours than you said I would in the contract. My time is important to me and I should get paid for those hours. Of course, then this person isnt a team-player or dependable. They are a leech rather than someone simply respecting their own time and energy. They are ridiculed for making an entirely rational and intelligent argument. I mean, if I told you that you were going to only work so many hours and that I was going to compensate you accordingly, wouldnt you be ticked off if I took advantage of you? If I were going to pay you shitty wages, just because I can despite the fact that I could afford to pay you more, wouldnt you be ticked off? And people really defend these practices? Its not all on WalMart, though. People still shop there because of price. I also dont blame people that have a knee-jerk reaction to defend capitalism. In theory, capitalism should result in more innovation, not less, as the best ideas get more funding (even though this ignores the fact that capitalism is about profits, not innovation). However, anyone that has studied the theory of something knows that the application of that theory is far more complicated than originally conceived. I should also add as a disclaimer that we shouldnt do away with all the positive hallmarks of capitalism, namely: fostering of innovation, creating a market for ideas, encouraging individual growth and pursuit of ones dreams, etc. Its just that, like any system created by mankind, there are shortcomings to that system and systemic flaws that we should be honest about and address through a democratic and scientific process.
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 17:10:42 +0000