More from the Walmart rampage

JadeRobbins wrote:
Yeah but you sit on your ass and surf the Internet all day for your job. Remember Mark, some people think that money will just appear into people’s hands, but no that doesn’t happen, it would have to come from the people that got rich from Wal-Mart. Do they deserve that much money” YOU BET YOUR ASS THEY DO, Wal-Mart wouldn’t be as successful if it wasn’t for the people at the corporate office thinking up business strategies, etc.

Now for my other rant. You get paid pretty good money to SIT ON YOUR ASS and use a computer. It wouldn’t be that bad of an issue if you all were the worlds most perfect employees and all got up every 5 minutes and pushed in chairs instead of the usual 20. The people at Wal-Mart work way harder than you do, are you willing to get paid less because the job you work is easier?

I’m very deserving of this rant. We all are. You bet we sit on our asses in front of a computer, and are paid rather well to play flash games and do homework. We’re unwilling to work any but the choicest schedules—before 10:00AM? No, that’s too early for me! Every once in a while we get up and push in a few chairs, and that’s really about it. You’re absolutely right that the people at Walmart that stock shelves and check people out and clean the floors and the toilets and push in carts in three degree weather are doing more work in an hour than most USAs do in a week or more. Is it fair that I’m paid better to sit on my ass then they are to work their asses off? I don’t know. Is it fair that one gets paid $5.15/hour to make burgers at McDonalds, which is high pressured, greasy and long work, while a lawyer gets $200/hour to sit in front of his computer and type out briefs? I don’t know. Truthfully, it’s probably not. But life’s not fair, eh, Jade? By merits of desirability of work, corporation executives should make less money than garbage men. But that’s not how it works.

So we get paid handsomely to sit around make tell Michael when the printers break. We don’t have to clean. We don’t have to take out the trash. Even our staples and post-its are even brought to us. I do homework. I send emails. And I get paid for it. I push chairs in every once in a while, but I’m certainly not a model employee.

As long as I’m on this train of thought, let me suggest that maybe we could or should do more. Maybe, on those long weekend shifts or late at night when there’re two USAs, one trainee and two users in the labs, we could close the doors to a room and bust out the vacuum cleaner. Cleaning shifts? Honestly. There’s no shortage of free time, and if a few USAs spent an hour less playing CurveBall and an hour cleaning the labs, not only would they look a lot better, but one could do away with training shifts as well and save the university a little bit of money. Before you decry me for my hypocrisy, stop. I’ve done this once or twice. I cleaned Reid 304 the other night, just to prove that it could easily be done. It took me an hour. But there’s really no incentive to keep doing it, because without the cooperation of others, it’s a lost cause. Yeah, it’s a nice idea, but it’s never going to happen on its own. Perhaps if people were assigned to do it, although there would be quite an outcry (oh my god, we actually need to do something other than sit on our asses), it could be done. Sign me up. I’ll do the first shift.

So should I go out and give all the money I make to poor, impoverished Walmart families? Maybe—lord knows they work a lot harder than I do.

JadeRobbins wrote:
I just think it’s funny for you to sit on your high horse and talk about people being mistreated when you seem to have a pretty cushy lifestyle. If you care so much, why not donate everything to a charity for Wal-Mart workers so that you all can be on an equal living scale? Oh I guess you can’t do that because then you might have to sell your computer and nice little quad over on campus.

Yeah, I do have a very cushy lifestyle. I have everything I need, and most of what I want. What’s more, most of it has just been given to me—I haven’t worked for it or earned it. Here, Mark, have a car. Gee, thanks, Mom & Dad. Here, Mark, have a scholarship. You didn’t even apply for it, but we’ll give it to you anyway. Gee, thanks, MSU. Here Mark, … etc. And for all that, I’m pretty ungrateful. I still find reasons to complain. But why should that stop me from believing that other people should be afforded the same opportunities? Why should that stop me from being an advocate of employee rights and fair pay? Why should having a good life myself stop me from being able to want other people to have what I have or better?

JadeRobbins wrote:
Should [Wal-Mart] audit its business practices in order to make people like you not feel guilty for shopping there?

Oh, don’t worry about me. I certainly don’t shop there, and certainly don’t feel guilty about not supporting Wal-Mart.

JadeRobbins wrote:
Do you go around to local businesses around here and check to see if women advance as much? No you don’t because people seem to think that local small businesses are utopian and perfect, well they aren’t.

Local businesses are owned and run by individuals—bosses, supervisors, owners, managers, etc.—people who have moral obligations and humanity. No, I’m sure that local businesses are far from perfect. But I’ll promise you that a local business cares a whole lot more about its employees than the local Wal-Mart.

JadeRobbins wrote:
One last point, Mark talks about how being a large company that Wal-Mart needs to set a good example, and it is. The purpose of corporations and any business is to make money, and Wal-Mart is setting a great example for other corporations.

From a business standpoint, Walmart is an archetypical corporation—everything a corporation should be. It’s huge, and it’s hugely profitable. As I discussed above, as a corporation it’s expected and required to make money for its stock holders. It has no moral obligations to its employees or to its customers—only to its stockholders. So if that means using underpaid immigrant workers, or if that entails the use of third-world sweat-shop child labor, or if that entails consuming hundreds of mom-and-pop stores, or if that entails the rape and pillage of the environment, then more power to the corporation because its fulfilling its purpose of making money. A corporation has no soul. No conscience. No emotion. It only has a mission statement and a board of directors. It’s a servant to the almighty dollar. And that’s it. And Wal-mart? They’re good. They’re real good. They’ve figured out how to sell more stuff cheaper. How to hire more people for less money. How to lower the bar on low prices and low quality. How to keep profit margins high and overhead low.

Never mind the individuals. Never mind the people that make Wal-Mart run. Forget the truckers that make the goods—hell, forget the 14 year-old Columbian that made the shirts in the first place. Forget the checker. Forget the store clerks. Forget the women and illegal immigrants. They’re all just people. Not money. And we all know what’s important to a corporation.