Today on James Howard Kunstler's "Cluster**** Nation" blog--yes, that is its name--he must have run out of targets because once again he was attacking Walmart. I would have put in my two cents worth but the comments section quickly fills up with such racist ugliness that after the first fifty or so it's not worth reading. So this is the response I would have written to CFN.
Now for a disclaimer. I do not get paid by Walmart. I personally don't give a damn about them one way or another. I no more think that they are the evil empire than I agree with my former pastor's statement about Satan misleading scientists. Walmart is a store. Period. If you don't want to shop there and you have a choice, don't.
Could Walmart treat its employees better? Yes. Could it pay them better? Yes. Will boycotting them bring about those things? No.
I have read about how Walmart mistreats its employees and I am sorry. But compared to some other businesses and industries, I'd say Walmart treats its people pretty darn good. I do not see anyone talking about the employment conditions and pay of those who work behind the scenes at our nation's racetracks. Yes, it's been almost 40 years since I picked up a Thoroughbred's lead shank and yes, I only stuck it out two weeks, but I will never forget what it was like--and I really doubt conditions have improved. If given a choice between horrid old Walmart and walking Thoroughbreds I would choose horrid old Walmart every time. And I think Walmart's "exploited" employees would make the same choice.
Ok, well, not everyone has the wonderful opportunity to walk racehorses. So here is another example. I used to work at a place that was known as "the Rat Factory"--and if you lived in southwest Michigan from 1960 to 1995 you know exactly what company I am talking about. I actually had that happen on another forum. I didn't use the name Rat Factory but someone asked me, "Did you work at XXXX from XXXX to XXXX?" Turns out he was an alumni of this illustrious organization. So we swapped a few Rat Factory stories. (By the way, Rat Factory was one of the NICER names people called this company.) It was one of those places that if you didn't work there you would not understand. I can talk about it now without risk of being busted because Rat Factory is no more and the head honcho has gone to his eternal reward (or not). To describe what it was like to work at Rat Factory would take several blogs. I will just mention one thing. The cockroaches. How many readers have seen a wall BLACK with cockroaches? Now do you get the picture? No, I am not exaggerating.
2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Keweenaw Copper Miners' strike. The Keweenaw Peninsula is that horn that sticks up into Lake Superior. You can google the particulars of the strike as I am not going to retell the story here. It was a long and bitter strike. Now I have heard about how Walmart destroys towns. I am not aware of any town where Walmart OWNS the town the way Calumet and Hecla mining company owned Calumet, Michigan, headquarters of the strike. If you worked for C & H, you lived in its houses. You shopped at its store. You went to its doctor and its hospital. And you'd better watch what you said about C & H because if the wrong person heard you you not only lost your job, you lost your home AND you could not get another job anywhere in the mining industry because they had a lovely little custom called Blacklisting. I am not aware that Walmart engages in Blacklisting nor does it dictate to its employees where to live and shop. By the way, these conditions were pretty much universal for mining towns. My parents grew up in mining towns. From their stories things weren't too much different in the 1940's as it was in 1913. If anyone has seen "October Sky" or read the book by Homer Hickam, same thing. Compared to that Walmart is downright benign!
The thing is, I am rather fed up with people who are relatively well-off speaking about the exploitation of those who are not quite so well off. I am not saying they should never speak up and that exploitation does not happen but there are plenty of us who are quite capable of speaking for ourselves. Yes, I sometimes shop at Walmart. I also support local businesses. It depends on what I need and where is the best place to get it. I am not about to feel guilty for shopping at Walmart. I had a neighbor who worked there. Never once did she say to me, don't shop there, they are exploiting me. I'm sure that there were things that she didn't care for about her job. But it was not the burning issue to her that it is to others.
There is a scene in the novel "Beautiful Joe" (a kind of dog's version of "Black Beauty") where two well-off women are talking about the woman who does laundry for one of them. They have noticed that she often cries at her work. It is because her life is so hard, says the friend of the woman who employs the laundress. "Oh!" says the other, "then I will not send my laundry to her anymore! Then her life won't be so hard and she won't have to cry." No, says her friend, if you do that she will have even less money to live on and her life will be even harder. I sometimes think of that when I hear talk of "improving" working conditions by boycotting a business.
Now for a disclaimer. I do not get paid by Walmart. I personally don't give a damn about them one way or another. I no more think that they are the evil empire than I agree with my former pastor's statement about Satan misleading scientists. Walmart is a store. Period. If you don't want to shop there and you have a choice, don't.
Could Walmart treat its employees better? Yes. Could it pay them better? Yes. Will boycotting them bring about those things? No.
I have read about how Walmart mistreats its employees and I am sorry. But compared to some other businesses and industries, I'd say Walmart treats its people pretty darn good. I do not see anyone talking about the employment conditions and pay of those who work behind the scenes at our nation's racetracks. Yes, it's been almost 40 years since I picked up a Thoroughbred's lead shank and yes, I only stuck it out two weeks, but I will never forget what it was like--and I really doubt conditions have improved. If given a choice between horrid old Walmart and walking Thoroughbreds I would choose horrid old Walmart every time. And I think Walmart's "exploited" employees would make the same choice.
Ok, well, not everyone has the wonderful opportunity to walk racehorses. So here is another example. I used to work at a place that was known as "the Rat Factory"--and if you lived in southwest Michigan from 1960 to 1995 you know exactly what company I am talking about. I actually had that happen on another forum. I didn't use the name Rat Factory but someone asked me, "Did you work at XXXX from XXXX to XXXX?" Turns out he was an alumni of this illustrious organization. So we swapped a few Rat Factory stories. (By the way, Rat Factory was one of the NICER names people called this company.) It was one of those places that if you didn't work there you would not understand. I can talk about it now without risk of being busted because Rat Factory is no more and the head honcho has gone to his eternal reward (or not). To describe what it was like to work at Rat Factory would take several blogs. I will just mention one thing. The cockroaches. How many readers have seen a wall BLACK with cockroaches? Now do you get the picture? No, I am not exaggerating.
2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the 1913 Keweenaw Copper Miners' strike. The Keweenaw Peninsula is that horn that sticks up into Lake Superior. You can google the particulars of the strike as I am not going to retell the story here. It was a long and bitter strike. Now I have heard about how Walmart destroys towns. I am not aware of any town where Walmart OWNS the town the way Calumet and Hecla mining company owned Calumet, Michigan, headquarters of the strike. If you worked for C & H, you lived in its houses. You shopped at its store. You went to its doctor and its hospital. And you'd better watch what you said about C & H because if the wrong person heard you you not only lost your job, you lost your home AND you could not get another job anywhere in the mining industry because they had a lovely little custom called Blacklisting. I am not aware that Walmart engages in Blacklisting nor does it dictate to its employees where to live and shop. By the way, these conditions were pretty much universal for mining towns. My parents grew up in mining towns. From their stories things weren't too much different in the 1940's as it was in 1913. If anyone has seen "October Sky" or read the book by Homer Hickam, same thing. Compared to that Walmart is downright benign!
The thing is, I am rather fed up with people who are relatively well-off speaking about the exploitation of those who are not quite so well off. I am not saying they should never speak up and that exploitation does not happen but there are plenty of us who are quite capable of speaking for ourselves. Yes, I sometimes shop at Walmart. I also support local businesses. It depends on what I need and where is the best place to get it. I am not about to feel guilty for shopping at Walmart. I had a neighbor who worked there. Never once did she say to me, don't shop there, they are exploiting me. I'm sure that there were things that she didn't care for about her job. But it was not the burning issue to her that it is to others.
There is a scene in the novel "Beautiful Joe" (a kind of dog's version of "Black Beauty") where two well-off women are talking about the woman who does laundry for one of them. They have noticed that she often cries at her work. It is because her life is so hard, says the friend of the woman who employs the laundress. "Oh!" says the other, "then I will not send my laundry to her anymore! Then her life won't be so hard and she won't have to cry." No, says her friend, if you do that she will have even less money to live on and her life will be even harder. I sometimes think of that when I hear talk of "improving" working conditions by boycotting a business.
