...or is Walmart something we should be thankful for?

Things that will make you wish you were Canadian: Item Let's talk about Walmart. Face it. We live in a capitalist society. That society rewards entrepreneurship, effort, efficiency, education and a lot of other "e" words that I can't come up with now. We accept, even applaud, companies that come to market with the best product at the best price. Whether it's Best Buy selling electronics or PetSmart (note the trendy elimination of the space between words) peddling kibble, we are happy to drive 5 or 10 miles to save $.50 on a box of Cheerios. So be it. This is America and we will defend to the death your right to waste $1.00 in gas to pocket $.50. But then there's Walmart. Someone, probably Paris Hilton, said that no publicity was bad publicity. As the only company in America that spawned an organization dedicated to its destruction, Walmart might beg to differ. Throughout America, small bands of crusaders are rising up to stop Walmart from expanding into new territories. The Germans drove them out in 2006 and, except for the UK, things are grim in the EU. Folks hate Walmart for a host of reasons: Walmart destroys small local businesses; devastates downtown shopping areas; promotes suburban sprawl. Their parking lots are brighter than Shea Stadium on game night. As neighbors, most people would prefer the storage facility for the Center For Disease Control. Closed Walmart stores lay abandoned for months, sometimes longer. Walmart can always be relied upon to do the least that the law allows with regard to safety and overall good citizenship. This is the company that refused to take any responsibility for assaults and rapes occurring in their own parking lots. However, the issue that makes the news most often is the reason for today's rant: the manner in which Walmart treats its help. Walmart professes to be a friend to the working family, providing high quality goods at reasonable prices. That's true as long as the working family isn't working for Walmart. The company is maniacally anti-union. A union would presumably bring a measure of worker's rights to a company whose business practices would be more at home in the Philippines. Thousands of Walmart employees are without benefits mostly because their hours don't qualify them for full time status. Better to pay peanuts to two employees than benefits to one full-time worker. If you imagine that this is all covered by the term "good business practices" please avail yourself of page one of November twentieth The Wall Street Journal. Column three details the case of Deborah Shank. Ms. Shank, a Walmart employee with health insurance, was involved in an accident with a truck, (not Walmart's) leaving her with severe brain damage and in need of constant care. She was awarded $700,000 in a settlement with the trucking company. Legal fees and other expenses reduced the award to $417,000 which would go toward her future medical expenses, that is, of course, until Walmart stepped in. Two years ago Walmart's medical plan sued Ms. Shank for $470,000, an amount equal to the cost of her to that point. Let me say that again...Walmart sued Ms. Shank to recover the money they had paid for her hospitalization. They did it for the very best of reasons...the law says they can. In 2006 Walmart posted a net profit of $12.18 Billion on sales of $344 Billion. They are currently the largest public corporation by revenue. Now you have some idea as to how they got there, by screwing every last cent out of their work force. You can say that no one forces people to work at Walmart and that is certainly true. There should, however be a covenant between employer and employee that's rooted in fairness and respect. (Wow! What century were you born in?) Seriously! I know very few bosses that don't care whether their employees prosper. They value their reputations as caring even if it costs them a few rolls of Scotch Tape at Christmes. Walmart is spending millions to promote the idea that they are model world citizens: They're green; they're responsible. Sure. They're responsible for poisoning American children. When you grind your suppliers to cut costs and then cut them again, you shouldn't be surprised when the stuff you import is produced by slaves using lead paint. They will need all the paint they can find. It will take a lot to apply to the lips of this pig.