Wal-Mart’s Billions and the Art Museum of Cruelty: A Christmas Carol

Here is a number we’ve seen bouncing around this week that really makes us want to fire up the old Yule Log, in the sense that the “Yule Log” is a tightly bound human centipede of the richest hundred humans in America, lit on fire: The six heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune have about $93 billion between them, more money and financial assets than the combined 100,000,000 Americans at the bottom of our crushing economic system. With half of all Americans now officially poor or “near poor” — which is somehow worse than plain poverty, as “near poor” means you don’t qualify for the minimal safety net this country generously offers some of its most desperate people — it is not a complete surprise that the rich must be very rich indeed these days. But the idea of six heirs to a corporate fortune built upon the destruction of American manufacturing, American small business and the American working class owning more than 30% of the entire nation, well that is the kind of thing that makes us think of Charles Dickens, and the holiday of abject misery and constant war against the impoverished called “Christmastime.”

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Then there’s the museum itself, “Crystal Bridges,” built in an Arkansas gulch behind Wal-Mart’s headquarters and funded by a $675 million Wal-Mart endowment. This is the same company that just announced it will no longer sell health care coverage to its hundreds of thousands of laborers who can’t get more than 25 hours of work each week, and has substantially raised the premiums on its already squeezed low-wage full-time employees. The average Wal-Mart employee makes less than nine dollars an hour, or $352.40 per week gross. It is no wonder that Wal-Mart leads the nation in having employees who require public assistance — welfare, food stamps, medical aid — in order to survive.

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Wal-Mart needs to be run out of business, its awful stores razed, the building materials recycled, the profits distributed to the millions of workers broken by Sam Walton’s monstrous, frothing greed. Its headquarters must be destroyed, its vulgar museum leveled, and the American masterpieces within distributed to local libraries. If the Wal-Mart buildings weren’t such awful assaults upon the eye and soul and land, they too might be re-used as museums for the people, indoor gardens, roller-skating rinks, whatever. But they are irredeemable. They, like the half-dozen Walton heirs with their $93 billion of ill-gotten inheritance, must be torn down. For Jesus … for Christmas!

And there will still be people who think that the poor just have to work harder, because they have the same opportunities as these heirs of Wal-Mart.

Source

Ah the small town killer. They claim to be a great American company while outsourcing everything overseas. If you haven't seen this before this will make you love them even more.

reply to post by cetaphobic


Poverty is a choice.

Anything you say to refute this is an excuse.

Your either, uneducated, not clever enough, not brave enough to take a risk or just plain lazy and that's why YOUR not rich.

Stop crying about those of us who are wealthy and go out and figure out a way to be wealthy yourself.

i try to avoid the place.. the people depress me lol


sometimes i buy beer there because its way cheaper than the grocery stores.. but i do buy domestic ha ha


america f- yeah!

reply to post by cetaphobic


Star and Flag, thank you. It is time people woke up to Walmart's business practices, how they treat women, and their lower employees, and how they control an area, forcing other small business out of business. I agree. Tear them down like was done to Ma Bell. Anyone remember that government ordered breakup?

reply to post by cetaphobic


We all know the only way to get rich is to lie, cheat, steal and / or otherwise inflict sociopathic misery on others. Yet still, many support the system that encourages sociopathy. Why? Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?

S&F

Originally posted by Areyoupeopleinsane
reply to post by cetaphobic

 

Poverty is a choice.

Anything you say to refute this is an excuse.

Your either, uneducated, not clever enough, not brave enough to take a risk or just plain lazy and that's why YOUR not rich.

Stop crying about those of us who are wealthy and go out and figure out a way to be wealthy yourself.

Lmaoooo
You're*

You are also not rich, and you will never, ever be as rich as these heirs.

I once sold a $20,000 test order to Walmart for an American made product. The test order was a success and Walmart wanted to purchase nearly 2 million in product from me. Sadly they sat my line rep down and told him that they needed a larger profit margin. When we explained that they were getting the best price possible they gave us contact information to manufactures in China capable of producing large quantities at cheaper prices.

I refused to do business with China despite it would have put $200,000 in my hands. At the time I was working for 25,000 a year...... I dare anyone to question my business ethics as that cash would have made life a whole lot easier and I turned it down.

Walmart is a pariah and leech. The six heirs to the Walmart fortune are the greediest P.O.S. people in the world outside of the darn bankers. American Company my #$%#% donkey!

So tired of seeing the rich get richer. If I ever find myself terminally ill I will change the world on my way out.....

I worked for Wal-Mart for over a year and I made enough to support myself and my two children at the time. I was making 650.00 every two weeks. We lived in a nice apartment, ate well, and my kids never wanted for anything.

I think in A LOT of people's cases, those individuals need to look at their own spending habits and not at the company paying them. It's not how much you are making, it's how you're spending it that counts. Time after time I see these people who say they are broke but are carrying around the latest cell phone, driving a nice, gas guzzling SUV, wearing expensive brand clothes, and yet have to have food stamps etc...

Laziness really is the problem.

I must say the only gripe I have with Wal-mart is they usually like to have teenagers as managers and grown adults as workers, which is backwards. I was over worked while pregnant, being told that I would be fired if I did not pull a 500lbs pallet, etc.... Wal-mart is really paid slavery but it's still how you manage your money that makes a difference in your life.

reply to post by SkyMuerte

That was a very courageous move for the right reasons. I can only think if America had more people in business like you, outsourcing to China wouldn't be such a common practice and our nation would still be a World Power headed up...not where we are now.

Grats to taking the stand! (Ever thought of running for Office? )

reply to post by Areyoupeopleinsane


That has nothing to do with Walmart NOT paying their workers more than minimum wage when they are raking in Billions in profits EVERY year.

This is called EXPLOITATION of the worker. aka a wage slave[

Without the workers, Walmart could never get the profits they do. Why should they not be paid a living wage when the company CAN afford it.

It's really irrelevent about how much they pay you, and what you spend your money on.

Walmart is a leech. And destroys everything in its way.
Small and medium business? gone. I get the "oh, well, they hire a lot of people" , But they don't, really, a small/med business can pay you quite a bit more than medium wage.

Walmart pays its employees minimum wage. And then taxes and the like.

And really, they have us all played on walmart anyways, treats its employees like crap. Provides 'cheaper' stuff, (which takes advantage of the employees, because they get paid less than they should), if you added a dollar on everything bought at a walmart, think of what that could be applied to, to the employees. -one dollar-.

Realistically, i think every employee at walmart is worth 20 bucks an hour, but by the time it gets down to the actual employee its only minimum wage, the rest of it is 'gone' and you never know and never see it. You sell their items, you make them millions, you get paid minimum wage.

The chinese kid making those shoes is making 10 cents a day
Because 'outsourcing' to a country that takes severe advantage of its inhabitants is moral and all.
We could make all of our products at home, it would be a little more expesive, but we would build better quality items.

Every wonder why landfills are so full,
Masses of electronics?
masses of all other broken crap people throw out?

Where are all of these things made? More than likely china, or some other country. You'd be hard pressed to find 'canadian made' or 'american made' (local business might be the exception).

Pay less, for a crappier product, walmart makes a killing off the savings, off the employees. And you get a poop product that breaks in a year.

Instead of paying a little more, for a quality item made with quality parts that is designed to last for 10 or more years.

For example, You can buy a desktop computer at walmart for below 500 bucks.
They build them for maybe 50 bucks, with cheap chinese made parts,
That computer -will not last- long, I had an e-machine, a 'brand' typical of walmart. And it pooed out on me after a year or so. Long time..

I've built my own computers since then, and the current one i have cost me about 1200 monitors included.
I have quality made parts, adequate cooling, faster harddrives, faster ram, faster cpu, stable power, expansion out the wazoo.

One of my monitors was 300 dollars, the other was 100. The computer itself cost me about 800(and it keeps up with my friends 2100 dollar system), i lucked into some good parts. And its really funny, i'm using a platform that was released 10 years ago, and the parts are probably.. 2 or 3 years old themselves. Aside from the videocard, and it blows anything walmart can produce out of the water.

Its funny . When i was saving up for my case, i ran my computer on the motherboard box, haha

reply to post by soficrow


Those are not the only ways to get rich. Did you forget about honest work, investment of time, production of a quality product that people want to buy, treating employees fairly, and doing business for your community not with your community?

That is the way the owner of the company I worked for did it. It certainly worked for him!

reply to post by Dilligaf28


And he will never be as rich as these heirs of Wal-Mart, no matter how hard he works.

reply to post by cetaphobic


But what difference does that make? Who cares who is as rich as who? The point still stands that its possible to amass wealth and fortune and keep one's virtues.

People need to STOP BUYING FROM WALMART altogether!!!!!!

Is the small reduction in price of goods really worth RUINING this country?

Ask yourselves that folks. They have caused a LOT of family businesses to go under, and they drop products like a hot potato if you do not open up shop in China to get the prices lower for their liken.

They are a bunch of anti-American devils. STOP BUYING FROM THEM FOLKS!!!!!!!!!

reply to post by Dilligaf28


I'm pretty sure the 100 million people who put together have less money than these heirs care.

Originally posted by mnmcandiez
reply to post by Areyoupeopleinsane

 

That has nothing to do with Walmart NOT paying their workers more than minimum wage when they are raking in Billions in profits EVERY year.

This is called EXPLOITATION of the worker. aka a wage slave[

Without the workers, Walmart could never get the profits they do. Why should they not be paid a living wage when the company CAN afford it.

edit on 12/16/2011 by mnmcandiez because: (no reason given)

Really? I haven't seen the Wall-Mar employe round up crews going thru neighborhoods and collecting people at gunpoint to work in their stores.

There is no such thing as a wage slave.

Slavery is by force. Wage is remuneration for labor.

If they the employee's don't think they are getting a fair wage for the work they perform they have total freedom to go work someplace else.

But I don't think being a cashier, stocking shelves or mopping floors etc.. warrants more then minimum wage.

Anything you argue to the contrary is just an excuse, as poverty is a choice.

reply to post by Areyoupeopleinsane




Really, in this economy, someone who works at Wal-Mart can easily work somewhere else?

Yeah, for instance, K-Mart! Burger King! McDonalds!
They're sure to get rich there!