Put your money where it matters.

Here we go again. SOAP-BOX!

(Kinda sad that anger brings me here most often, huh?)

Anyway. I'm coming to you LIVE from my living room where we are eating from a nice cheese and olive plate, drinking a soft-tannined Italian Shiraz, and watching....

A documentary about Wal-mart.

I know, fine cheese, good wine, and big tacky yellow happy faces and cheap prices ending in .48? Um, yeah. What a meal!

OOooooohhh this movie has me ALL RILED UP. Granted, I haven't step foot in a Wal-Mart in like 5 years - so fuck yeah- I do my part. But if you even so much as think about popping in for a quick roll of TP....THINK AGAIN. This company sucks.

I mean, it's not necessarily WHAT they sell so much as HOW they sell it and the corporate philosophy they hold. But I admit- I even gave a silent 'hell yeah' when they announced they were selling prescription drugs on the cheap. One step closer to socialized health care.

But now I see this film and, while we've all seen the drama in the news and heard about the lawsuits, I'm just floored all over again. Fuck! What a piece of shit company! They could give out free drugs for 10 years and even that would never erase the amount of harm they've done.

Think about it: the founders of Wal-Mart are in THE TOP TEN richest people in the US. Top Ten! And there are 3 of them in that top 10! They bring in over 240 BILLION dollars in sales and they can't provide affordable health benefits for their employees? They can't pay livable wages? They FIRE people for talking to each other on the clock for fear of conspiring to start a union?

Once again: the richest company in the world can't provide affordable health bennies for their people? Mosey on over to Microsoft or Google and check out what those employees make. Hell, look at the people who work for King Soopers or Safeway or jeez, even the man begging on Speer probably has it better.

Fact: Wal-Mart employee avg salary = $13, 900 per year.
Wal-Mart CEO salary = $29 million per year

Fact: Wal-Mart employees gave $5 million to an employee assistance fund.
The Walton Family gave $6,000.

Doesn't this make you want to vomit?

(OMG- now we're onto discrimination against women and blacks.....oh look, there is the Loveland Wal-Mart with people protesting in front of it! Environmental destruction! Boarded-up empty downtowns! Closures of small businesses! Wal-mart is a veritable pu-pu platter of utter lack corporate responsibility!)

Please faithful readers, I plead you. Do not shop at Wal-Mart (or Sam's Club). Believe me, I know the temptation...cheap goods you don't need are as much a weakness of mine as they are yours. But as tempting and convenient as a quick stop to Wal-Mart seems, by buying so much as a piece of gum, you are supporting a monster.

If I didn't get you there, let me put it this way: Would YOU work at Wal-Mart? No? Then why would you shop there?

And I know I should probably stop now and let my blood pressure simmer down, but like the professor at today's faculty forum who just couldn't fucking let it go, I'll go on to say that I KNOW sometimes people don't have a choice. I know that in many places Wal-Mart is the only place to shop or work. But does that excuse them from pocketing BILLIONS while said employees go without food, healthcare, places to live? Is it OK to be the richest company in the world but treat your employees like shit?

Is it OK to make Wal-Mart CHEERS mandatory for everyone who works there??????

No? Well good. Shop on then. But if you somehow end up standing face to face with an old person handing out happy face stickers, ask yourself if you feel good about what you're about to do.

AaaaaggagagagagHHHHHHH.

/soapbox.