The Evil Empire

Let me tell you a little story.....
A long time ago in a far away land, lived a little old man named Sam. Sam had a dream of opening a store that offered not only competitively low prices but also the highest level of customer service. How was he to do this? By involving his store associates in everyday decisions effectively making the store belong to it's workers and sharing quarterly and yearly profits with those associates.

This is no bedtime story, it really happened. Sam Walton started the world's largest retail business with one little store in Arkansas. The realization of Mr. Walton's life-long dream came before he passed away. As few do nowadays, this man saw his own dream come true. However, if this great man knew what those at the helm of his great dream were doing, he would be rolling in his grave!

Someone very near and very dear to me informed me recently of a sinister plot already being carried out at other stores in the country by this evil empire. What is this plot? We will get to that in a minute. First let's lead into that with a little bit of info about Walmart's economic position during these hard times we are currently undergoing.

"Wal-Mart recorded the strongest sales result in its history in the fourth quarter, with $108 billion in sales," (Mike Duke, chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores).

As this recession continues and worsens by the day, Walmart's bottom line had done nothing but grow. The growth is largely in part to Americans having less to spend flocking to the discount giant in an effort to stretch their hard earned dollars as much as possible.

CEO Mike Duke also stated that during the year 2008, Walmart created over 33,000 jobs in the United States alone while throughout the rest of the country over two and a half million people lost theirs.

"We will work even harder this year to save people money so they can live better. I do believe this is Walmart's time." (Mike Duke, CEO of Walmart Stores)

Now onto the affore mentioned sinister plot......
The little detail of which I have recently become aware is that Walmart desires to be merely a part-time employer for the most part. What this means is that while the company is producing its largest sales out of the company's entire history, the greed does not end.
Walmart Associates who wish to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal, have attended store meetings where they would be notified that the majority of them would be offered fewer than a handful of hours per week from here on out. We are talking about full time employees who have done nothing wrong other than go to work for the wrong company. These people have husbands, wives, and children who during these tough economic times count on their full time income and benefits.

Let me also state that I am not just listening to disgruntled employees and as a result spewing sensationalist claims. During the year 2008 I personally managed the overhaul of the communications infrastructure during three general remodels at Walmart stores across the state of Kansas. Each of these stores spent well over $1 million to remodel their store, at least one of which had no need whatsoever. Throughout the course of these projects I noticed quite quickly that treating associates like dogs is common practice for Walmart management throughout the country. The poor treatment did not end their either. Not only did store management treat their employees poorly but the special management team, (comprised of Walmart management from stores all over the country), that is brought in to handle just the remodel was guilty of this too. Now one could surmise that the associates of the store, especially the management, would be happy that we (Remodel Contractors) were there bettering their store. No! I was specifically told by an assistant manager at one of those stores (the one in the worst shape out of the three) that "It was a nuisance that we were in their store" and "We were not wanted there". I replied "Fine" and promptly walked out of the store leaving half of their department phones throughout the store inoperable. (this did not make management too happy to say the least!!)

Now as awful of a thing as it is to accept, layoffs due to a company's drop in sales and performance I can understand. During tough times as these, a financially struggling company must cut expenses or whither and die as a result of their debts. However, for a company in the situation that Walmart finds itself in to behave this way is inexcusable and should be considered criminal.

As mentioned before they are putting up their best sales in history! Why therefore would cutting jobs and benefits be necessary? This question can be answered by one little five letter word..... GREED! For a very long time now Walmart nationwide has been making their full time employees shave 1 hour per week off of their 40 hours. All this does is pad the management's bonus checks. Speaking of bonus checks, I know of one store in particular that was told their 2008 Year-End Bonus would be around $800.00 per full time associate. Next time the bonus was brought up it had shrank, this happened several more times until the bonus was less than $100. While management got their bonuses, which for an assistant manager what just shy of $5,000 the regular full time associates have still not seen their year end bonus. To make matters worse, it has been reported to me that the last associate who questioned management about this was sent home from work!

Stealing bonuses from he hard working associates who make each store what it is, taking away their benefits, and abusing the hard work of people in the worst financial crisis since the great depression. If this is how Walmart needs act to provide "Everyday Low Prices" then maybe the American consumer should show them how we feel about exploitation. Boycott Walmart!! Shop at Target, Kmart, Big Lots, etc. Despite what you may think there are plenty of alternatives to shopping at walmart. They are not number one because of their prices. They are number one because they have stores everywhere and their marketing. Ignore them and take your dollars elsewhere! You had better believe I will!

Down with Socialism

Let me start out by offering a couple of definitions here.
Capitalism: an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange of wealth are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

Socialism: Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy, preferably in government controlled markets. Socialism is the stage in Marxist-Leninist theory intermediate between capitalism and communism, in which collective ownership of the economy under the dictatorship of the proletariat has not yet been successfully achieved.

Now consider the steps our government is taking to supposedly pull our economy out of this recession. And do not assume that it is all Obama, though he must shoulder much of the blame. Bush started the bail out fund, our elected officials agreed to it, and unfortunately, the one man with the power to stop it, Obama, is going along for the ride and in fact making it worse! I fully believe with all of my heart that when programs such as Welfare and Foodstamps were started, they were put in act with the best intentions. These programs can still do some good for those who are truly in need for a short period of time. However, what programs such as these have done is to produce a society that has learned that they can sit and do nothing at no cost to them, but still be taken care of, involuntarily by the citizens and hardworking taxpayers around them. Those who choose to work end up paying for those who wont, by order of the government. Now do not be mistaken, there are those out there that NEED this help, those with true legitimate disabilities. These are the people the programs were intended for and I am not putting them down. Rather I am calling on those who can, but REFUSE to work.
Now on a small scale I would not consider this to be socialism, however as grand of scale as public support of private citizens has become, one can find no other label for it than Socialism. Not only would I call it Socialism but it dangerously flirts with Communism.

Now if your hard earned tax dollars paying for other people's entire lives with no approval or permission from you, the Taxpayer, doesn't sound like Socialism to you, lets add a couple of more factors into the equation.

What about the Bailout fund? That huge pot of our tax dollars being divided up among the very corporations that drove our economy to this point with you having no say so in the matter. Sounds alot like Socialism to me. The government has now also proposed a plan wherein they would partner with the banks to purchase Toxic Stocks and Mortgages (aka. Failing Stocks and home loans that the owner can barely or not at all afford to pay). In this plan, the government, (AKA. our tax dollars) would put up to 95% of the money needed to make these purchases, leaving very little risk for the banks, while the profits from these joint ventures would be split 50/50. Let's put this into perspective, for a $60,000 mortgage, our tax dollars would cover $57,000 and the bank would only have to put up $3,000 and the profits will still be split 50/50 between the government and the bank.
Doesn't sound like a very wise business investment does it?

I personally am all for the government investing a certain ammount of tax dollars into profitable markets. I feel a plan of this nature could be a very effective way of generating more revenue and will give the tax payers a break due to the fact that the profits of such investments could be reinvested into the nation's annual budget reducing the need to collect as many tax dollars from you an me. But this is not what is going on currently. Obama wants our tax dollars to be spent buying stock in BANKRUPT companies. How will this help our economy? The "Big Three" auto makers, have already dipped their collective hands into the cookie jar and have been back to D.C. asking for more! Where does it end? The idea is that the bailout funds accepted by these companies are merely loans and must be paid back over time. However, given that the government issued the loan, much like a bank does when you buy a house, they government is slowly but surely buying up our economy and it will not be long before they own it all and are "Redistributing the Wealth" however Obama sees fit. This means the end of Capitalism, Freedom, and the American way. We will soon be a communist nation if this runaway president and entire government have their way!
We must all stand up and collectively remind this government who they really work for!!!