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October 6, 2014
Watertown, New York
This iReport is part of an assignment:
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Are You a PSD? (Poor, Smart and Deep Desire to Get Rich) Wal-Mart Wants You!
&|& Posted
October 6, 2014
&|& Watertown, New York
"The "values" of the largest private-sector employer in the U.S. are shaping our national economy -- and that's a very bad thing." - Harold Meyerson" Around the time that the young Sam Walton opened his first stores, John Kennedy redeemed a presidential campaign promise by persuading Congress to extend the minimum wage to retail workers, who had until then not been covered by the law.Congress granted an exclusion, however, to small businesses with annual sales beneath $1 million -- a figure that in 1965 it lowered to $250,000.Walton was furious.The mechanization of agriculture had finally reached the backwaters of the Ozark Plateau, where he was opening one store after another.The men and women who had formerly worked on small farms suddenly found themselves redundant, and he could scoop them up for a song, as little as 50 cents an hour.Now the goddamn federal government was telling him he had to pay his workers the $1.15 hourly minimum. Walton's response was to divide up his stores into individual companies whose revenues didn't exceed the $250,000 threshold.Eventually, though, a federal court ruled that this was simply a scheme to avoid paying the minimum wage, and he was ordered to pay his workers the accumulated sums he owed them, plus a double-time penalty thrown in for good measure.Wal-Mart cut the checks, but Walton also summoned the employees at a major cluster of his stores to a meeting. "I'll fire anyone who cashes the check," he told them."Many believed that Sam Walton built his empire on good ethics and that he treated his employees with respect and paid them well.Some believed that it was his children that strayed from 'Sam's ethical treatment of workers' because they had grown up with money and become 'out-of -touch" with the principles that their father had built his success upon.This is not true. And I admit, I was surprised and disillusioned about Sam Walton with this revelation. I shouldn't have been.The apples didn't fall far from the tree in the Walton Family.The same is true of the Koch Family and with David and Charles' father, Fred, and what he taught his sons about their employees.Empires are built on the backs of slaves.Our South is an example of slavery being used to work the plantations before our Civil War changed that for the most part."Noted academic and scholar of American labor history Nelson N. Lichtenstein explains about Walmart’s unique socio-economic impact on capitalism in America."Lichenstein tells us how the typical big box store has revolutionized our society’s retail industry for the good and for the worse.Question: "Has Walmart really decreased retail wages across the country? Is disfavor toward Walmart and other big box stores actually disguised anger at the free enterprise system?""A great deal would say that big box stores serve a positive function as they employ people who tend to be in serious need of work. It is also said that big box stores offer consumers a wide variety of products at low prices. Are either of these arguments true?"Question: "Has Walmart really decreased retail wages across the country? If so, how?"Dr. Nelson N. Lichtenstein: It has in the retail sector, both by putting downward pressure on its rivals, or by actually bankrupting them, which has happened in Las Vegas and in some mid-South cities, and by setting a new employment norm for the entire service sector. Today, the employment model pioneered by Walmart - relatively low wages, high turnover, lots of part time work - is copied everywhere, from Amazon fulfillment centers to hotels to janitorial service companies to home health care services."&Question: "Many believe that disfavor toward Walmart and other big box stores is disguised anger at the free enterprise system. Have you found this to be the case?"&Dr. Lichtenstein: "To the extent that Walmart does erode wages and working conditions throughout its global supply chain, from Shenzhen computer product factories to Inland Empire distribution centers to the local Kansas City supercenter, then yes the company does bring to the top of the political and social agenda questions about how fairly giant companies like Walmart distribute to both their workers and those of their vendors and transport service companies the fruits of their enormously efficient system of supply and sales.Walmart constantly takes surveys that measure its corporate “reputation.” There is some evidence that the company’s recent initiatives on the environmental front, and even selected city wage increases, are an effort to bolster its sagging reputation."&Question: "A great deal would say that big box stores serve a positive function as they employ people who tend to be in serious need of work. It might also be said that big box stores offer consumers a wide variety of products at low prices. What are your opinions about these arguments? "&Dr. Lichtenstein: "High unemployment is endemic in American life. Therefore any employer will have little trouble recruiting an overqualified workforce. This is also true of employers, such as those in the fast food industry and in carwashes and among home health care providers, who actually pay less and offer fewer benefits than Walmart.As for price, Sam Walton and his heirs did pioneer a productivity revolution in retail and distribution on pair with that of Henry Ford and the U.S. auto industry a century ago.But just as GM adopted Ford production techniques, so too have all of Walmart’s rivals learned from the Bentonville-based company.So Walmart’s competitive advantage is today far less than it used to be, even though consumer goods and clothing today do in fact represent a far lower proportion of the average household budget than in 1960 before the retail revolution. But that is not enough to sustain prosperity.As Ford and then as unionized GM came to realize, high wages were essential to prosperity. This Walmart has failed to generate."Complete interview here:The Urban Dictionary describes PSD as " Poor, Smart, and a Desire to be rich."This word originated from the Goldman Sachs culture when their corporate philosophy is to hire people who are consider "PSD" types so that they always hire the best talent from Universities.Goldman felt that a person with these qualities will perform the best at their job.GS Managing Director: I interview about 5 candidates today for the analyst position, but only 1 candidate stood out as I feel he is the PSD type."Wal-Mart, like Goldman Sachs, wants PSD types too. But there's a huge difference in the success rate of those that work for Goldman and those that work for Wal-Marts.We need to raise the minimum wage to that of a living wage and that wage depends on the area a person lives in.In New York City, no one can live on $8.25 an hour. But that may be possible in Iowa where rents are far less.When corporations raise the cost of their products and services yearly, and fail to give workers more to buy those products and services they manufacture or produce, the system we call capitalism becomes unsustainable.And it will eventually crash down on itself under it's own weight of it's greed at the top.
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