Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

August 18, 2006 By Fausta

The war . . . on Wal-Mart

The Democrat party has proven that it has zero ideas on how to fight the war on Islamic fascism, so they have to come up with something. The latest gimmick, led by Joe Biden, is to launch a war . . . on Wal-Mart, the US’s largest employer, for what Joe considers to be “substandard wages and health care benefits”.

Here again we have yet another case of people who’ve never had real jobs trying to dictate to people who actually have to break a sweat for a living what’s good for them.

While there’s no Wal-Mart in The Principality (Princeton & Princeton Township), there’s a Wal-Mart with Princeton address. Princeton address means that there are several adjacent towns using Princeton instead of the actual name of their town because Princeton is considered a prestige address.

Even when I prefer to splurge in other things, I certainly shop at Wal-Mart for appliances and household goods. They have good selection, and their products are a good value. Mind you, there are some in The Principality that’d rather die than admit that they shop at Wal-mart, but the Wal-mart parking lot is full and lines are long at the cash registers.

While probably not many residents of The Principality work at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart provides a good-paying salary for unskilled labor in Mercer County.

Do I mean to say that $10 – $13/hr is good pay in this part of the country? Absolutely.

Many people from another, less prestigious part of Mercer County work at Wal-Mart. Many of them come from Trenton, particularly from bighted areas of Trenton. Most of those employees had no previous work experience and no skills.

For a person with no work experience to find an entry-level job with starting pay of $10-$13/hr AND benefits, plus a chance of promotion, working Wal-Mart is definitely an attractive option. The premises are safe, clean, air-conditioned and within an easy commute. Wal-Mart even has arranged for buses to transport their employees to and from work.

For older workers, Wal-Mart offers jobs to seniors who are looking for part-time work and contact with the public.

The Husband points out that the salaries and working conditions are competitive for the area: When Wal-Mart first announced it was opening this store, applicants formed long lines to apply. To this day, every time Wal-Mart advertises for jobs many applicants apply for each job.

I’ve worked in retail and it’s a perfectly honorable job. I assure you that it’s not menial work. (BTW, skilled menial work can pay very well — butlers can start with salaries in the low six figures, but I digress).

An additional benefit to Wal-Mart’s presence in Mercer County is that its store has improved competition in the area, and attracted other low price stores, such as Target, which opened a store in the same shopping center.

Can you find a more counterproductive way to waste your time, Joe? Instead of criticizing a “potent symbol of corporate excess,” why don’t you start looking at government excess and how to curtail it?

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