Waltonville, USA

James and Ethel Windemere walk home from work now. Their new apartment is on the grounds. Tuesday is their day off and they are planning a barbecue with some other associates. They submitted a reservation request for the “Stars-and-Stripes Backyard Common Area” a few weeks ago and are hoping to get the call tonight. Their shopping cart chugs down the narrow, heavily lit street. Bentonville Boulevard is the next left. The little apartments are reminiscent of sci-fi habitats, little pods stacked closely together like a wall of Mars-edition Legos. The Windemeres moved into the new Wal-Mart on-site living community two weeks ago. They keep telling themselves they “can’t afford not to take advantage” of the opportunity. It’s unclear whether they are aware that they are repeating that saying verbatim from the pamphlet:

"Waltonville USA – A new life, a new future. You will literally never have to leave Wal-Mart again. We’ve created the circumstances where you can’t afford not to take advantage of this fabulous opportunity. Trust us – we know what’s best for you."

While this scenario is an exaggeration (though not completely unrealistic or unforeseeable), it is true that Wal-Mart has changed the landscape of American consumerism and exercised viscous business practices to get where they are today.

Where is Wal-Mart today? It averages $10.3 billion a year in pure profits. CEO Lee Scott earned $22 million in stock options and bonuses last year alone. That’s $22 million in bonuses – in addition to his salary.

The following is from the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union website: “In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with 350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today, the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart, with over 1 million U.S. workers. They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension, and inadequate health care.”

Employees today are making less than half of what their parents and grandparents made almost 40 years ago. Even more despicable, Wal-Mart subcontractors in China, Indonesia and Bangladesh make an average of 17 cents an hour. Countries with lax labor laws are a great place to wave the flag of democratic capitalism.

Wal-Mart has found a way to profit, not just from the hard work of their employees, but from their deaths as well. The company has taken out more than 350,000 life insurance policies on its employees, naming itself as the benefactor. And at least 453 deceased employees’ policies have actually been collected on. Class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company in Texas and Oklahoma because of the so-called “dead peasant” policies. The company eventually settled in the Oklahoma case for $5.1 million.

If someone dies, their family should be the only one to collect insurance money. In most cases, the employees and their families were not aware that a policy was taken out. What right does a multi-billion dollar corporation have to collect the life insurance payoff on a near minimum wage employee?

Wal-Mart claims it “regularly spends millions of dollars each year to recruit, screen, train, and retain its employees because its success depends on a trained, experienced work force,” according to the AP, which cited a court document in the Oklahoma case. But according to the UFCW, “more than half of Wal-Mart’s U.S. employees leave the company each year.” That sure doesn’t sound like a satisfied crew of experienced employees to me.

In the end, Wal-Mart has become and is becoming morbidly obese, creating an animal appetite for profit that breaks many unspoken human ethical codes. All laws aside, this company is what writer and activist Naomi Klein describes as the equivalent of a sociopath – morally bankrupt, manipulative and superficially charming, pathologically lying, with a complete lack of remorse, and acting exclusively on self-sustaining instincts.

I hope the Windemeres make it through their stay in Waltonville without too much trouble. I’m sure as long as they stock the shelves during the day and keep to themselves at night they’ll be okay. It turns out they didn’t get approved for their Tuesday barbecue. The “Stars-and-Stripes Backyard Common Area” is going to be used for a seminar called “The Union and You: The Dangers of Organized Labor.” The Windemeres are not sure whether they will attend, but the word on the street is that there will be an abundance of Krispy Kreme donuts and a raffle for a state-of-the-art foot spa.

For inquiring minds:

Harper’s magazine – October 2007

Institute for Policy Studies - www.ips-dc.org

United Food and Commercial Workers International Union - www.ufcw.org

Wal-Mart Watch - www.walmartwatch.com