Intellectual Poison

I used to check my SiteMeter stats compulsively as if those random visitors were ego manna or something. And then something changed and I just stopped caring about my traffic. I'm not sure what did it but it just became unimportant to me. Sure, I'd like 20,000 visitors a day and decent money rolling in from Googles advertising (yes, I'm well aware there are no ads on this blog, that is for a reason).

But I do still check in on my site stats every so often just to get an idea of what's going on.

My hits are up markedly again and, when I checked my referrals, the vast majority of the traffic is coming to read What Every American Needs to Know, a book synopsis about the business evils perpetrated by Wal-Mart written by James Hightower. Which is kind of interesting seeing as how that post is now almost three years old.

But the information is still relevant and important to disseminate. Wal-Mart may be trying to change its spots but its like putting lipstick on a pig, its still a pig underneath. My brother, who's a high powered businessman, takes the position that corporations cannot be evil. But I disagree. The codified business practices, the lawsuits, the exploitations, the stories from previous employees, all of it adds up to a corporation that behaves in a way that is detrimental to America. Maybe that isn't evil but it sure as shit isn't on the side of good.

I will never set foot in one of the stores again and urge everyone I know not to. I understand that there are places where there are literally no other options and hate that reality forces people to shop there.

Anyway, the traffic has been solid for the last couple of weeks and, hopefully, most of the people visiting the page are leaving with some new knowledge about what Wal-Mart represents and does in the course of its business.

Labels: traffic, wal-mart, walmart

The New Yorker: Selling Wal-Mart is long but worth the read to get a better sense of the public relations machinations behind the smiley face.

Written up in more detail at WIPE. But did you know Wal-Mart's average hourly pay for a full time worker is $10.51 and CostCo's is $17.46?

Something to think about. Found via the Grist Mill.

Also, here's another piece from Grist Mill explaining why a big box store like Wal-Mart can't really ever go "green".

Wal-Mart's initiatives have just enough meat to have distracted much of the environmental movement, along with most journalists and many ordinary people, from the fundamental fact that, as a system of distributing goods to people, big-box retailing is as intrinsically unsustainable as clear-cut logging is as a method of harvesting trees.

Labels: ugly business, wal-mart, walmart

The Raw Story reports that Wal-Mart pays itself rent, gets large tax breaks

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest employer and the world's biggest retailer, is regularly paying itself rent and using the transaction to decrease the taxes it pays to state governments, according to a report in this morning's Wall Street Journal.

In one four-year period, Wal-Mart avoided $350 million in taxes using this strategy, which was developed by the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

That's $350 million dollars that they didn't pay, so the rest of us had to. Nice, eh?

The Always Low Prices line they use doesn't take into account all the costs they pass along to the localities and states that they suck on. Make no mistake, Wal-Mart has nobody's but their own interests at heart. Its not like Wal-Mart can't afford to pay their fair share of taxes, they just do whatever they can to dodge as much as they can for as long as they can. If they could get away with using slave labor, they would (oops, they do, but its overseas and well out of our sight). Shop at Wal-Mart and you are directly contributing to and condoning their business model and practices. Is saving thirty cents on a bottle of soda worth aiding the erosion of our country? I don't think so.

Tags: Wal-Mart, WalMart, rent scheme, $350 million, deceit

Labels: deceit, rent scheme, wal-mart, walmart