There truly are things going on in this country that you simply couldn't make up. If this were in a work of fiction, would you believe it?
Food donation boxes are a common holiday-season sight in supermarkets. Boxes for store employees to donate food for other store employees in need? That's more of a surprise, but it's exactly what can be found in a Canton, Ohio, Walmart:
“Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner,” read signs affixed to the tablecloths.
The food drive tables are tucked away in an employees-only area. They are another element in the backdrop of the public debate about salaries for cashiers, stock clerks and other low-wage positions at Walmart, as workers in Cincinnati and Dayton are scheduled to go on strike Monday.
via Daily Kos
Maybe those employees need the extra help because their food stamps are being cut in order to fund more tax breaks for the Walton Family. The sad fact is that outrages like this are becoming so commonplace that we accept them almost unthinkingly. I'll repeat a suggestion I made a while ago. Walmart has one weakness. It can't pack up and go elsewhere, and if it does, good riddance. Each state that cares about its people, even a little bit (translation: blue states) should impose a tax on any corporation employing 50 or more people if more than 15% (or some other appropriate percentage) of those employees require public assistance, including cash payments, Medicaid, and food stamps. We should, at the least, be able to recover the subsidies we are giving to Walmart.
It' stories like this that make me regret having lost my religion. One could take at least some cold comfort from believing that the Waltons will burn for eternity once they have departed this planet they have done so much to despoil. Alas, that will not happen, so we can only hope against hope that someday they will suffer here on earth.
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