Walmart: Corporate American Serfdom?

Everyone knows Walmart. We know about the smiley faces and the repeated shedding of price tags on the TV commercials. We all see how happy everyone in the stores appears. The managers and general employees are all smiling. People discuss with bright and shining faces how much you save when you shop at the Sam Walton family's supermarket chain. But are the great savings worth Walmart's recent history of discrimination toward American ethnic minorities and women in various class-action suits? And what about the new talk that the Walton family has given orders to many Walmart general managers to tell individual Walmart managers to then tell their underlings, errr, I mean, "employees", not to vote Democratic?

What does all this mean? Well, with the political race of the 2008 presidential election coming into full effect, the formation of more labor unions has been one thing that the Democratic Party has been associated with; since Walmart employees do not have a union, there are certain liberties that the Walmart powers-that-be can take, and discrimination has come to the forefront out of the misappropriation of certain workers' rights that are absent under the Walmart umbrella (which includes Sam's Club). Theoretically, if Walmart's nationwide legion of workers forms a union, that can send Walmart's profits down--ALL. THE. WAY. DOWN. So in the end, there a certain level of greed that would dictate such a large company like Walmart to send word of their displeasure with employees who might vote Democratic.

On many levels, this is wrong, but categorically, this occurence really just soils the good name of the Walton family. Being a billionaire family already has its own set of difficulties, because of the old saying of "more money, more problems", at least from a monetary standpoint. But now, the Walmart corporation is running the risk of being known as not only racist, but also classist, which makes things really interesting for all knowledgeable and faithful Walmart shoppers on a social level. Do you go there and save big cash, like the commercials advertise? Or do you make a conscious choice of going there or choosing another grocery or supermarket, knowing that there is some sort of known large-scale prejudice in the system?

In the end, many people need to conserve. The American economy is such where families are pinching pennies just find the best deal on a gallon of milk, so Walmart will still be getting its business (albeit grudgingly with those customers in the know), and even Walmart's employees will be needing our business. But I know one thing--I won't be shopping Walmart.