Wal-Mart Hate and Deaf Aldermen
Is there anybody left in America who has not had to suffer through some liberal's rants about the evils of Wal-Mart?
The hatred for Wal-Mart is difficult for most of us to understand. I get the arguments about Wal-Mart's heavy-handedness with their vendors, and I wish they would import less items that are made in China. I also grok the notion that $75 per hour would be a nice living wage for a Wal-Mart greeter. Wal-Mart will always be heavy-handed with vendors (it's all legal), China is cheaper (they don't have piggish union members demanding $75 per hour) and $75 per hour is just too damned much even for a greeter.
What I don't get is the holier-than-thee attitude by anti-capitalist hate mongers who prefer to have people on the public dole and, therefore, at the mercy of the government. For those people to be earning their own way and not dependent on government and politicians is ... ah, so, that's it. Wal-Mart haters crave control, not to mention a need for communal reinforcement of their own elitism and a pychotic form of chronic schadenfreude.
Penn and Teller put this in perspective brilliantly. See Penn and Teller's report about Wal-Mart hate, Part 1 (Advisory: Language) (Note to Chicagoans: In Part 2 Joe Moore, 49th Ward Ald. and toadie of the SEIU and ACORN, is ripped to shreds within the first minute of the video.)
So, we know the prime motivations of most Wal-Mart haters. Some of those haters are Chicago alderman. The Chicago Tribune notes this in a recent editorial:
We know organized labor wants to keep Wal-Mart from expanding in Chicago. But what do the aldermen's constituents want?
The answer is clear: They want the opportunity to work or shop at Wal-Mart.
A new Tribune/WGN poll found that 68 percent of city residents would like to see a new Wal-Mart store in Chicago, and 72 percent say Wal-Mart would be good for the community. The support is even higher with African-Americans, who stand to gain the most economic benefit from the proposed South Side store. The poll found 72 percent of African-Americans want Wal-Mart in the city and 81 percent say it would be good for the community.
Surely, even the sub-par intellects on Chicago's City Council must have been aware of this widely held sentiment among their constituents even before the Trib spoon fed it to them.
Certainly, since the spoon feeding, all of the aldermen are now aware of it, and we can be confident that they will go along with the wishes of the people they represent, right?
The Tribune answered that question. It was including with the spoon feeding:
But the aldermen aren't listening to their constituents. The unions provide money and troops at election time. Apparently the aldermen have decided that keeping the labor bosses happy is more critical than following the wishes of their citizens.
Ah yes, money. That's another motivation. "I Hate Wal-Mart" t-shirts sell well among the feeble-minded, and union bosses pay - excuse me, contribute to - politicians very generously to help them fight Wal-Mart. For the bosses, it's both power and the prospect of more dues, which would allow them to pad their piggish salaries, extracted every month from members' pockets, even more. That doesn't help union members, it doesn't help the unemployed, it doesn't help the tax revenue stream.
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