America Must Stop Subsidizing Evil And Greed Of Walmart And Others

By Manifesto Joe

I think we just had, in effect, a U.S. plebiscite on whether the American people want continued plutocracy, as we have known it for decades, or at long last some more populist alternative. Now comes time to look more closely at how the institutions that make up this country actually operate, and there's one huge corporate one in particular needs a good and proper ass-kicking.

Walmart is profiting, to the tune of billions annually, from government handouts. Their corporate welfare is mainly "indirect": In some locations, as many as 80% of their "associates" are food-stamp recipients. Since the pay at such corporate wage-slave institutions is so low, their hapless "associates" have no recourse to feed their families and themselves other than to turn to the federal government. This is a subsidy: The government puts up money to help Walmart's wage slaves eat, and therefore the taxpayers subsidize this evil corporate giant.

I recall one Walmart wage slave who heard something about me being a newspaper journalist, and stupidly said, "Oh, do you mean those nasty, biased people who suppress opinions?" or something to that effect. I stopped myself from commenting snidely about the general intelligence of Walmart associates, but did venture that I thought he probably wasn't being paid enough. "I can always go somewhere else," was his moronic reply.

Oh, did he mean, like, McDonald's, or Yum! brands, or Wendy's? An awful lot of their employees are on food stamps, too -- and Medicaid, and SCHIP programs. In other words, these companies are all getting "indirect" federal and state subsidies.

Here's a link about the Walmart situation. And here's yet another that accounts for "rival" companies.

It is especially painful for me to recall my encounter with the imbecile at Walmart, who characterized himself as "middle-of-the-road" politically (by Fox News standards?). It is very sad to see people getting reamed in their asses by porno-star-size peckers, and yet they don't even know, don't even seem to have a clue, about who's on the other side of the member. Not even while the violator is leering in their faces.

The recent protests at certain Walmarts show that some of their pathetic dupes at least know what's being done to them. Unfortunately, it isn't enough. A general strike that actually had the participation of more than 50% of the U.S. workforce would be the basic requirement. And, unfortunately, there are enough cretinous dildos like that checker I once encountered in a Walmart that nothing like that will ever happen. True, I have always had the option of never shopping there. But from what I've heard, the treatment of employees at their "rivals" is about the same, so there would be little point in voting with my feet in that way.

As a start, federal and state governments have got to start TELLING these vicious corporate rapists that they know what's happening. Then, they need to start outlining steps that can be taken to stop it. The idea that such people are "job creators" is ludicrous mendacity. People are unable to live on the meager wages that these greed-crazed plutocrats pay.

Would prices go up? Oh, certainly, at first. That's when you start hitting the pond scum with confiscatory taxes, so that they can't just go on pocketing the profits they would get from higher prices. Will they go elsewhere? Oh, of course they will threaten to do so. But what other viable country in the world would tolerate such evil and greed?

It's time to start kicking their evil, greedy corporate asses, hard and ceaselessly. This sort of trashy scum is destroying America just as surely as any terrorist network could ever hope to.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Sign Of The Times: Company Has Gotten Rich Helping Employers Fight Jobless Claims

By Manifesto Joe

A St. Louis-based company has gotten rich, and is getting richer, one of the old-fashioned ways: They profit off other people's misfortunes.

The Talx Corp. reportedly handles over 30 percent of the nation's unemployment claims, with a list of corporate clients that, The New York Times says, "reads like a roster of Fortune 500 firms."

How does this company handle jobless claims? Well, it helps the erstwhile employer fight every one it possibly can, for a fee. It's like the hired gun in Shane, famously played by Jack Palance, who is brought to town by the cattle baron to kill off a few homesteaders, with the expectation that the rest will soon turn yellow and leave the valley.

Here's a link to the entire NYT online report.

Of course, they don't prevent everybody from getting unemployment benefits. But Talx is paid to shoot first and ask questions later. They make a basic policy of contesting anything and everything, creating disastrous delays. In a certain number of cases, the would-be claimants do indeed become discouraged by the legal roadblocks, and just quit. A certain percentage of the "homesteaders" do turn yellow, and that is just what the Talx Corp.'s clients in Corporate America are betting on.

Even when the claimants doggedly hang on and eventually get their bare subsistence in benefits, the delays can bring on catastrophes. Check out the part of the NYT article on one former Walmart employee. He eventually won, but the legal maneuvering cost him plenty. He had to give up his apartment and move in with his sister.

So, how do Talx employees sleep at night, knowing, as they surely must, that they are deliberately undermining a crucial strand of the already-meager U.S. social safety net?

The NYT reporter wouldn't ask that, of course, even if the company had authorized anyone to talk to the paper. But I've often wondered that about folks like, say, insurance adjusters as well. I assume that they are paid well enough to afford plenty of Ambien and/or single-malt Scotch.

With a big recession upon us, the tide may be turning. Talx has been raking it in this way for eight years, but the courts and a few states led by Wisconsin have taken action to curb some of the abuses.

In hard times, the American people need a populist champion to step up and lead the fight against this amoral corporate hired gun.

Shane, come back.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.