THE DEMOCRATS VS. WAL-MART

Today’s New York Times has an article on the new Democratic Populism – hating Wal-Mart. Senator Joe Biden (D-France), spoke in front of a union rally in Des Moines blasting the Satan that is Wal-Mart. We got the normal litany of complaints about Wal-Mart, they don’t pay enough, they don’t offer enough health insurance, they don’t, they don’t, they don’t blah-blah-blah.

““My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people,” Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. “They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That’s true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?””

Two quick points about the Biden quote. Firstly, if $10.00 an hour offends him so much, why doesn’t he mention what the other retailers are paying? In an article from the Contra Costa Times from last June (which I’m getting from a Wal-Mart bashing site), the average wage of Wal-Mart employees in the Bay Area was equal to that of all the other retailers:

“Wal-Mart said its current average Bay Area hourly wage is $10.82, which compares to a median hourly wage of $10 for cashiers with three years of experience across all non-union retailers in the East Bay, according to the most recent survey by the California Employment Development Department.”

Why not hit Target, Kohl’s and K-Mart? Secondly, and maybe even more importantly, what is “the Middle Class”? We all seem to think we know what the Middle Class is, but no one, even myself can define it? Does it mean a single wage earner, home ownership and 2.3 kids? So, can Biden so lightly refer to the Middle Class without being able to define it? Maybe the Middle Class is like Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography,

“I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it,…”

Meanwhile, back at the Times, the article then goes on explaining how and why the Democrats will use Wal-Mart as a whipping boy in 2008.

““It’s not anti-business,” said Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, a former head of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council, appearing at an anti-Wal-Mart rally on Tuesday. “Wal-Mart has become emblematic of the anxiety around the country, and the middle-class squeeze.””

Ah, the middle class again.

“But Democrats say they are sure they have a message that will resonate. John Edwards, the former North Carolina senator and Democratic vice-presidential nominee in 2004, appeared at an anti-Wal-Mart rally in Pittsburgh two weeks ago. Mr. Edwards said in an interview that his party was not vulnerable to a backlash for this criticism so long as Democrats made clear that their main goal was improving policies for the poor and the middle class.

“Wal-Mart as an example of the problems that exist in America today is a powerful political issue,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “I think our party pretty much across the board agrees that people who work hard should be able to support their families. When a company like Wal-Mart fails to meet its corporate responsibility, it make it impossible for that to occur.””

“[F]ails to meet its corporate responsibility”? Just what is “corporate responsibility”, Mr. Edwards? Let me help you. Corporate responsibility is NOT paying a “living wage”, it is NOT providing health insurance to it’s employees, it is NOT to make campaign contribution to Democrats. Corporate responsibility is to make money for it’s stockholders in a legal fashion. That is it, Mr. Edwards, as you, who are worth millions of dollars and have many, many investments, know and DEMAND. And don’t even get me going about company mission statements…

Back to the Times:

“Democrats say Wal-Mart is a potent symbol of corporate excess. The company earned $11 billion in profit last year, but fewer than half of its employees in the United States are covered by its health care plan, and the average worker earns less than $20,000 a year.”

How many of those more than half of employees who get no insurance through Wal-Mart are covered by health insurance from another source, like a spouse. My wife is covered by my health insurance, so using the Post’s logic, they could say Holiday Inn doesn’t cover any of their sales managers in Manchester.

But perhaps there is another, bigger issue that offends Democrats and their lap-dogs in the elite media:

“In the last election cycle, they note, the company gave 80 percent of its contributions to Republicans. Many of its stores are in Republican-dominated territory in the rural South.”