Novelist Stephen Elliot, writing at The Huffington Post, takes a “progressive” look at Wal-Mart’s hurricane relief efforts and decides (surprise!) that it’s just not socialist enough for his tastes:
Now think about this. Wal-Mart’s sales in for 2003 were $245 Billion. Lee Scott, The CEO of Wal-Mart receives an annual paycheck of $30 million, twice what the company donated to the Bush-Clinton Katrina fund. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million associates, the largest employer in America. 34,000 displaces workers is nothing to this company. Couldn’t Wal-Mart do more than put them back to work in Alaska? Couldn’t Wal-Mart afford to give these workers a month or two off, with pay?
Not to confuse things here, Stephen, but couldn’t Arianna afford to do more than pay you to piss on the charitable largesse of Wal-Mart? Like, say, gather up all the “refugees” and get them a nice table at Le Cirque? But I digress.
Please, continue.
It’s like a cruel joke. Gross profits of $65 Billion, a net income of $10 Billion. Workers turning to the state to provide health care and other services they can’t afford on a Wal-Mart paycheck. And Wal-Mart’s response to their employees? We’ll see you at work next week. And oh, if you’re home is completely destroyed, we’ll give you up to $1,000 to help with the transition. Of course, if you’re home isn’t flooded, if you’re just locked out of your city because it’s under quarantine, or all the services are down for a hundred miles, then tighten your belt, get in your car and drive. Drive far enough from the Gulf and find yourself a Wal-Mart, they’re ready to put you to work. Of course you’ll be sleeping in your car for a while, or an evacuee shelter. Probably a long while. But at least you’ll still get your minimum wage every two weeks hanging shirts in aisle six.
It wouldn’t bankrupt this company by any means to put half a billion dollars into the relief effort, including paying their displaced employees and giving them some much needed time off.
It should hardly need pointing out that those “gross profits” of Wal-Mart are distributed to shareholders in the company—most of them Americans (many of them Wal-Mart employees) who then in turn take that money and use it as they see fit, which in many cases means making large charitable donations that don’t come directly from Wal-Mart the corporation.
But that’s beside the point. Because what is so remarkably imbecilic about this piece of anti-corporatist agit prop is that it literally belittles an American company for providing 1.6 million jobs, for giving over $20 million in direct relief aid (a figure that doesn’t include the $34 million in displaced worker stipends, the $4 million collected from the public in Wal-Mart stores, use of Wal-Mart facilities and its distribution fleet (the best in the world), the manpower hours (both paid and volunteer) involved in aiding the relief efforts, their policy of pre-staging for disaster relief (which insures an instant response), the 150 computers donated to shelters, nor the free products available to those in the hardest hit areas).
Yet instead of appreciating Wal-Mart’s efforts, Elliot views their charity as not quite enough for his elitist tastes (he might have thought to measure the financial relief and job security given to Wal-Mart employees against that available to employees of other businesses that have, well, simply ceased to be, but then, that would ruin a fine anti-capitalist rant), and to prove his point, he notes simply that the head of that corporation makes a lot of money, that the company itself makes a lot of money, and that, because all this money is being made—for providing affordable goods and services, let’s not forget; Wal-Mart and it’s CEO and shareholders aren’t stealing the money—we should be disturbed by their response to Katrina.
But when Sean Penn brings a camera crew and a personal photographer down to LA to film himself rowing his little boat in the floodwaters—which provides him the platform for yet another anti-Bush screed—we’re to consider him heroic?
Such an asinine argument, of course, relies on the inveterate anti-corporate bias held by so many “progressives,” people who, it is almost certainly the case, are able to convince themselves that huge corporations like Wal-Mart, rather than being large, multi-unit companies run by thousands of their fellow Americans and invested in by millions more of their fellow Americans, are somehow the civilian, marketplace equivalent of Black Ops operations, with greedy moguls acting as rogue generals, hiding in lush, dimly lit offices, smoking cigars and thinking of ways to fleece the public (by providing low-cost products, presumably; does their evil ever CEASE?).
Elliot’s condescending “concern” over the fate of rank-and-file Wal-Mart workers is belied by his dismissive description of what it is they do (“hanging shirts in aisle six” for “minimum wage”), but this is precisely the “progressive rub”—something that comes through in every single one of these faux populist corporate critiques: they pretend to care about the “people,” when in point of fact, they despise them. Because it is these very “minimum wage” shirt hangers who, in time, move up within the company ranks and become the petit bourgeois ”managers” that people like Elliot wouldn’t invite to one of their cocktail parties even if you promised to throw in a couple of C-list movie stars and a Vanity Fair columnist to sweeten the deal.
Me, I’m very grateful to the efforts of Wal-Mart—and all the corporate givers—who are under no obligation to do a single thing to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
But then, I’m not a “progressive,” either.
(h/t Allah)
The inexpensive products Wal-Mart sells makes it possible for me to live on my tiny stipent. I guess that means I’m not a “progressive” either.
I’ve just had a wonderful idea. Get in touch with the HuffPo and start up an online petition stating that we all promise to buy more things at Wal-Mart if those dastardly executives promise to charge enough to give all of their displaced workers room and board at the Caesar’s Palace until they have the stores rebuilt. Then they should keep their prices high enough so that all employees have health care, Sharper Image massage recliners in the break room, and two week trips to the south of France every year.
After all, everyone must do their part in acheiving social justice.
TW: last; After writing that last bit, I’m going to shower in lye to get rid of the ookies.
WalMart – The Ultimate Evil!
Let’s destroy the engine that runs this jalopy so that we can ALL walk. Equality of misery forever (except for the elites like Mr. Idiot – oops! excuse me. Mr. Elliot)! Sometimes I find myself missing the Soviet Union – at least we had a concrete object lesson to point at when imbeciles like this wax poetic about the evils of Capitalism. Perhaps we should set aside a state for these intellectual hunter/gatherers where anything that has metal, plastic or meat in it is banned. Pie would be OK, though.
There’s actually very little evidence that public largesse by corporations enhances shareholder value in any way. Cummins Engine practically built an entire city in Indiana and look what it got them.
To the extent Wal-Mart is acting as a fiduciary steward, or stand-in for its shareholders, I think its contribution is fine. Given that lots of Wal-Mart shareholders are themselves no doubt giving to hurricane relief, the company’s behavior is consistent. Even better, it gets a big tax deduction that many of its wealthier shareholders would be limited in taking, therefore it’s also an efficient means of giving.
The Wall Street Journal had an editorial two days ago that would put a rest to the bullshit from the Huffblow you just posted Jeff..since it’s short and you need a subscription to read it, I’ll put it here..
Private FEMA
September 8, 2005; Page A18
In time we’ll find out what went wrong after Katrina hit, but it’s not too early to start drawing attention to what went right. Near the top of any list should be the remarkable response of the business community. It’s had a lot to do with the relief effort’s successes.
The straightforward generosity of the corporate sector has been well reported. By last count, donations had exceeded $200 million. Besides cash, companies have handed out free drugs, suspended finance payments on cars and mortgages and helped emergency personnel with equipment. As interesting, though, has been the application of corporate best practices—from supply-chain management to logistics—to a natural disaster.
The private-sector planning began before Katrina hit. Home Depot’s “war room” had transferred high-demand items—generators, flashlights, batteries and lumber—to distribution areas surrounding the strike area. Phone companies readied mobile cell towers and sent in generators and fuel. Insurers flew in special teams and set up hotlines to process claims.
This planning allowed the firms to resume serving customers in record time. Katrina shut down 126 Wal-Mart facilities; all but 14 are now open. Entergy, the power company for 1.1 million households and businesses that lost electricity, had restored electricity by Monday to 575,000 customers, including areas of flooded New Orleans.
Businesses offered near-instant support to their own employee-victims. Staff set up hotlines and began tracking down missing workers. Thousands of workplace victims were provided with places to stay, promises of continued pay and even offers of replacement jobs elsewhere in the country.
At the heart of the corporate response was a stunning array of advanced communications networks that kept firms in touch and coordinating. Following on last year’s tsunami aid effort, the Business Roundtable had by August of this year arranged for each of its 160 member companies to designate a disaster relief point man. These folks were in place and ready to help before Katrina made landfall. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, through its non-profit Center for Corporate Citizenship, became a clearinghouse, fielding calls from many of its 3,000 state and local organizations and compiling lists of needed supplies.
By the weekend the Chamber’s CCC was turbo-charging a new computer program, designed by tech firm i2, which served as a kind of bridal registry for needed relief supplies. Each donor company indicated what order it would fill, avoiding duplication or delay. IBM got to work on a computerized job bank to help place those who’d lost work. The American Trucking Association set up a Web site to update everyone on road conditions.
Companies then focused on doing what each did best. In some cases it was simply ramping up operations, as with Black & Decker, whose employees worked Labor Day weekend to churn out extra generators. In other cases, it was firms using their modern logistical skills to get into hard hit areas. FedEx and other delivery companies used computer systems with designed-in flexibility to reroute vehicles and adjust flights to get in aid. FedEx has already moved more than 100 tons of relief supplies.
Wal-Mart mined its vast databases of past purchases to compile lists of goods most desired after a hurricane. (Among the top items? Strawberry pop tarts.) Because of its advance logistics planning, the big retail chain was able to quickly move in to devastated areas with mini Wal-Marts to hand out goods. Other firms leveraged similar supply-chain capabilities; Pfizer dispensed pharmaceuticals via Wal-Mart and other retailers. “What companies do is solve problems,” says Johanna Schneider, an executive director at the Business Roundtable.
Granted, a FEMA is never going to operate with the agility of a FedEx. FedEx and the others perform at this level 24/7; that’s the nature of competition. That said, surely there are lessons here worth learning and attempting to transfer to the public sector. And we don’t mean three years from now after another round of reassessment and performance reviews. The challenge of reconstruction is now. It wouldn’t hurt if the responsible public agencies asked the private participants in the rescue operation for some pointers on getting the next job done on budget and on time.
But Wal-Mart is the true villain here….(shaking head)….
When Elliot demonstrates that he’s donated and equal percentage of his income as Wal-Mart has, I might listen to his complaints. Ohterwise, Elliot, get in line behind the Iraqi soldiers who have given the equivalent of a month’s pay before you denigrate any donation.
Jeff is in Da Zone this week…
…and he sticks the landing!
The principle feature of American liberalism is sanctimoniousness. By loudly denouncing all bad things – war and hunger and date rape – liberals testify to their own terrific goodness. More important, they promote themselves to membership in a self-selecting elite of those who care deeply about such things… It’s a kind of natural aristocracy, and the wonderful thing about this aristocracy is that you don’t have to be brave, smart, strong or even lucky to join it, you just have to be liberal. – P.J. O’Rourke
I got lost. I couldn’t finish reading it because my anal brain stops focusing when I notice grammatical errors.
34,000 displaces workers is nothing to this company.
And oh, if you’re home is completely destroyed, we’ll give you up to $1,000 to help with the transition. Of course, if you’re home isn’t flooded,
This guys a fucking novelist? Who’s his editor, Barney the Purple Dinosaur?
OK, now I’ve finished reading it, and Jeff’s response. BLAMO! Out of the park, Jeff.
Lydia,
Mr. Elliot expects corporate america to put forth the same herculean efforts for the public good that his editor puts into correcting his work.
You’d think socialists would love Wal-Mart. After all, wasn’t it part of the Soviet Worker’s Paradise that all were made equal by all getting the same lousy compensation for their worked, regardless of whether they were digging ditches or performing brain surgery?
It must be those pesky profits. If Wal-Mart had a massive impoverished workforce and and lost money hand over fist in the process, they would take the place once held by the USSR by adoring wannabe reds in American coffee houses.
” for giving over $20 in direct relief aid (a figure that doesn’t include the $34 million in displaced worker stipends,”
Did you mean $20 million dollars or $20 dollars per 1.6 million employees?
Also note that many of those shareholders are actually Walmart employees and most Walmart associates make more than minimum wage. Of course, picking at all of the factual errors Mr. Elliot has implied for the sake of his progressive rhetoric would be tedious. Almost as tedious as progressive rhetoric itself.
Last night NPR actually broadcast a report about Wal-Mart’s efforts with several testimonials coming from people in the affected areas saying things like “Thank God for Wal-Mart”. Even the NPR correspondent offered praise.
You could have knocked me over with a feather. Was I really hearing NPR reporting on Wal-Mart in a positive light?!?!?! What universe had I suddenly been transported to?
Then it became clear. Wal-Mart’s successes in the relief effort were just a set-up. A foil against which the administration’s (perceived) failures could be juxtaposed.
Ah. Yep. I’m still here on earth.
20 million, Apologist, thanks. Fixed.
DAMN YOUR LOW PRICES!
DAMN THEM ALWAYS!
Wal-Mart has made other than official contributions as well.
If a friend and I are walking down the street, and I stop and give a dollar to a bum, that’s charity.
If my friend sticks a gun in my ear and demands I give him another, that’s not charity.
Another one of those things I can’t figure why it’s so hard to understand.
Mr. Jeff,
Hear! Hear! Hear!
As I raise this bottle of Beck’s to my lips I toast you. There is still hope! As long as there is one voice defending achievement I can go on. I am not alone. You, sir, have earned my respect and admiration. And that is no small matter.
The dfference between you and Mr. Elliot is simple, yet chasms apart. You note the achievements of companies like Wal-Mart and delight in their success – Mr. Elliot notes the achievements of companies like Wal-Mart and despises them for their success.
Our enlightened CEO, Fidel Castro, has rounded up every employee from every Wad-Mart across Cuba and sent them to New Orleans to help in the rescue whether they want to or not! Go Castro!
That’s what I love about the Left: they’re always so busy managing other peoples’ money. Theirs, of course, is another question.
ew: Europe. That’s a joke, right?
Thanks, Tman – that is truly astounding (though on reflection it really isn’t).
All these efforts – unsung in the MSM – bring tears to my eyes. Think of all the people helped, supplies delivered, lives made better.
I’d say that worthless self-centered wanker Elliot and all his ilk can kill my ass, but I haven’t updated my shots lately.
Gross Profits of $65 billion, my ass!
Please, someone provide some basic accounting and economic education to the people of this country.
You know what “gross profits” in the retail industry is? It’s the difference between the amount of what you sold and the cost for you to buy it.
That’s it. Gross profits doesn’t include employee salaries, benefits, trucking, utilities, insurance, IT, marketing and a myriad of other expenses.
When I hear someone emphasizing gross profits when trying to make a financial point, I recognize that the person hasn’t a clue as to what they’re talking about.
Gratitude is too much to expect from his ilk. Sadly, the same applies to decency.
Sure, Arianna Huffington has done good in bringing us pieces like Elliot’s, but has she really done enough? She’s rich. Can’t she, you know, pay us to read the Huffington Post? I think we’d all deserve it.
Strangely enough, those computers Wal-Mart is donating are coming from my company (you know, the one Jarvis wants you to hate), and my current project is tracking down shelters, getting them shipped and arranging to have them installed. As a result, I’ve spent the last five days talking to the people running these shelters which, with what we went through not being able to find my wife’s mother after the storm, hasn’t been a lot of fun.
When you’re on the phone with a parish sheriff named Rickey Lee who sounds like any good rural lawman should sound (think cajun Jack Palance), and the guy actually chokes up when he finds out you’re sending him three pc’s for the 3,000 people he’s trying to care for, it provides a bit of perspective about every little bit helping.
BTW, from the review of Elliot’s novel:
<blockquote>You might not think that a novel that features sexual abuse, drug use, random violence, sadomasochism, gambling and graphic descriptions of an Amsterdam peep show could be described as “winsome,” but such is the strange power of Stephen Elliott’s Happy Baby.</blockquote>
This must be some strange use of the word “winsome” I have not yet encountered.
No shit?
Sorry, no idea why that first BQ didn’t work.
So let me get this straight. In spite of the fact that many of the good people of New Orleans looted Wal-Mart’s stores in the area, Wal-Mart’s CEO decided to donate $17 million dollars to reconstruction. Furthermore, he made sure that all of his affected employees still had a place to work and some money to at least get out of town?
Right. How niggardly of him.
I’m curious to know something a little bit off-topic, though—a piece of advice that I feel Mr. Elliott is uniquely qualified to give. Which is, like, how much should I tip a waiter? Are you a big tipper, Mr. Elliott? I usually tip 15%. And I use a little trick: I drink water in the restaurant when dining with my less-broke dilettante friends, and thus the total cost of my meal is much lower than theirs, because they ordered a Sprite, or a Diet Coke, or maybe one of those “Sex-On-The-Beach” concoctions I see so many of the ribald young ladies ordering, so my 15% tip is actually smaller than their 15% tip. So I guess my question is that since the waiter is doing the same amount of work, filling my water glass, should I tip 20% to make up?
Just curious, Mr. Elliott.
I’m also curious to know how much you donated to Katrina relief. I mean, personally, no, I haven’t donated a damned thing because, like I said, I’m broke. Probably even more broke than you because I’m unpublished. But that’s cool. I’m a slave to my art, right? My writing is a kind of charity, my real gift to mankind, if I say so myself. And I do. So does my girlfriend, and all of our mutual friends, and so does my yogi, who, by the way, they’re all huge fans of Barbara Ehrenreich as well. I read that book of hers and was like: You go, girl. You GO.
So I’m going to think of something to write, right now, something that will make all those people out in NOLA feel warm inside about their shitty, menial existence “hanging shirts on aisle six,” or perhaps “stocking Noxzema in aisle 4.” Maybe something I write will encourage one of them to get off of his ambition-less ass, with Katrina as a waking call, and enroll in junior college, and maybe after that will transfer to Harvard, and after that go to law school, and all this good karma I have will come back lick me in my ass. My tender, pink ass. Because it’s all about momentum, man. Momentum. Karma. All good things. Shit man, I gotta go find my MoleSkine!
Jeff, the stupidity of Elliot’s piece was so immense that I respect the effort it took to read the putrid mess.
But the ripost just nailed it.
Jeff,
Wasn’t Hillary! on the board of Wal-Mart for several years? Doesn’t Tuh-Ray Za own a whopping pile of stock?
Oh, the HYPO..**head explodes**
Once again, another Greg Gutfeld post writes itself.
I finally found a bunch of people who think just like me. Let’s all pat each other on the back and smooch each others asses and talk about how brilliant we are. I’ll correct some grammar… tee hee, and you nibble on my balls. No, YOU’RE the best. What FUN! I never thought I would meet people who are as clever as I am. And I am, I might add, super duper clever. Just like you! You are so totally smart and funny. When is the next group jerkoff of elitest conservatives? Someone invite WalMart because I would love to tickle those titties, if you know what I mean. I love low prices, just like you! See, I’m just like you! I wrote a song called, my Commie-neighbor and I really think you’ll like it because I make fun of, get this, Hilary Clinton… tee-hee and Sean Penn, too. Because lets face it the guy just wants his photo taken. Oh, it’s very funny – JUST LIKE YOU. I love you guys! We’re the best! Yea!
Oh lookie!—another brave “progressive” steps in anonymously to obliquely mock the silly wingnuts without offering a shred of legitimate criticism.
But s/he got to say “tickle those titties” and “jerkoff,” which is like, totally edgy.
Probably finished typing with a handful of jism.
What always amuses me is how smug lefties such as Mr. Elliot and Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are quick to criticize the details the vast relief effort taking place while they themselves have no experience running anything of any complexity well. If we were interviewing candidates to head hurricane relief, are these the folks we would hire? Or even consider?
What exactly has Mr. Elliot run besides his home office?
Tantor
Wal-Mart helped in more ways than one! I’ve always disliked Wal-Mart–primarily because it’s such a pain to get your cart down the aisles and the people who work there are generally rude!
However, as a Louisiana native, we in Baton Rouge were exceedingly comforted when we went into Wal-Mart 2 days after the storm and instead of finding bare shelves we found Wal-Mart was fully stocked. Not only did they have everything in the store except Baby Carrots; nearly every important commodity was on sale. Prices on milk, water, bread and meat were lower than normal. How comforting was that to someone who just had 200,000 people evacuate to her city, had waited in line for over an hour to get gas, and really didn’t know what the future would hold for us?
I will tell you honestly, people sleep much better when they know they can actually find the basic necessities of life. Nothing against our local merchants, but they were out of supplies the Saturday before Katrina struck, because most of us try to prepare by buying supplies before it hits. I personally think Wal-Mart has a lot to do with calming people’s fears and quieting the unrest. One more thing to credit the store with.