WALLY WORLD Employment Application

[Mustang]

I don't see why you guys are slamming Wal Mart but not all these smaller, supposedly innocent companies. Your local independent grocery stores and resturants don't give their workers higher wages than Walmart does, nor are they not motivated by greed. So almost all capitalist enterprises, Walmart or otherwise, are "evil" if you want to look at it that way.

What disturbs me is how Americans abuse soo many people in the world and don't even care. It's soo distant and unfamiliar that it almost seems surreal from our point of view, but the West has de facto enslaved many third-world workers. Tin miners in the Congo must mine tin in totally unsafe working conditions, haul it literrally a hundred miles on their back to market, only to have their employers sell it for five times the employee's wage. It's true that the miners took the job out of their own free will, but only because they had no other way to feed their family. Technically they aren't legally slaves, but tell me, is that the way it really works? In Columbia, several employees at Coca-Cola bottling plants tried to unionize once. Shortly afterward, many of their family members suspiciously "dissapeared". The heads of the bottling plants euphemistically denied that they did anything, but at least when the unions dissolved the attacks ended. Hershey's chocolate makes use of cocoa provided by African slave plantations. Yes, real, legal slaves. Of course, not many Westerners even know about how much pain they cause, and don't really care. There are certain companies that make a point of only buying from factories that have safe working conditions, and they sell shoes for $80 (you could buy them from a sweatshop for 1/4 of that). These are only A FEW examples of what happens in the world. And we won't even get into the meat industry and animal abuse.

Leslie is right about how the need for money is overrated. The fact is, we spend money not because we gain something from it, but just because we have money and might as well spend it. Sure, plasma screen TVs are expensive, but there are plenty of other, cheaper things that you could do other than watching TV that would be even more fun. Talk with friends, play sports, whatever. What do you think people did before they had all the crap we do today? Were they unhappy? No. In fact, they were much more content than we are today. It's okay to buy stuff. Just only purchase what you genuinely think will make you happy. You really don't get any extra happiness by buying four SUVs and a remodeled kitchen, because you will quickly take them for granted.

This dosen't mean that we should turn America into an omish commune. A wealthy nation allows for more money to be sent to things like foreign aid and healthcare. All I'm saying is that money, up to a certain minimum point, does not equal hapiness.