Living Wages

Credit: Our Walmart

A study just released by Dēmos indicates that Wal-Mart could pay an average annual wage of $25,000 if it just halted the practice of buying back its stock at a cost of billions of dollars per year. This buy-back mostly benefits current stockholders, particularly the heirs of founder Sam Walton, who in 2009 owned about 42% of the company. A direct result of this siphoning of profits into the coffers of the have-mores is the sad tale of a Wal-Mart in Canton, OH where employees have set up donation bins at the Thanksgiving season to collect food from employees for distribution to other employees in need.

How extreme must the contrasts become before the Waltons realize that sharing wealth is a sustainable approach and hoarding wealth isn't? Perhaps, when their employees are so poor that they can't afford to shop in their own stores?

But pragmatism shouldn't be the primary impetus towards economic justice. I can say the following without qualification or hesitation: if you can afford to pay your employees a living wage, it is immoral not to do so.

Bravo, Chipotle

This short film, titled The Scarecrow, was designed as an advertisement for the fast-food restaurant Chipotle to promote its policy against factory farming. I find it heartening to see a company with such credibility among aficionados of fast and filling fare taking such a stance and implementing it as policy. While I strive (mostly with success) towards vegetarianism, I know that I live in a world where people of good conscience don't necessarily share my concerns about the consumption of animal products. However, I do think that this video's raising of meat-eaters' consciousness along with Chipotle's tactic of making meat an optional ingredient instead of the heart and soul of its dishes are helping to make us a less meat-centric and inhumane society. Bravo.