Liberalism makes my head hurt

I still mostly consider myself a liberal, mostly. But some of the liberal arguments make me feel like I'm having a conversation with my students. (No, you're not allowed to swear in class. Yes, 'fuck' is a swear word. No, swearing to god is not a swear word. Yes, you'll get in trouble if you swear that you're going to kill someone, but not because you're swearing.)

I know I said this wouldn't be a political blog, but the New York Times is making me re-think that. The issue that's pissing me off:

Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart stock kind of sucks, especially since it made 312 billion in sales last year alone. 312 billion, people. That's $312,000,000,000. So to raise their stocks they are going to cut down on old workers who make a lot and get health insurance, and move to more part-time younger workers that cost less and have more flexible schedules. Makes sense, right?

Also, the first Wal-Mart in Chicago opened it's doors just a few days ago. More than 15,000 people were vying for the store's 490 jobs. That means that less than 1 in 30 applicants were actually given one of those snazzy blue vests. Common sense would say that Wal-Mart should be able to pay what they need to to get qualified workers. Are they forcing a small group of needy people to earn minimum wage while doing horrific work? Are they evil employers with sweatshop children being paid 5 cents an hour to stock their shelves? No! If 15,000 people want to work at ONE store, they can pay whatever the hell they want to and still get some decent employees (and let's face it, Wal-Mart's standards of a "decent" employee are pretty lenient).

Some complaints in today's NY Times include that workers are forced to work at night sometimes, which interferes with their ability to cook dinner and read to their children. Are you kidding me? You work at Wal-Mart. Just because you have a job doesn't mean you should have complete control in scheduling and wages. You work at Wal-Mart! It's probably open 24 hours! You are not an upper-level manager with a degree in business management. Stop bitching, and if it's so damn bad, quit and find another job. There has already been an ordinance proposed (and vetoed) in Chicago to make Wal-Mart pay their workers $10 an hour by 2010. If all of the 490 employees are upset enough by this to quit, then quit! They'll just go to the remaining 14,510 people who still want to work there.

This is what I've been shoving into my childrens' heads for the last 4 weeks. Without an education, you are guaranteed nothing. You are not guaranteed that you'll be home to read to your kids, or have dinner with your family. You are not guaranteed that if you work 40 hours a week you'll have enough to feed your family and pay all your bills. There is a system, however, that does guarantee you these things regardless of education. It's called communism. And in case you haven't heard, it doesn't work.

Moral of the story: If being employed by Wal-Mart is so horrible, quit. There'll be thousands of people willing to take your place. If you don't like the capitalist system that makes this all possible, move. I hear that Cuba doesn't even have a Wal-Mart, so you'd be good to go on both counts.


Okay, so maybe I'm not a liberal anymore...