If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything

So, I try to keep most of my opinions to myself (yeah, that's right, there actually is a lot that I don't say...shocking, I know) but I also really appreciate people that give me a new perspective or tell me something that will help me live a better, more thoughtful life. So here goes-

Wal-Mart won. For those of you that don't live in Lawrence or that do live in Lawrence...just under a rock...Wal-Mart has been fighting with the city for years to build a super center over on the west side. The city fought a "good" fight but in the end corporate greed won out and the "compromise" that they reached was that Wal-Mart could upgrade to a super center at their current location and a regular Wal-Mart on the west side. It is outrageous to me that a company would blatantly dismiss the wishes of a city and force a city to spend millions dollars in taxes to fight the them in court but what is even more outrageous is that even after all of that people will still shop there.

I know that Americans love a bargain. I am just as poor and in debt as the next guy so I understand that....but please, have some principles. Wal-Mart is destroying our country. A small company run by a local person cannot compete with ultra cheap prices. They pay their employees crap. Their insurance is a joke. I don't remember the statistics but something like 70% of their employees are on some sort of federal assistance. They close down stores that threaten unionization. They unfairly promote males over females and 80% of what they sell is cheap, poorly made crap from China-a communist country that allows child labor, mistreats their employees, and puts lead paint into children's toys to make them shiny. To quote Bill Maher "Over the past few months Americans have learned an important lesson of supply and demand. If you demand products that don't cost anything, people will make them out of poison, mud and shit."

And if you are still certain that you cannot afford to shop anywhere else consider this money saving idea---buy less stuff! Then can afford to spend more money of the stuff you actually need. And it is better for the environment too.

Off my soapbox...for now. And for a good laugh watch this {some of his jokes are a little over the top, but I still love him}-