Wal-Mart CEO's million dollar photo-op

[KvHagedorn]

I heard that Wal-Mart gave a whole million dollars out of their year-to-date profits of over $11 BILLION toward the Katrina relief effort. About an hour later the same news network announced that the CEO of Wally World would be interviewed. Missed the interview, unfortunately. Anyone see this calculated exercise to humanize the corporate beast in action?

[Sasq]

read

http://forums.murc.ws/showpost.php?p=552690&postcount=31

thank you, have a good day.

[KvHagedorn]

Ah, my bad.. thanks very much for the water and ice, and for stocking your stores up with food and stuff aplenty to take advantage of the utter lack.. for those who still have money.

[Jessterw]

So you're heading down there to help with relief efforts then, yeah? No... then you've donated to a relief fund?

[KvHagedorn]

Talk to somebody with the means to do so.

[Jessterw]

You know the saying, "Put up or shut-up"

Everyone has the means to do something, you just choose not to because in some way it might inconvenience you.

I'm sure you have some spare change...

http://www.coinstar.com/US/html/A-home

Maybe one of these...

http://www.coinstar.com/cgi-bin/mqlocator.exe?screen=find&link=results&linktype=results&smap=map&queryIconid=11&queryUseOrigin=1&queryCenterOrigin=1&queryMax=5&searchtype=origin&sqlcol1=PRODUCTS_AS_STRING&sqlcnd1=contains&country=US&city=Temple&state=TX&province=&zip=&sqlval1=%25&queryRadius=5

[KvHagedorn]

And what about you? Assuming I had about $6000 in disposable income over the past year (which is an amusing thought) Okay, I will give 54 cents to the relief effort. That's the equivalent percentage that the aforementioned "corporate person" gave out of their fat purse. But with their superior logistics, I'm sure they will make that back by having shipped extra stuff down there so they can sell it all to the homeless who kept their credit cards dry.

[Jessterw]

Yes, I've donated. If I was able I would also be down there helping with the relief effort, just as I did when Homestead was hit in Florida so many years back. For reference I am the sole provider for a family of five.

It is not about matching what the big corporations do on an equivalent percentage basis, it's about doing the best you can so that you can have the moral right to even open your mouth about such things. The fact is, Walmart gave something, that's more than a lot of companies even think about doing. Sure it may be a good public-image booster, but something is better than nothing, and when you've just lost your home and damn near everything you own... well, you don't really care about the reasons why someone is donating. Just ask the 100 or so people who have taken residence in the hotels here because they have no where else to go at the moment.

[KvHagedorn]

I think you have arrived at my point.. see, when you or I or a small business owner donate, it is out of a sense of decency. When a megacorp donates, it is not ALLOWED to do so out of decency. The only reason they can donate is for publicity in the pursuit of profit. Now, how many people has Wal-Mart driven into the kind of poverty that would not allow them to flee a category 5 hurricane which is headed straight for them, except perhaps by foot? Who can say?

There is another levee breech that has been around for some time now.. the one that has dollars and jobs pouring into China and India so that big corporations can avoid paying even the insufficient minimum wage here.

Remember what I said about WW3 about a week ago? It's looking much closer now than then.

[Jessterw]

Corporations have to toe two lines, one that involves their involvement with the community and the other that involves their making profit. Sometimes these are intertwined, sometimes not. In this case I believe they are one in the same. Walmart donates money, serving their commitment to the community and also giving them an outlet for additional publicity that serves their drive for continued profit.

I'm sorry, but no one is in poverty because of Walmart. Sure small businesses sometimes go out of business because of a Walmart being nearby, but if those people are so desperate they can get a job at the Walmart (pride be damned). The people who stayed in NO did so because they were either physically unable to leave or they were too damned ignorant to realize that a f* hurricane was barreling towards them. Of course maybe they won't be so poor now selling the boxes of Nikes they just looted.

You've still missed my point that while you bitch and moan about the big, bad corporations you do nothing yourself to prove you are any different.

[KvHagedorn]

It's not the corporations that are evil.. they are nothing but mindless machines in search of profit. The evil is in those who serve willingly as their apologists.. usually that is their paid stooges in government, but today that is YOU, my friend. You defend a practice by which small business owners are ruined and now get to go work for wal-mart as a min wage checker? You defend a practice which allows a virtual monopoly to dictate terms to manufacturers, telling them to close factories and move to China or else? What the hell IS it with folks here? Are we all so brainwashed that we willingly lie down in front of a train at the whim of the very rich? There IS no higher purpose at risk here. There is good capitalism and bad capitalism. Multinational corporations are the latter. That's about as plain as it gets. Unless the majority of Americans can wake up and figure out that we are not fighting "Godless communism" anymore, and that criticism of a mindless corporate machine isn't (and never was) blasphemy, we are all screwed.

My point is, and you cannot prove otherwise, that there is no such thing as community service when it comes to corporations. Any such programs are extremely limited, and exist solely for the purpose of self-promotion. As such, the corporation will spend $10,000 for a camera crew to come and film the CEO handing a poor child a quarter. That's the way of things there.. there is and has been far more community service from privately held firms, which do not have to answer (by LAW) to the stockholders in the form of striving only for short term monetary gains to the exclusion of all else.

[Helevitia]

What would you say if they didn't donate?

Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

My company, Cisco Systems, donated 1million dollars as well. They are also matching dollar for dollar up to 1million of what Cisco employees put in. So far Cisco employees have donated $250,000. Does this make Cisco a cold, calculated evil corportation too? What about all of the other companies that donated 1million dollars? They must all be evil.

You think this is the only time Walmart or Cisco or anyone else donates money? The Walmarts and Ciscos of the world donate tons of money all year long every year to a bunch of different charities and organizations. I can't speak for other companies but I can tell you that the VP's and Directors donate tons of their own money each year and challenges it's employees to donate as well. On top of that, Cisco matches whatever we put in. Does that sound so evil? You know, sometimes you gotta wear the other persons shoes to walk the walk, because we know everyone can talk the talk.

[Umfriend]

Not that I would know anythingabout these things, but the comparison of 1 mln of WM vs 0.54 out of 6,000.- personal income is irrelevant. A company is not a private person. In fact, it is very easy for a CEO to make himself popular by spending Other Peoples Money on whatever he wants. The fact is, the profits belong to the shareholders and it is up to them how much they donate out of this.

Moreover, I do wonder whether there have not always been people to poor to escape disaster. Not that I'd say it's good they are there, just that maybe WM isn't to blame for that.

[Jessterw]

Sigh. I am far from an apologist. I am however a realist. You lose your job, you get a new job. I'm defending the fact that life sucks and things change. If you're not flexible and you can't adapt them you're going to get steamrolled.

This, however, is all a distraction to the real problem we have here, and that is your griping about a company donating money to help with relief efforts. Who cares why they did it, they did it. I don't see you griping about MS only donating $1 million to the relief efforts, or that so many other American companies haven't lifted a finger. You can dislike Walmart all you like, but don't get all pouty and cynical when they are doing more than you've even thought about doing.

My question for you is this, are you going to take the spare change you have to one of those coin machines I so happily linked you to (thank you) so you can donate? Or maybe you have some canned goods you can donate. Hell, grab some of those playboys and donate them. We all need some good wanking sometime

[KvHagedorn]

Well, now that was cute. The one thing I have found that I can be sure of.. when I start to upset a lot of people, I am probably on the right track. Adaptability is a good thing I suppose, but you are inferring that the system that enables multinational corporations to rape and pillage is as inevitable as the tides or any other force of nature.. the noises of one so used to being a serf he just goes with the flow of the lash..

It's a shame there is not really any free enterprise anymore.. banks don't lend money to small business when they assume they can't make it competing against megacorps, and the SBA will only loan to minorities or women.

This world is a really pathetic place, and unless those who live in it wake up and understand that it needs some major structural changes, my fifty cents to flood victims is worth nothing.