richardf8 | The Ideal Workplace of the New American Century

According to The New York Times(free registration required), Walmart has been locking its overnight workers in, with no way of getting out, and admonishing them never to use the fire exit unless there is an actual fire.

This has resulted in workers who have had workplace injuries, had heartattacks at work, and become sick at work, failing to get medical attention in a timely fashion. In short, this is precisely the kind of work environment American Workers sacrificed life and limb to eliminate in the first half of the 20th Century.

As this nation is now taking steps to dismantle the very regulations that are designed to protect American workers, and to create a new class of workers "to fill jobs that Amercan workers will not fill," it is time to seriously consider if we want America to continue to be a first world nation, or if we want to join the third world, where hoardes of underpaid, cruelly treated workers support a small elite of wealthy criminals. On significant issues like Health Care and Higher Education we are significantly behind countries like Canada and England. Moreover, much of that slippage has happened since 2001.

It is no coincidence that Bush's new immigration proposal followed close on the heels of Wal-Mart getting busted for using illegals as cleaning staff. This is what happens when Big Business owns the political process; you get oligarchic totalitarianism, which is every bit as inimical to the libertarian spirit as, say, communist totalitarianism.

I recently picked up some copier paper and an inkjet cartridge at a 24-hour Wal-Mart around here. Thankfully a 24 hour store can't lock its workers in, but I don't think I'll be going back, anyway.

"Falling Prices" depend, it seems, on:
Falling Wages,
Falling Healthcare, and
Falling Working Conditions

The price of "falling prices" is just too high.