Corporate Swine

Wal-Mart, quite possibly the king of corporate swine, have agreed to pay $11 million to avoid any criminal penalties and avoid having to admit that they were wrong in hiring undocumented workers. Yes, this is that same wonderful company that will get advanced warning if the department of labor thinks they are doing something bad.

What does it matter? Wal-Mart's fourth quarter profit was over $3 billion dollars! Does anyone really think an $11 million dollar fine is hurting Wal-Mart? That's just the cost of doing business Wal-Mart style. No biggie. From today's story:

At the time of the raids, the government said they had wiretaps showing that Wal-Mart executives knew the company was using illegal workers. However, as part of the settlement the company will not admit any wrongdoing or liability (emphasis mine).

Have you ever stopped to imagine what it would be like if our society treated you the way it does Wal-Mart? It might go something like this:

The police call you and inform you that they have heard you've been speeding a lot lately. Tomorrow they will be on Main St. waiting to see whether or not you've been speeding.

You, of course, drive by at the appropriate speed and wave to the fine police officers doing their job.

Later, one of the police officers calls you and informs you that unfortunately they have a video tape of you robbing the local bank. Not to worry, though. Simply pay a relatively small fine and you won't even have to admit to any wrong doing. Win win!

But in the real world, we don't get treated like Wal-Mart. And in a sane world, nobody should ever get treated like Wal-Mart. Another article in the Wall Street Journal claims that some of the workers were making as little as $1 an hour!

Documents from a federal investigation of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. suggest that at least three executives at the world's largest retailer knew its cleaning contractors used illegal immigrants who worked as many as seven days a week for less than minimum wage.

| +Save/Share | |