{"id":1360,"date":"2013-12-10T23:59:29","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T23:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jlpp.org\/old_blog\/?p=1360"},"modified":"2013-12-10T23:59:29","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T23:59:29","slug":"black-friday-the-waltons-and-the-working-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/2013\/12\/10\/black-friday-the-waltons-and-the-working-class\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Friday, the Waltons, and the Working Class"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"C\/o<\/a>
C\/o Wikimedia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\nGeorge H.W. Bush once hilariously declared<\/a> that he would try to \u201cstrengthen the American family, to make American families a lot more like the Waltons and a lot less like the Simpsons.\u201d Bush was speaking, of course, about The Waltons<\/a><\/i>, the television program about a family that struggled during the Great Depression, and not the Waltons<\/a>, the folks behind Walmart and the wealthiest family in the world. But it would be nice if we could all be billionaires. The Simpsons are a one-income, blue collar, solidly middle class family. Clearly the Simpsons have become an anachronism.\n\nToday, typical American families are more like the TV Waltons than at any time in recent memory. The median household income, adjusted for inflation, is lower than it was in 1989<\/a>. Four out of five U.S. adults struggle with serious economic <\/a>difficulty for at least part of their lives. America lost ten percent<\/a> of its middle class jobs between 2000 and 2010. An entire generation has swallowed a lie and taken on crippling student debt<\/a>. I could go on. But we have low, low prices<\/a>; who would need anything more?\n\nApparently the workers in a Canton, Ohio Walmart<\/a>, where a sign read \u201cplease donate food items here so Associates in Need can enjoy a Thanksgiving Dinner.\u201d Walmart has responded to the negative criticism<\/a> and enlisted some employees in their unpersuasive public relations effort. One is reminded of propaganda featuring visibly anxious prisoners of war thanking their captors for their hospitality. The food drive may have been sad, but it was inspiring to see an act of solidarity and mutual aid in an environment where solidarity is a four letter word. Walmart\u2019s dystopian response, however, reads like an editorial in Rodong Sinmum<\/a>.\n\nBlack Friday, already an ugly phenomenon<\/a>, has been creeping into Thanksgiving. Some retailers, to their credit<\/a>, have managed to resist this trend. Erek Tinker of the Occupy movement summed it up when he remarked that \u201cThanksgiving is now a class based holiday.\u201d The bosses enjoy nice meals with their families, while everyone else either works or clamors for bargains. Walmart, one of the retailers that was open this Thanksgiving day, has described<\/a> Black Friday as \u201cour day\u2014our Superbowl.\u201d It is no surprise, then, that OUR Walmart<\/a>, an organization of Walmart workers demanding respect and dignity, promised 1,500 protests<\/a> on Black Friday. OUR Walmart organized actions last year<\/a>, too. As expected, management thugs did everything they could to stop the protests. The National Labor Relations Board issued a statement<\/a> on November 18, condemning Walmart\u2019s illegal decision to threaten workers with reprisal. According to the NLRB, Walmart \u201cunlawfully threatened, disciplined, and\/or terminated employees.. in anticipation of or in response to employees\u2019 other protected concerted activities.\u201d One distinguished scholar<\/a> describes Walmart as \u201cthe principal emporium at which Americans purchase the aforementioned prison- and slave-manufactured goods whose \u2018outsourcing\u2019 to China and elsewhere has thrown American labor out of decently paying work in the first place.\u201d The Walton family\u2019s wealth is equal to that of 42% of Americans<\/a>.\n\nThe Walton family has exploited a variety of legal loopholes to preserve their vast wealth<\/a> across generations. Essentially, Sam Walton\u2019s progeny have avoided paying estate taxes. This is how a recidivist drunk driver like Alice Walton<\/a> can amass a thirty three billion dollar fortune<\/a> while she spends her days participating in the movement to dismantle public education<\/a>.\n\nWhat is to be done? Is there a legal solution to this problem? These struggles are mostly a matter of organizing. This kind of change will not come from above. But closing tax loopholes and forcing the Waltons to pay their fair share would certainly help. So would protectionist trade policies. It would also help if labor law allowed the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union<\/a> to organize directly, rather than having to rely<\/a> on non-union proxies.\n\nLow prices, low wages, free trade, and shady supply chains have had a corrosive effect on American society. One family becomes unfathomably wealthy while everyone else becomes so poor that they either work on Thanksgiving or stand outside eagerly awaiting the opportunity to buy goods made by oppressed workers overseas. Maybe the low median income is part of the reason these sales are so enticing. One imagines that if they had their way, the Waltons would pay their employees in Walmart gift cards. I have a lot to be thankful for this year. It could have been much worse than outlining casebooks and eating a turkey sandwich.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Tis the Season to Stand with American Workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[919,1103,1524,1652,1656,1657],"class_list":["post-1360","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blogs","tag-labor","tag-nlrb","tag-thanksgiving","tag-wages","tag-walmart","tag-waltons"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publications.lawschool.cornell.edu\/jlpp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}