A few years ago lefty sociologist [is there any other kind?] Barbara Ehrenreich, Ph. D., went "undercover" at Walmart and, based on her perception of her experiences, produced a book titled "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America". It was a scathing indictment of the Walmart organization which she argued was guilty of oppressing and degrading its workers, while requiring them to do demeaning, tiring, and mind-dulling tasks. Her conclusions were later challenged by Charles Platt, an editor at Wired magazine, who similarly went undercover at Walmart and found his relationships with colleagues and employers to be far more positive than Ehrenreich's. He wrote about his experiences on his blog,
Boing Boing. Now he has elaborated his experiences in the
New York Post.
He writes:
Based on my experience (admittedly, only at one location) I reached a conclusion which is utterly opposed to almost everything ever written about Wal-Mart. I came to regard it as one of the all-time enlightened American employers, right up there with IBM in the 1960s. Wal-Mart is not the enemy. It's the best friend we could ask for.
Read the whole thing
here.
I agree wholeheartedly. We spend a lot of time in a small community nestled high in the mountains of Central Pennsylvania. The Walmart superstore is a blessing to the entire region.
