"He Couldn't Take it Anymore"--The Real Cost of those Low Prices at Wal-Mart

[lib2DaBone]

(snip)
The abuse and dehumanization that came with the Wal-Mart economy has not only wrecked the American psyche along with their incomes, but it has also spread throughout the economy of the world in the form of our present collapse.

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Recently a 58 year old employee of Wal-Mart set himself on fire in the store parking lot. A Wal-Mart employee reported the man just "couldn't take it anymore."

Although I don't know the exact reasons for this man's particular suicide, I do know that people are more apt to commit suicide when they are under a great deal of stress and feeling a great deal of despair.

You might say this man was lucky enough to have a job.

But America has been transformed into a place of "haves and the have nots". A formerly prosperous and growing American middle class has shifted into a large and growing working poor represented by a Wal-Mart workforce.

http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=12339

[dkf]

1. I bet a lot of people experience demoralizing incidents at work.

You don't have to work at Walmart for some boss type to make you feel like bunk.

[OKNancy]

2. This editorial article could have been just as good without the suicide

reference. We all know Walmart sucks, and the author makes good points in the complete piece at the link, but it's too much to equate this suicide with his job at Walmart. It could have had an influence, but thousands of people work there without committing suicide and thousands of suicides are committed by people in every walk of life. My own ex-son-in-law blew his brains out mostly because his SCUBA store failed ( in the 1990's). No one would write an article that said " The real cost of SCUBA store ownership"

[RogueBandit]

4. But he did it at WalMart!

That he did it at the Wal Mart tells much more than his son's statement does.

You don't do an act like that at some place you love. You don't do it at someplace you don't care about. You do it where it makes a statement. And he did it with fire, which is indicative of living in Hell on Earth. So say I. How much do you think Wal Mart paid his son?

[virgogal]

3. I doubt that his work problems were his only problems. The

conundrum about the Walmarts of the world is that people like the employees of Walmart are in the same economic circumstances as the shoppers that need the Walmarts the most.

[rsmith6621]

5. Work Morality Is What Pres. Obama

......should be addressing instead of $13.00 a week stimulus tax breaks....Restoring morality will go further to stimulate the economy and the resiliency of the country....people must feel good about themselves to be able to work at there peak levels.