Wal-Mart Strikes Back

Last week, Wal-Mart's Canadian division said it would close its first unionized store in North America, making Quebec the latest battleground in the retailer's struggle against unions.

Wal-Mart's decision triggered vicious rebukes from leftist Canadian politicians. David Christopherson, a Canadian Member of Parliament, even called Wal-Mart's decision to close the store "economic terrorism."

It is difficult to understand how workers are exercising their free choice by banding together to negotiate with their employer, but Wal-Mart is the corporate equivalent of Bin Laden because it is choosing not to stay in business under the union's terms.

Putting that aside, there is a greater irony here. The United Food and Commercial Workers union has spent years blasting Wal-Mart for violating human rights, putting local stores out of business, exploiting workers and being an all around evil corporate citizen. The union has a large presence in Canada, but it is based in Washington, D.C. and has campaigned to unionize Wal-Mart in both countries.

"Quite simply the benefits of having a Wal-Mart in your neighborhood are outweighed by the cost in store closures, lost jobs and other adverse effects Wal-Mart has on a community," the union's Website reads.

Based on these statements, one would expect the union to be celebrating the closing of a Wal-Mart in the parking lot like a conquering army. The union has liberated one town from the clutches of the Wal-Mart empire. It should be declared VWM day!

The consumer, rich or poor, are not stupid!!

Right, and this really goes to the heart of liberalism vs. conservatism. Conservatism believes in the people, in the individual, average or otherwise. It believes that when given the freedom to make their own decisions, AND much more importantly, suffer the consequences or reap the rewards of those decisions, people will do the right thing for the most part, and in the long run. It is the arrogant, patronizing, self-important liberal who believes that all the "little people" need their help and guidance to have a chance of making it through life. And because of this, the liberal thinks it is perfectly OK to coerce and control the lesser, average people (also known to liberals as "the ignorant, intolerant, uncultured rubes in fly-over" country").

I'll tell you something, the more I watch Discovery and (here in New Jersey) NJN (the New Jersey Network, which runs lots of documentaries featuring "scientists" and professors), the more I realize what a bunch of useless elitists the academics are, by and large. Just last night, I saw a program where a group of "scientists" from Cal Tech were out in the California desert doing research on the sounds produced by the "Booming Dunes" (a.k.a. the Kelso Dunes). They were climbing to the top of huge sand dunes, then sliding down them on their butts, while their comrades at the bottom listened with sensitive microphones, to record the sound produced as the sand sort of avalanched down the slope. Over a period of two years, these geniuses determined that in order to produce a specific frequency of sound, a dune had to be at least 150' high, that it had to have a harder, denser layer beneath the several inches of loose sand on the top, and that they all produced sound waves of the musical notes E, F, and G. To which I can only say, SO WHAT? This is worth spending two years and G-d knows how much tuition money researching?

What exactly will this "knowledge" contribute to mankind? But this is what many of the intellectuals do with their time - sliding down sand dunes on their butts, figuring out something completely useless, and getting paid a nice salary to do it. Gee, I'm sure everyone would like a job where, not only are they not expected to produce any useful results, not only are they never evaluated on their performance, but they can spend their time playing in the desert, in the forest, or wherever.

Not surprisingly, these eternal children are the same people who hate companies like Wal-Mart (where people actually have to work, and where actual useful economic activity takes place), who have absolutely no concept of capitalism, personal responsibility, etc. And they seem to be completely oblivious to the reality that it is people who do ACTUAL work, who actually produce things, who pony up the ridiculous tuitions to send their kids to the colleges where these "intellectuals" have the luxury of spending their time on such crucial research as determining why some sand dunes make booming sounds!

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.