The impetus for today's argument comes from U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders' Twitter account. Two days ago he had this message for the American people. In this message, he attacked the Walton family, and their business, Wal-Mart ultimately because of their own success and living the American Dream.
His post was designed to do only one thing: inspire class warfare between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. There is no other reason for him to make such a statement, especially in light of what else was going on around our nation on that day. As I have noted on other occasions, envy is a terrible sin, and while Senator Sanders certainly has nothing to be envious (he is in the upper portion of the 1%ers) of, he knows by stirring the pot, especially at this time of year, will draw his base to him.
To begin with, Senator Sanders' annual salary is no less than $174,000, paid courtesy of the U.S. citizenry. He also has access to a fully funded pension and health care program that no citizen could ever hope to acquire, again, and a host of other benefits, all paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.
Instead of being grateful for his good fortune in life, he chooses to attack those that have created jobs (over 2,000,000 worldwide) and opportunities for others. What has the *good* Senator done of late outside of create division amongst the populace? Surely he has not done anything about the ever-increasing unemployment numbers (the government released numbers are such blatant lies they're not really worth commenting on.), or the fact that our nation is under attack from outside (and sadly, internal) persons who are looking to destroy our nation just because. It's a real easy thing to sit back and cast stones at those that have succeeded instead of working to make others' lives better.
The *good* Senator also took the time to attack Wal-Mart because so many of their employees are on government welfare programs. If the Senator bothered to look at the mangled government statistics, he'd note that over 1/7 of our legal population is on some form of government welfare program or another. A major reason for this is because of the actions that Sanders and many of his belief system.
As I noted in a different context, jobs like Wal-Mart gigs are not intended to be a lifelong career. Each of us should aspire to do something beyond the simple phrase of "Your total is $123.56." Jobs, or at least the majority of jobs at places such as Wal-Mart are not intended to raise a family on. In reality, they're not designed to make even a single person rich. There simply isn't a reason to, because the jobs are for the most part replaceable. Employees who show aptitude and a desire to move on are presented with opportunities to do so. Why? Because it makes sense for companies, regardless of their name, to promote from within when there are deserving employees.
The other thought to consider is a two-fold one: part of the Wal-Mart model is to provide the lowest prices available to its customers. This in turn allows those who have less means afford more things (groceries, durable items, *luxury* items) than they otherwise would be able to. Instead of denigrating the Wal-Mart model, Senator Sanders should see how it could be applied to his chosen profession.
He should also be thankful that voters are easily confused, and his 1%er salary is guaranteed as long as he continues to rail against the 'evil' rich, while pretending like he is not one of them.
