With Arms Outstretched

May I have your attention as I step on my soap box...

My sister bought me a documentary called “Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost,” for Christmas and I just got around to watching it tonight. Apparently she only saw a clip of it in a business class and was so moved that she joined me in being anti-Wal-Mart. I must say it is a compelling look at a business that, no matter what your political views, has most definitely changed the landscape of America, physically, socially, economically, philosophically, I could go on. Of the material I presented, I was aware of more than I wasn’t, but that doesn’t take away from the effect of digesting seven years or more of news in one massive helping. Just thirty minutes into the film I was already physically sick, literally, and I still had a good hour left.

Produced by Robert Greenwald, he’s the one responsible for some other social/political documentaries, most notably “Outfoxed,” (which I confess with great shame, seeing that I consider Rupert The Enemy, that I have not seen this one, time to visit Netflix). I found it incredibly interesting that he comes from a conservative viewpoint on this rather than trying to be a bleeding heart liberal. He obviously made it a point to interview people in the heartland, people who say they're diehard Republican, love Jesus, and love the Free Market. And much of the film comes from a religious point of view, mostly Christian, basically accusing the Walton family of being the furtherest thing from a Christian that you can be, whatever that may be. Even though I would probably have a lot of things to say to some of these flag waving patriots if the subject were different (seriously, sidenote, every interviewee put out a flag every day, they are soooo patriotic) I do find it refreshing that there are people on the "other side" who see the light.

However, I don’t find his style in this doco exactly perfect. The segment I had the largest qualm with involved interviewing Chinese workers about their jobs at a Wal-Mart factory. Not only did they completely mute the spoken Chinese and inserted a little traditional “Asian” music for added effect, the obviously not Chinese translators had a slight “American mimicking a Chinese accent” voice going on and also spoke broken English (“if you buy great toy from Wal-Mart, you no good”) rather than translating what I imagine is proper Chinese into proper English.

But apart from our little adventure into the People’s Republic, the stories shared and figures reported were sickening. One thing I did learn was about a sort of crisis fund for employees who are struck with hard times, such as a fire or sickness, and employees (or as they say, “associates”) donate from their paychecks, voluntarily, to this fund. I can’t remember if it was 2004 or 2005, but one of those years the total amount donated by all Wal-Mart employees was $5 million, while the Walton family as a whole only gave $6,000. That’s not even 1 dollar for every person they employee. And each member of that family is worth $18 billion alone! Shame!

But I know that for many of my blog readers I’m preaching to the choir, so instead of continuing to harp on all the bad things Wal-Mart did/does/continues to do, I will allow you all to put the movie into your Netflix queue. Instead, something hit me that is related but so much bigger. While it was describing all the money that the CEOs and Walton family makes, the visuals were on their homes, or rather “estates.” My first reaction upon seeing this huge mansions and gates was “Hmmm, yeah, that’s quite big I suppose,” and then it hit me. Why is it that we watch this doco and shriek at the size of the houses, wagging our fingers (Colbert style) at the Waltons for living such decadent lives, and then when the film is finished we turn on E! or VH1 and gawk and drool over the “fabulous life” of some dumb blonde? Not trying to justify the Walton’s family’s wealth, but at least someone had to work at one point to get some of that money. With our famous blonde, she just had to get her hair did and show up two hours late to get her picture taken. And while I’ve seriously limited (I will not pretend to not watch The Real Housewives of Orange County, I just love Vicki) my intake of shitty TV that glorifies the almighty dollar, I’ve not fully realized this double standard that exists in our culture. Why is it ok for celebrities to spend spend spend, living in houses 25 times bigger than they need, but then we’ll turn it right around to show how CEOs are getting paid too much? We (read: I) have got to get over this disconnect that our wonderful media has produced within us. Big lavish houses are unnecessary, no matter who you are (except maybe the Queen of England, I very much liked her big house, and there’s always got to be exceptions to the rule, right?).

So please, if you get anything out of this, take this away with you: if you’re seriously patriotic you will buy American and stop watching My Super Sweet Sixteen, for real.

posted by Alison @ 10:40 PM