27 Dec 2005 @ 19:13, by Matthew Webb
An Expose’ of the film;
Wal Mart, The High Cost of Low Price
December 2005 has seen the release of a little-advertised, but informative movie that will appeal to anyone who truly cares about other people, and the fate of humanity as a whole. This movie is a “must-see for all thinking minds”, being one of the most startling and revealing films since Michael Moores’ “Fahrenheit 911”. Entitled, “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” produced and directed by Robert Greenwald, the movie exposes what is perhaps the largest-scale corporate scandal of our time, dwarfing even the Enron level of social corruption.
If you’ve ever marveled at the fact that behind the facing or label of almost any product, from wrenches and plastic toys, to fashion clothing and appliances, there reads, “Made in China” then this movie will explain what’s going on in corporate back-rooms. Part of the “high cost of low price” as the movie explains, are miserable sweat shops around the world where far less than minimum wage-slaves toil day and night, so that Wal Mart can “sell for less”. It explains that even American workers are exploited to the maximum possible extent to drive down costs, and still make a pretense of staying within the limits of the law. But actually, Wal Mart DOES NOT stay within the law on several accounts, from environmentalism and wage/overtime scandals, to the inhumane working conditions for it’s armies of sweat-shop, worker-ant, human machines.
Although the movie is brilliant in its’ presentation and scope, it fails miserably in certain areas of commentary. Not once during the entire film were the words “consumerism”, “materialism”, “trade deficit”, “wrong values”, “sweat shops” “supply and demand” or “simple living” ever mentioned, let alone discussed to any depth. Not once was the entire scope of corporate enterprise and its’ associated wide-spread fraud and corruption exposed. So although everyone should go out of their way to see, “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” they should also keep in mind that this is by no means a comprehensive view of our social-corporate problem as a whole. After the below highlights are mentioned, see our letter written to director Robert Greenwald, that lavishes praise and criticism alike, upon this epic work.
To review some of the highlights of the movie, the following facts and figures were mentioned. These facts alone should give even the most casual reader the clear and unmistakable impression that something is gravely wrong with a society and corporate ethic alike, which could allow such tragedy to occur, merely for the sake of increased profits.
From;
“Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price”
See website information at www.walmartmovie.com and www.bravenewfilms.org
· In 2003 Wal Mart posted 240 billion dollars in sales, but cost tax payers a total of $1,557,000,000 to support its’ under-paid employees.
· Wal Mart imported 18 billion dollars in goods from China alone in 2004.
· Lee Scott, Wal Mart CEO, earned $27,207,799 in 2005,
while the average Wal Mart hourly employee was paid $13,861
· The cost for a Wal Mart factory worker to assemble an average toy car is 18 cents, while the retail cost at Wal Mart for that item is $14.95. [Assuming additional shipping charges, raw materials and stocking for a total cost of $1, the profits to Wal Mart on an elaborate piece of plastic is at least 1400 %.]
· Tax abatement/taxpayer subsidies for Wal Mart amount to hundreds of millions of dollars per year, at all levels of government. Wal Mart encourages its’ employees to go on government assistance programs [to compensate for its’ lack of adequate pay and benefits]. A UC Berkeley study concluded that in California alone, Wal Mart costs state tax payers 86 million dollars a year, and up to 25 million dollars to county taxpayers. [This drain to taxpayers to supplement underpaid and under-insured employees, went to such expenses as; Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, health care, income tax credits and housing subsidies, because workers cannot survive on their hourly pay]
· Wal Mart is currently fighting employee lawsuits in at least 31 states for hundreds of millions of dollars, due to lost pay/non-payment of overtime. It has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to settle class action lawsuits, “cheating people out of overtime on 40+ hours a week” in various states throughout the nation.
· Racial and sexual discrimination exist as a systemic practice through this organization, as documented by many lawsuits and public cases. Unfair or unlawful hiring practices have also come to light, such as the hiring of illegal immigrants for less than minimum wage pay, as after-hours cleaning persons.
· Overseas hiring practices in places such as China, Bangladesh and Honduras, have been exposed in many investigations consistently revealing illegal, inhumane and immoral practices on the part of Wal Mart factory management.
· In Bangladesh, 189,000 women are on the known payrolls, working a documented 7 days a week, with 14 hour days, making 13-17 cents an hour. Many were shown asleep and exhausted at their sewing machines and other manufacturing stations.
· In China, workers make less than $3 a day for 15 hour days, working 7 days a week. Regarding these practices, workers were routinely told by management to lie to inspectors about their working conditions, pay, living conditions and hours worked per week. Many were even given false pay stubs to show to these inspectors, and those who did not “lie well” for the company were harassed or fired. Worker paychecks had automatic deductions taken out of their weekly earnings to pay for crude, dormitory-style housing. They were forced to pay these deductions whether or not they lived at the company dormitories, so of course, most are forced to live there, and this does not include the cost of utilities such as electricity. Living conditions of the employees are less than minimal…unthinkable under US standards…with double-decker beds, no place to wash or even hang laundry, little to no storage, few to no windows in tiny buildings that have no security, forced to wash their clothes on the floor in small plastic tubs. Many workers are made to work with little to no ventilation and other minimal facilities, in super-cramped factory areas surrounded by as many as hundreds of other workers in long rows, working as fast as they can under the eyes of abusive management. One worker was quoted as saying to Americans, “These profits you make and the wonderful life you have, are the sweat and tears and overtime-working of the Chinese people”.
· In Honduras, an interviewed manager and loyal, career employee of Wal Mart, speaks of being fired after bringing to light revelations of widespread worker abuse in every single factory he visited there. He said he was fired for performing his job, and that no actions were taken by Wal Mart to correct the human rights abuses they regularly forced upon their indigenous workers, once those facts were reported.
· The estimated value of the Wal Mart jet fleet is $125,350,000. Such jets are routinely used by top executives to visit those store locations, the movie explained, within which any hint of forming an employee union is mentioned. Employees who attempt to form unions or improve conditions are “profiled” by managers, harassed, fired and held under surveillance.
· The top 5 members of the Walton family, the original proprietors of the now world-wide Wal Mart chain, are worth an estimated 102 billion dollars. Ten billion of that would promote adequate wages and health care for all U.S. Wal Mart employees. The Walton family has given an estimated 1% of their wealth to charity, but made 3.2 million in political contributions in 2004 alone. The Walton family received a federal tax cut of $91,500 for every hour of the 2004 tax year.
· There is a Wal Mart employee program called, “The Critical Need Fund” into which employees may donate a portion of their pay in order to assist fellow employees in times of crisis, such as in the case of hurricane or tornado victims. Into this fund, employees paid a sum of 5 million dollars in 2004 alone, whereas the Walton family donated only $6000.
· A facility exists for the Walton family to escape to, in the event of a collapse of society or an apocalyptic-style, world war scenario. It is composed of vast wooded grounds, hi-tech equipment and an extensive underground system of tunnels and rooms. Included in this facility are a helicopter pad, satellite up-link dishes, and a highly fortified chain-link fence with barbed wire, surrounding the entire complex.
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Dear Mr. Greenwald,
Perhaps needless to say, your hard-hitting movie, “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” is an epic accomplishment in the expose’ of a corporate monster. Before this movie was available, the vast majority of the public was doubtlessly unaware of these scandals you expertly reveal to every viewer. Your work is genius and long over-due. In a very real way, society owes you a debt of thanks and gratitude for what must have been an often difficult-to-document subject matter. Every person who has money and buys products should see your movie as soon as they possibly can. Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price would make worthwhile compulsory viewing in public schools, and in any setting where the welfare of humankind is being carefully considered.
With that being said, we would also like to point out to yourself and to your viewing audience, that several key points were strangely missing within an otherwise excellent documentary. You missed a sparkling opportunity in your film to make landmark social statements. Had you given these subjects their proper due, it would have elevated this work from the level of mere documentary, to classic masterpiece of social responsibility.
Perhaps the most conspicuous point that was lacking in, “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” was that the “high cost of low price” is by no means limited to Wal Mart alone. If you were aiming at making a socially responsible statement on this mark you failed miserably, because such scandalous activity as your movie exposes, is truly widespread amongst most, if not all, of the major corporations in America and abroad. Wal Mart is by no means the only corporation, for instance, which treats its’ workers like replaceable machine parts. This has become an across-the-board phenomena in the slashing of 401K retirement plans, reduction of worker benefits, discouragement of unions, increased working hours for less pay, intentional understaffing, the exploitation of the poor and a lack of proper compensation in overtime, not to mention damaging working conditions. Wal Mart by no means has the monopoly on such practices as the building of foreign sweat shops that routinely abuse their workers, or in paying them far less than what we would lawfully consider minimum wage. Wal Mart is by no means unique in its’ flagrant disregard for the environmental health of the ecosystems which surround its’ factories. Wal Mart is surely not the first corporate institution, which we all well know, that bribes government officials in the form of “political contributions” to make its’ exploitive intentions easier to implement.
So although your films’ statements are truly exemplary for pointing out unethical Wal Mart practices, they fail completely in not giving even the slightest mention to HOW WIDESPREAD such corporate practices really are. The thinking person is prompted to wonder after seeing this film as to just why this is, and what your motives were in that direction. After an hour or so the movie begins to come off as a Wal Mart bashing party, (which is well deserved, don’t get me wrong) by forces who are jealous of Wal Mart’s privileged economic position, not as a responsible social statement regarding corporate corruption as a sum total. One might even conclude that your movie is a form of corporate warfare, based not on a real concern for people, but as an attempt to take a swipe at the biggest bully on the playground.
You might protest this conclusion calling it unfair, however, if your movie is not just motivated by corporate in-fighting, then why is there not even one mention in the entire length of the film of such words as, “consumerism”, “materialism”, “supply and demand”, “trade deficit”, “wrong values”, “sweat shops” or “simple living”? If in fact your motive for making this movie was to uplift the human condition, as it is made to appear, then why is it you did not address, even for 30 seconds total, any of these implicitly related issues or key words? Perhaps this was an honest mistake on your part, and if so, you will be interested to note that the problems your movie describes are NOT confined to Wal Mart alone, but reside within our society as a whole.
When we say “wrong values” what comes to your mind? After seeing your film it’s not hard to conclude that the management of Wal Mart has its’ values in the wrong place to say the very least. To put that more succinctly, it’s obvious that they do not see human life as having any value, other than the monetary profits that can be made from it. Their executives obviously think that there is no God higher than money, and toward the daily worship of this end, they’re willing to do LITERALLY ANYTHING to make a buck, including destroy the ecosystems of the entire world, reduce entire populations to the status of wage slaves, lie, cheat and defraud the public at every level of social concern, corrupt government officials and the democratic process from city, regional and state levels to the making of federal regulations, and in every other way, pervert the human condition to one of poverty and community disaster. But our essential question to you, Mr. Greenwald, is this….”How are any of these wrong values and goals in any way confined to the Wal Mart corporation?” To literally DO ANYTHING to make a buck can surely be considered the underlying slogan of life, in the last 40 years of the so-called “American Dream”. Such corruption of right values is seen everywhere rampant in our society and world civilization as a whole. In essence, it is the modern public expectation that “nobody cares about anything” except for themselves and the greedy values which underlie the very heart of the consumer ethic, and materialism in general. You missed a wonderful chance to point this out in your movie, and to make a real case for social change, rather than just corporate one-upmanship.
On the unnecessary waste generated by American society, which is by far the most wasteful society in the history of the planet, one could feed and clothe half the world. Consumerism is completely out of control. This becomes even more obvious when reflecting upon, (so-called) “Christmas”, where the Teachings of Christ, a simple-living advocate and the ultimate anti-materialist, has been transformed into the spectacle of consumption we see today. Why doesn’t your film address this point, especially in the context of a simpler and more sane lifestyle?
A very large portion of “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” was dedicated to hearing the woes of small-time American businessmen who, after long years of local community existence, were displaced by Wal Mart. Fair enough, and to those people the viewer can certainly commiserate. However, the thinking person is once again left asking themselves…”How many of their competition did these local establishments put out of business in the normal course of affairs, and just how much did THEY give back to their community beyond the usual love of more and more profit, seen everywhere else today?” Would any of these local proprietors, if given the chance to be CEOs’, really have done anything differently than Wal Marts’ Lee Scott? Is Wal Mart really the only entity who displaces its’ competition with its’ presence? No, of course it isn’t. It is commonly considered fair and appropriate for the so-called, “free enterprise” system of economics to function in this way. And that is a large part of my point. A selfish, dog-eat-dog way of life based on greed and destruction is not a sane way to live.
The thinking viewer is also prompted to say, “Let’s just be honest about this whole issue shall we?…and realize that the entire social structure to which we belong is based upon the maximum greed and acquisition possible, in the shortest period of time, regardless of what it costs other people or the world at large!” Let’s face it…this is exactly how society routinely functions. If we’re going to really change anything for the benefit of the common person, it’s going to have to be through the change of these very wrong, TV-promoted consumer values upon which society runs, not just in the criticism of a singular corporation. What about K-Mart, Weyerhauser, McDonalds’, General Motors or McDonald Douglas? What about Microsoft, General Electric, Johnson and Johnson, The Fox Network, The American Broadcasting Company or Halliburton, Exxon, United Airlines, AOL/Time Warner, or countless others? How about the entire consumer culture that is promoted every day upon the radio, television and newspapers, which lie to people constantly about how widespread environmental destruction is becoming as a result of consumerism, and how a huge portion of the people of the world suffer endlessly just to support the so-called, “American way of life”? What about the extremely typical neighbors next door, who think that life is all about money and showing off their new car and fancy clothes, and to hell with the rest of the world? If you had been truly concerned with the human condition, Mr. Greenwald, then wouldn’t it be reasonable to say that this is the kind of all-inclusive statement you would have wanted to make?
If you genuinely cared about the human condition, why didn’t your movie talk about the very “supply and demand” that makes such entities as Wal Mart possible to start with? Without the wrong values of consumerism and materialism firmly established in almost every citizen’s mind, there simply would NOT be the kind of public demand for products which literally sustain Wal Mart and hundreds of other entities like it. In other words, if people didn’t think they had to have every, “new and improved” trinket that crossed their television screens, places like Wal Mart would not be the bloated monster it is today. No demand means no ability to supply. If we’re really going to address this problem, don’t you think the most ethical thing to do would be to point out how almost everyone is complicit in this world devastation we’re discussing? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate to show that everyone who buy’s into the whole consumer products world, where even love is equated to material objects, is partially responsible for the sweat shops, the mass deaths, the political uprisings, the environmental disasters and the misery of countless children in foreign nations? Wouldn’t it be even more appropriate to point out that if we’re REALLY concerned with stopping terrorism, that we’d better stop giving farmers and idealists reason to become terrorists to start with, by no longer exploiting their countries, their natural resources and their children for the sake of fashion magazine imagery?
What we’re getting at here, if it isn’t completely obvious already, is that the problems your film, “Wal Mart; The High Cost of Low Price” run much deeper than a singular corporation or nation. The problems we’re discussing are a matter of almost every human being on this planet, being suckered into the wrong values of consumerism and materialism. These problems could not exist without widespread public participation in such values…to buy without thought, and upon whimsical impulse or egotism, (as in keeping up with the Jones’). Without the wrong values of consumerism and materialism which infect Wal Mart and the rest of the planet, this world would not be able to support those dictators, terrorists, (State and otherwise) sweat shop overlords, corrupt politicians and illicit wars, whose primary driving force is similar greed and egotism. You seem an intelligent man, I’m sure you can see the connection here. Corrupt companies and governments are ultimately maintained by corrupt populations. This is a sad but true fact which nobody wants to hear, but it is true nonetheless.
So instead of questioning a given corporate entity, let’s question those consumer values of greed, (there’s never enough) and egotism, (fashion and glamour) which underlie them. Let’s question and oppose not just a single example of corruption, but those corrupted values which make them possible at all.
Perhaps in your next film you will take a more socially responsible course, one that addresses the actual CAUSES of world and social destruction, rather than just one set of corporate symptoms. We do dearly hope that this is so. We hope that you will see the intent of this letter as one which is concerned not with criticism of your fine works, but with the improvement of the human condition. Known producers and writers like yourself have a truly unsurpassed opportunity to change this troubled world for the better. We urge you to make the very best use of that opportunity in the future.
Thank you once again, and best wishes.
Sincerely,
Matthew Webb visionquest@eoni.com
Sandi Hunter spellscaster9@yahoo.com
For additional reading, see the Social Commentary section of the Library at;
The World Mind Society [link]
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