Everyone agrees that Democrats are on the side of the little guy. Without Democrats and their programs, why, people would starve, children would not go to school, and old people would lack health care.
That’s why the Chicago City Council voted against giving Wal-Mart a zoning change so they could build a store on the South Side. The local alderman, Howard Brookins Jr., tried.
Eighteen months ago, Brookins negotiated with Wal-Mart for a store at 83rd and Stewart, former site of the Ryerson steel plant. His plan fell apart when other South Side aldermen failed to support his request for a zoning change.
No problem. Wal-Mart want ahead and built their store outside Chicago city limits.
So why did did 24,500 Chicagoans apply for a job at the new Wal-Mart just outside city limits, as Leslie Baldacci reports?
And that is after 11,000 people applied for a job at a new Wal-Mart in Oakland, California.
What is wrong with these people? Don’t they understand that Wal-Mart is an evil influence that will snatch away their health benefits or force them onto Medicaid? And as for working them to the bone, well, you could read Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickeled and Dimed to learn about that, if you haven’t already been forced to read it in freshman orientation at your local selective college.
Of course, old Rush Limbaugh had a field day with this story, because he loves nothing more than poking fun at the Democrat shibboleths and hypocrisies: that only they can represent the little guy. He envisions an army of Wal-Marts surrounding the Democratic bastion of Chicago.
It is interesting to look at the satellite map of the site of the new Wal-Mart just outside Chicago city limits in the village of Evergreen Park. You can see the north-south arterial just to the east of the Wal-Mart location. That’s Chicago city limits. It can’t be a coincidence that the local shopping mall in which Wal-Mart is located is just to the west of the intersection. Of course, the $1 million in property taxes from the new Wal-Mart will go to Evergreen Park and not to the City of Chicago.
But we don’t need Wal-Mart’s stinkin’ taxes, or their stinkin’ jobs, eh Dems?
No comments:
Post a Comment