Letter: Wal-Mart debate goes beyond what is ‘deserved’

Sunday, Sept. 26, 1999 | 9:43 a.m.

Does the average chief executive officer of a major American corporation "deserve" $4,807.69 an hour? (All right, many of them work more than 40 hours a week. Let's just say that they only average about $4,500 per hour.)

Does the average 12-year-old boy or girl working in a sweatshop in Guatemala "deserve" the 10 cents an hour that they earn? Over and over again Wal-Mart executives swear they don't knowingly buy the goods that those children produce. Never mind that one of the reasons for Wal-Mart's tremendous success is that they were at the forefront in developing the most sophisticated purchasing network in the world.

Perhaps we in America should get smart and repeal those pesky laws that involve minimum wage, workers' compensation, overtime and child labor. Instead of the part-time, minimum-wage workers it now has, Wal-Mart could hire 12-year-old wage slaves.

Madison could save another $10 a year shopping at Wal-Mart. And the Wal-Mart executives could earn another $1,000 an hour. After all, "all yachts rise."

MERRITT CARLTON

archive