Sam Walton / Jay Z

Sergio Kirby’s Wal-Town: The Film contains content matter that relates to the future of work, specifically employment trends, the changing labor market, the defining of good jobs and bad jobs. Wal-Mart employs 1.5 million employees in Canada ( Kirby, 2006); this is because the corporation responds to the demographic shifts. Demographic shifts affect the supply and demand for jobs especially considering aging trends, cultural diversity, and educational attainment. Wal-Mart diligently reviews demographic shifts to hire employees that are easily disposable and exploitable that will profit the organization virtually at no cost. The film introduces Sylvia working at Wal-Mart making $11 000 a year approximately $12 000 below the poverty line for a single parent in Canada (Kirby, 2006). In conclusion Sylvia barley makes enough to support her family; however, she keeps the job as it is a source of income at the cost of being exploited and easily disposed

Hip hop paints pictures of poverty, violence, and thug life. Jay-Z says, “the story of the hustler was the story hip-hop was born to tell- not its only story, but the story that found its voice in the form and, in return, helped grow into an art” (Jay-Z, 18). This shows how hip hop became the voice for people living in the ghetto. The hustler’s story created a connection with a global audience that defined the life of pure struggle (Jay-Z, 18). For instance, Jay-Z was raised in Brooklyn’s drug-infested projects causing him to have a rough adolescence. He became a hustler to afford material items and help his mother pay for the bills like most teenagers in his generation. Jay-Z explains how teenagers were wearing automatic weapons as if they were sneakers. Instead of focusing on education, teenagers were worrying about adult responsibilities. Consequently, teenage roles were shifting in negative

On the other hand, Sebastian Mallaby cares for the customer and the profits of the company, rather than the worker and their working conditions and wages. He suggests that Wal-Mart actually saves people money and is “a progressive story” (620). Their discount on food alone increases the welfare of the shoppers by fifty billion dollars a year. If you were to count all of Wal-Mart’s products into that same estimate, it would increase ten times. “This is very good news for poor and middle class families,” says Mallaby, because in this situation the customer really comes first. Even though the workers are not treated the best, they still have an advantage over the shoppers. They have less pay, but receive discounts on all of Wal-Mart’s merchandise whenever they shop there, which should be a plus for them. Compared to most companies Wal-Mart

Many people will allow others to act oppressively to them, even more, if it means they can avoid being fired, hurt, or other actions. George Packer, who earned a degree from Yale. He wrote “Sam Walton/Jay Z” and in both talks about Sam Walton and Jay Z early life and how they got where they got. Sam Walton wanted to create a company for people who do not earn as much money and everything is affordable. How Walton’s impact changed companies today and the effect on social classes. Jay Z always chased after power, he earned a ton of money selling drugs and decided to start rapping and see how far he could get with that. Joan Morgan, who has taught at Stanford University writes “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hos” which explains the black community and the women as well. Furthermore, Morgan brings up Biggie Smalls and says one of Biggie’s album is about his life and how that affected who he was as a person. Similarly, Barbara Ehrenreich, who wrote “Serving in Florida” which is her experience into a poverty community. She talks about the fight it takes to get by in life when working a minimum wage job and how you cannot live off of minimum wage without working multiple jobs or having another source of income. Regardless, there is an even more concerning problem, which is people will tend to abuse their power, particularly if a person knows that person is willing to serve others. With this intention, people will accumulate even more to feed their sense of power.

In “Labouring the Wal-Mart Way”, Deenu Parmar discusses Wal-Mart’s poor business practices and mistreating of their employees. Parmar is biased in that she focuses primarily on the negative aspects of Wal-Mart and discusses mostly from the employees’ point of view. The essay attempts to sway people to stop shopping at Wal-Mart because the author portrays it as unethical by focusing on the poor wages, anti-unionization, and paying off charges instead of properly addressing the laws being broken. Parmar does point out that people will continue to shop at Wal-Mart, seemingly guilt-tripping those who do shop there. The whole article relies heavily on an emotional appeal, which forces the reader to sympathize for the employees of the company without

As stated on the corporate website (2017), “Walmart is the largest retailer in the world, where 2.3 million associates meet the needs of more than 260 million customers every week.” These numbers are huge, and with so many locations around the globe, they have had allegations been made by employees regarding their dissatisfaction about poor work conditions, gender discrimination, low wages, poor benefits, and inadequate health care. Walmart has been criticized for its policies against labor unions and this issue has prompted public outrage, (Johansson, 2005) which is of great concern for the market. The company has also faced criticism for being anti-union, but it has claimed that it is rather pro-associate, whereby employees

Karen Olsen pulls at our heartstrings using the specific people, places and things that we can possibly relate to in a pathos/ethos type method of description. She pours out examples of infringement, dollar signs, inequality and discrimination. Using names and painting a picture of a subject to explain how [Wal-mart] broke the law using intimidation, denying benefits and firing those that support the union. Sebastian Mallaby rebuttals by using facts and reasoning in a logos/ethos way. Examples include but not limited to; “Wal-mart has a war room to defend its image! Well, yeah, it’s up against a hostile campaign featuring billboards, newspaper ads, and a critical documentary movie.” Mallaby goes on to discuss different ways that many of

This proposal will explore two significant issues Black women face in the work place. The first issue involves African American women being less likely to be considered for promotions, in comparison to Caucasian women. The second issue involves African American women receiving less pay than Caucasian women. The theoretical perspective that best understand why these issues exist is the social conflict theory. This theory explains that groups, such as social classes, gender, or race, compete for limited resources, as

There are many different formats an argument can take, including classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian. However, the one type of argument that is displayed throughout the text Sam Walton/Jay Z is undoubtedly the classical form of an argument. The Classical form of and argument contains six different parts to make up the whole structure: Exordium, Narratio, Partitio, Confirmatio, Refutatio, and Peroratio. These Latin words can be simply broken down into five different sections: Introduction, Background, Lines of Argument, Alternative Arguments, and Conclusion. In the article Sam Walton/Jay Z by George Packer, the classical argument structure is used effectively to convey the message that anyone can become well off no matter where they came from

Walmart employees, customers, and suppliers have seen their fair share of Walmart’s bad side. While Walmart’s founder, Sam Walton, claims to make their employees feel like they “are working for them” and that they care Walmart has done such a horrific job with the way they treat their employees that one day, the workers decided to walk out and go on strike. They walked out on the grounds that they “were emblazoned with the workers’ grievances: poverty wages, miserly benefits, dignity denied” (Eidelson 1). They felt like they weren’t only taking a stand against Walmart, but also taking a stand for the younger generations to come. Walmart’s employees are getting treated unfairly and are underpaid. The CEO’s, Michael Duke, annual salary gives him more money in an hour than an employee who works full-time would make in an entire year. In Bangladesh, over 100 workers “died in a factory without outdoor fire escapes, NGOs blame Walmart for pushing deadly shortcuts” (Eidelson 1). Not only are the employees being poorly paid by Walmart, but they are paying their life to Walmart just to make enough money to barely get by. Walmart even made a pregnant employee work around chemicals that eventually made her ill. After a trip to the doctor, Walmart allowed her to be put on a lighter duty, so they made her a door greeter; however, they

It is not unheard of to see workers protesting against the executives of their company; whether it is for better working conditions, a higher salary, or new policies that they don’t agree with. In fact, throughout American history, specifically with beginning with the Industrial Revolution, employees have protested for their rights to be acknowledged and for their voices to be heard. However, the Market Basket protest that took place during the summer of 2014 is an exception to this norm. Not unlike traditional protests, Market Basket employees left the New England grocery stores vacant with only a few essential employees remained to keep the stores opened for their beloved customers. What sets the Market Basket protest apart from previous

“Up Against Wal-Mart” by Karen Olsson, a senior editor at Texas Monthly and who’s article appeared in Mother Jones, introduces her article through the perspective of a Wal-Mart worker. She focuses on the negatives of Wal-Mart by telling the real life struggles of different Wal-Mart employees. “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” by Sebastian Mallaby, a columnist for the Washington Post, focuses his article on what Wal-Mart critics say and attempts to defend Wal-Mart by comparing Wal-Mart to other retailers. Even though Karen Olsson and Sebastian Mallaby both examine the negative effects of Wal-Mart, Olsson berates Wal-Mart’s unfair treatment towards employees and the unlivable wages that the world’s largest retailer provides while Mallaby

Please read Barbara Ehrenreich's recent book, Nickel and Dimed. In her brilliant book she reveals the misery of working for a big box retailer and the impossibility of living in America on poverty wages. She spent time working at Wal-Mart in St. Paul, Minnesota and struggled to survive. Read her account of the anti-union propaganda that Wal-Mart espouses. Wal-Mart is no friend to the working poor.

If Wal-Mart has such little regard for their own employees, it would make it difficult for a company to have minimal regard to where their merchandise is coming from. On the documentary, The High Price of Low Cost, informs of the countries and Wal-Mart’s effects on these countries, including its presence for manufacturing in China. The workers work in conditions of extreme temperatures from morning until dawn and provided boarding, which is shared with several others and lined with bunk beds. The board and utilities are deducted from their wages even if the workers choose not to stay on the facilities the board is still deducted from their pay. These workers that are looking for employment to make a better future for their families are

Over the past twenty years one company has dominated the discount retailer market. It has been hailed as the most admired company in America twice in the past five years by Fortune magazine. As of 2006 the company employed 1.6 million people that worked in one of their 6200 facilities worldwide. Despite this company’s unmatched success, it has been demonized by many in American culture, often being depicted as a destroyer of small business and the symbol of corporate greed. The company that I am referring to is Wal-Mart. No matter if you are an advocate or adversary of Wal-Mart and their business model, one thing must be mutually understood: They have mastered