PUGalicious
11-10-2005, 07:32 PM
In this week's Sojomail (a publication of Sojourners (http://www.sojo.net/)), C. Melissa Snarr (http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=news.display_article&mode=C&NewsID=5024) challenges Christians to "think more about our economic witness" as we shop at giant discount stores and "save a buck at the cost of another's well-being."
Frugality is not a spiritual discipline. Yet, Americans regularly follow weekend trips to places of worship with drives to giant discount stores. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions unite in challenging those of us who would save a buck at the cost of another's well-being. Unfortunately, in our current culture, getting a "deal" has largely displaced righteous dealings as our first consideration in the marketplace.
Within the Christian tradition, the term frugal is wholly absent from the biblical text and is not among the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Generosity is instead the prized theme in stories of faith. God enables human generosity by promising a care for believers and creation that allows us to put our store in heaven not in barns or walk-in closets here on earth. The images are numerous: banquet tables set for the homeless, fishes and loaves multiplied, water turned into wine, and manna falling from heaven. Throughout scripture, generosity is structured by obligations to the most vulnerable. Rulers, merchants, and nations are judged by how they treat the poor, widowed, and orphaned. Faithful generosity follows God's preference for those normally forgotten by society.
Admittedly, we saw a glimmer of generosity in Wal-Mart's speedy delivery of desperately needed supplies to hurricane victims last month. They were first on the scene to the poor, widowed, and orphaned among us. But to focus only on Wal-Mart's short-term charity misses major dimensions of the biblical concept of generosity. Modeled on the nature of God, the creating, sustaining, and redeeming character of biblical generosity is not about short-term charity but long-term justice for all God's children. The sustaining life of God is about creating structures and cultures of care, wholeness, and fairness that are enduring. Wal-Mart's charity should not divert public - particularly religious, attention - from the largest retailer's long-term discrimination, import exploitation, and overtime and union-busting scandals. In contrast, faithful generosity is not primarily about short-term gifts to the needy, but the long-term task of building right relationships, weaving righteousness into the fabric of our lives.
The biblical exhortation, "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48), is about an understanding of stewardship that is always bound to fair use. Stewardship underscores our humble understanding of our temporary ownership of common goods and the obligations for equity and sustainability tied to that privilege. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's current dominance of the market is draining rather than sustaining local communities. Every Wal-Mart store employing 200 or more people costs taxpayers more than $420,000 in government social services used by employees whose low wages and unaffordable health insurance mean they largely subsist among the ranks of the working poor, according to "Everday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," a February 2004 report by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Wal-Mart's anti-union policies also prevent workers from organizing for wages and benefits to support their families.
In contrast, unionized workers in the retail food industry earn 30% more than their nonunion counterparts. Every time Wal-Mart increases its market share by 1% in the grocery business, cashier's wages in the local market drop an average of 5.5 cents per hour. And Wal-Mart's market share has grown by 20% in the last five years, according to United Food and Commercial Workers. Yet if Wal-Mart paid each employee $1 more an hour, it could maintain its current profitability level by increasing prices a mere half-penny a dollar. See also, "The Impact of Big Box Grocers on Southern California," a September 1999 report prepared by the Orange County Business Council of California.
Corporate giants regularly justify these practices by appealing to the needs of their hourly employees. They see themselves as serving those who live paycheck to paycheck and must be frugal. This is perhaps the most appealing and invidious part of Wal-Mart morality. In the process of "serving" its employees and consumers, Wal-Mart actually lowers the workplace quality of the retail sector and entraps communities in practices of inequity. When the standard bearer and largest retailer in the world refuses to pay wages that support families, undermines organizing for greater benefits, and imports well over half of its merchandise from countries with little or no labor regulation, they effectively place a lock on the door to class mobility for the entire discount retail sector.
Cheap products are not valued in and of themselves by religious traditions. As the Wal-Mart public relations machine continues to gain momentum, people of faith need to think more about our economic witness and demand that our discount giants do not discount human dignity in our name.
C. Melissa Snarr is an associate professor of ethics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she teaches courses ranging from Early Christian Political Thought to Religion and War in an Age of Terror.
Frugality is not a spiritual discipline. Yet, Americans regularly follow weekend trips to places of worship with drives to giant discount stores. Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions unite in challenging those of us who would save a buck at the cost of another's well-being. Unfortunately, in our current culture, getting a "deal" has largely displaced righteous dealings as our first consideration in the marketplace.
Within the Christian tradition, the term frugal is wholly absent from the biblical text and is not among the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Generosity is instead the prized theme in stories of faith. God enables human generosity by promising a care for believers and creation that allows us to put our store in heaven not in barns or walk-in closets here on earth. The images are numerous: banquet tables set for the homeless, fishes and loaves multiplied, water turned into wine, and manna falling from heaven. Throughout scripture, generosity is structured by obligations to the most vulnerable. Rulers, merchants, and nations are judged by how they treat the poor, widowed, and orphaned. Faithful generosity follows God's preference for those normally forgotten by society.
Admittedly, we saw a glimmer of generosity in Wal-Mart's speedy delivery of desperately needed supplies to hurricane victims last month. They were first on the scene to the poor, widowed, and orphaned among us. But to focus only on Wal-Mart's short-term charity misses major dimensions of the biblical concept of generosity. Modeled on the nature of God, the creating, sustaining, and redeeming character of biblical generosity is not about short-term charity but long-term justice for all God's children. The sustaining life of God is about creating structures and cultures of care, wholeness, and fairness that are enduring. Wal-Mart's charity should not divert public - particularly religious, attention - from the largest retailer's long-term discrimination, import exploitation, and overtime and union-busting scandals. In contrast, faithful generosity is not primarily about short-term gifts to the needy, but the long-term task of building right relationships, weaving righteousness into the fabric of our lives.
The biblical exhortation, "From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required" (Luke 12:48), is about an understanding of stewardship that is always bound to fair use. Stewardship underscores our humble understanding of our temporary ownership of common goods and the obligations for equity and sustainability tied to that privilege. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's current dominance of the market is draining rather than sustaining local communities. Every Wal-Mart store employing 200 or more people costs taxpayers more than $420,000 in government social services used by employees whose low wages and unaffordable health insurance mean they largely subsist among the ranks of the working poor, according to "Everday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," a February 2004 report by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. Wal-Mart's anti-union policies also prevent workers from organizing for wages and benefits to support their families.
In contrast, unionized workers in the retail food industry earn 30% more than their nonunion counterparts. Every time Wal-Mart increases its market share by 1% in the grocery business, cashier's wages in the local market drop an average of 5.5 cents per hour. And Wal-Mart's market share has grown by 20% in the last five years, according to United Food and Commercial Workers. Yet if Wal-Mart paid each employee $1 more an hour, it could maintain its current profitability level by increasing prices a mere half-penny a dollar. See also, "The Impact of Big Box Grocers on Southern California," a September 1999 report prepared by the Orange County Business Council of California.
Corporate giants regularly justify these practices by appealing to the needs of their hourly employees. They see themselves as serving those who live paycheck to paycheck and must be frugal. This is perhaps the most appealing and invidious part of Wal-Mart morality. In the process of "serving" its employees and consumers, Wal-Mart actually lowers the workplace quality of the retail sector and entraps communities in practices of inequity. When the standard bearer and largest retailer in the world refuses to pay wages that support families, undermines organizing for greater benefits, and imports well over half of its merchandise from countries with little or no labor regulation, they effectively place a lock on the door to class mobility for the entire discount retail sector.
Cheap products are not valued in and of themselves by religious traditions. As the Wal-Mart public relations machine continues to gain momentum, people of faith need to think more about our economic witness and demand that our discount giants do not discount human dignity in our name.
C. Melissa Snarr is an associate professor of ethics at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she teaches courses ranging from Early Christian Political Thought to Religion and War in an Age of Terror.