A glimpse at Corporate America

After a brief foray into corporate responsibility following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, is back at its usual ways of gutting employee benefits and freeloading off the government to care for its employees. In a memo obtained by the New York Times, Wal-Mart has revealed its true colors- it wants to cut employee benefits without looking too awful in the eyes of the public.

The proposals laid out in the memo include:

• discouraging unhealthy employees from accepting work at Wal-Mart by requiring that "all jobs include some physical activity,"
• hiring more part-time workers, and
• attracting more young workers at lower pay since older workers are no more productive.

The memo acknowledged that in cutting benefits Wal-Mart must walk softly because 46 percent of the children of its 1.33 million U.S. employees lack health insurance or receive Medicaid. I guess times are tight for the Walton family since the company only earned $10.5 billion last year.

Meanwhile, another industry with questionable business practices is reporting jaw-dropping earnings this week. ExxonMobil is expected to announce today that it has earned the largest quarterly profit of any company ever!

I wonder what proposals for corporate welfare Congress has in store for the oil companies now?