Russell: Corporate Black Friday success result of worker exploitation

People have criticized holiday commercialization so often that it now has the opposite effect it aims for: It turns urgent issues — like workers’ wages — into banal ideas and thus, dulls any impact on the already scarce national conscience.

The common argument against the commercialization of the holidays does not prove true because while it focuses on the corruption of self, it neglects to explore the social consequences of mindless holiday shopping. Sure, appealing to the self is probably an effective angle for Americans carrying around their copy of “Atlas Shrugged,” but perhaps emphasizing the direct harm that holiday commercialization inflicts on others — specifically, to the lower and middle classes — deserves more attention.

So first there’s Black Friday: an overflowing vat of greed that spills onto adjacent calendar days because of the “let’s see how much we can get away with” nature of capitalism. The empty title of Black Friday now means that minimum-wage employees have to clock in right after Thanksgiving dinner, and that’s if they’re lucky enough to enjoy the holiday at all. 

The real kings of capitalism, such as Walmart and Kmart, opened at an ambitious 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving, while other retailers, including Macy’s and Target, tried to maintain a semblance of concern for worker’s rights by opening at 8 p.m. Very few retailers were closed for the entire Thanksgiving holiday. 

Most corporations were at least merciful enough to offer time-and-a-half pay for employees working under these hellish conditions, which some have argued cancels out the exploitation. After all, Walmart is willing to dole out some extra pennies from its million-dollar Black Friday profits for workers who rarely see raises, let alone living wages, so everyone wins, right?

The enthusiasm of workers grasping for time slots on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve schedules is more telling of the financial insecurity that results from low wages throughout the year. And there is the minute cruelty of having the minimum-wage cashier ring up your big-screen TV and real leather boots, while cheering at savings that come directly at his or her expense. 

In a macro sense, it’s unlikely that shoppers save anything at all since a single Walmart Supercenter could cost taxpayers as much as $1.7 billion per year because of worker reliance on food stamps and other government aid programs. Meanwhile, Walmart sits at the No. 1 spot on the Fortune 500 list, with revenues close to $470 billion. CEO Mike Duke takes home $35 million per year, meaning he makes more in an hour than the average Walmart employee makes in a year. The only one benefiting financially from consumer holidays is Walmart. 

So the big banks, which hardly endured a slap on the wrist for tanking the economy and saddling the lower class with lifelong debt, are now owed some thanks from the corporations benefiting from the widespread financial insecurity that makes consumer holidays so desperately appealing in the first place.  

In a bitterly ironic approach that only Walmart could fail to see, the corporation even held a Thanksgiving food drive for employees to subsidize the low salaries of their own fellow employees. 

It’s this kind of exploitation that caused tens of thousands of protesters to rally outside of 1,500 Walmart stores on Black Friday to demand higher wages, health benefits and the right to form a union without the threat of termination.

According to BlackFridayDeathCount.com, consumer holidays are responsible for seven deaths and 89 injuries. Seeing this statistic, along with the 1,400 YouTube videos of chaos, brings to mind a protester’s sign outside of John Lennon’s funeral: “Can you see how stupid violence is?”

So before celebrating savings from holiday shopping, recognize that these discounts come at the expense of exploited workers, while billionaire CEOs laugh behind your back