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unplug
unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Save the Internet!
The corporations are at it again! Big telecom companies are trying to have tighter control over bandwidth (and make a buck in the process). Basically, they would charge web sites for bandwidth, meaning the sites that can afford to pay up will load quickly, and those that can't will load painfully slow or not at all. The House passed a telecommunications bill without net neutrality protections. Net neutrality is basically the First Amendment of the internet: it's what makes everyone from the biggest corporation to an individual blogger on a level playing field and equal opportunity to make their voice heard online. The bill is now in the senate, and hopefully a net neutrality amendment will be added.
I've always seen the internet as one of the last frontiers for truly free speech. The fact that anyone can put up a web page and anyone with access can see it is just amazing. It's the one place that hasn't been totally co-opted for only commercial uses. If net neutrality is not protected, it would be easy for internet providers to control whice sites people got to access and which they could not. And no one should have to be a corporate pawn!
Help keep the internet a level playing field and find out more about net neutrality at SaveTheInternet.com. Send a message to your senators today and keep the internet open for all.
Labels: activism, art/culture, politics
Monday, June 05, 2006
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
I watched a very enlightening (and unsettling) documentary last night, WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price. In the movie, many Wal-Mart employees, customers, factory workers, and ex-executives were interviewed. The effects of the big box store moving in on small town America are disasterous: the closing of small family-owned businesses, urban sprawl, inhumane sweatshops, and workers on welfare who can't afford health insurance... Wal-Mart plays a large role in the wreaking of communities, pollution, and proliferation of poverty that seem to run rampant in corporate America today. I highly recommend renting this video, it's a great inside look at what one company can do to communities all over the world.
There were some interesting facts in this film as well:
- In 2004, a study released the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that "reliance by Wal-Mart workers on public assistance programs in California comes at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $86 million annually; this is comprised of $32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance."
- Wal-Mart Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees
- Wal-Mart considers full-time 34 hours a week. The 34-hour per week full-time definition still is not the 40-hour definition employed by most businesses in America. Also, at Wal-Mart's stated average hourly wage of $9.68 per hour (source: WalmartFacts.com), a 34-hour week results in an annual wage of only $17,114—STILL below the poverty line for a family of four.
- Wal-Mart currently faces lawsuits in thirty-one different States for wage and hour abuses potentially involving hundreds of thousand workers.
- Federal Poverty Level Family of Four - $17,650
Average Wal-Mart Hourly Sales Employee Wages - $13,861 - Wal-Mart gets huge subsidies to open doors from local governments: WAL-MART SUBSIDY NATIONWIDE: $1.008 BILLION
...Yeah, depressing, huh. Good thing I don't support those pricks. In a small town it's hard to avoid the Wal-Mart, but I've managed to steer clear of them for quite some time. This movie really hit home for me because Moscow recently stopped a Super Wal-Mart from being built on the East edge of town. Granted, we already have a regular Wal-Mart on the West end of town (in a tiny college town of just over 20,000!), and one was approved to be built 8 miles away in neighboring Pullman, Washington. But it's a small victory in a long and hard-fought battle against the evil giant. Now, if we could only get them to close up shop permanently...
Join me in Boycotting Wal-Mart, and for more information, check out Wal-Mart Watch or the movie's site, The High Cost of Low Price.
Labels: art/culture, corpo-consumerism
