Part of the charm of growing up in a small town used to be the opportunities one had to interact with "mom and pop" and their local business establishments.
For me, it was the once-a-year-or-so trips down to see Miss Polky Hall at Hall's Shoe Store, or to venture deep into the musty stacks of Guttman's Department Store. The Collegiate Shop and a visit with Colonel Snyder was one of the rites of passage for many of Martin, Tennessee's young men. (Where did the young ladies go to shop, by the way? I was oblivious, I guess.)
Never in a million years could that experience be replicated by Payless or Penney's, or any of the other knock off chain stores that pass for "shopping" these days. And Super Wal-Mart? Hah! Despite the ease of access to a virtually limitless supply of food, medicines, and what were once quaintly known as "dry goods," Sam Walton's brainchild remains a soulless convenience store on the superhighway of American consumer culture.
Now, I realize that bygones are bygones, and the mom-and-pop establishments of our past are pretty much done for. Doing business with people that you actually know, and business owners who actually live and have an active investment in the local community are fast falling by the wayside. These days, in order to survive...much less thrive...business has to be big. And that is unfortunate.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that corporate profits for the companies listed on the S&P 500 during the second quarter of 2010 were up by 38%, when compared to the same period a year ago. (Find the article here.) This level of profit was termed "near-historic" by the Journal. In other words, "we're making so dadgum much money we can hardly keep up with it!"
Okay, so if big business is doing so well, that must mean that we're all doing well, right? Guess again, Bozo.
The same Journal article stated that "these corporate profits came as the country as a whole got poorer. The net worth of households and non-profits dropped 2.8 percent" during the same period. That's you and me and our churches and favorite charities, don't ya' know.
Did someone just say "the rich got richer and the poor got poorer?"
Now, I'm all for the ability for "companies" and their shareholders to make a decent profit. But just how is it that times were so good for the "companies" and not so good for the rest of us? Again, let me quote the Journal: "To achieve the impressive quarterly results, companies have had to 'streamline' their operations. This means firing workers, outsourcing labor and shuttering unprofitable (or less profitable) divisions." Ouch!
But, wait...hold that wound open for just a minute more; I've got a little more salt left to pour in.
The Guardian magazine, in its September 1, 2010 issue, reported that the CEO's of the 50 American companies that laid off the most people during the recession earned 42 percent more than their peers. (Quick example-- Schering-Plough's Fred Hassan, who engineered a drug company merger with Merck that eliminated 16,000 total jobs, received a bonus of $49.7 million! That's $3100 and change per scalp, Fred...nice going!)
The average leader of an S&P 500 company earns 263 times more than the typical American worker. (Source: Institute for Policy Studies, http://www.ips-dc.org/) In case you missed it, these are the same guys and gals that enjoyed the above-mentioned 38% increase in profits by pushing the "common man" down by a couple of more points last quarter.
Miss Polky, where are you when we really need you?
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