Very interesting article in today’s SFGate.com. In a nutshell, here’s the issue:
Wal-Mart could save Bay Area grocery shoppers as a whole $382 million to $1.13 billion per year — roughly 5 to 13 percent of their expected annual spending on groceries — if the growth forecasts hold true, the report says.
On the flip side, the average Bay Area grocery-store employee can expect to lose $21,000 from his or her current annual wage-and-benefits package of $42,552 per year, the report warns.
From where I sit, this just seems like another example of cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face. Granted, downward pressure on the wages in one segment of the employment market does not translate to downward pressure across the board, but it’s indicative of a theme in corporate beliefs these days.
As I’ve said in these pages before, this ongoing downward pressure in wages and tendency towards outsourcing jobs is one that I consider hugely dangerous to America as a whole. We are sacrificing our future for short-term profits. Because when everyone is making less than $30K a year, who is going to buy all these goods and services?
It’s also a good argument for taking your destiny into your own hands, via self-employment and/or starting your own business. If you can.
It’s been a few years since my own business venture failed, and I still bear the scars. The biggest one being a loss of confidence that I really can do what I set out to do. That’s been ameliorated somewhat over the last year or so by my discovery that I am pretty good at this retail stuff, but it’s not entirely gone either. And my credit’s still screwed.
I’ve always said that despite the scars, I’d want to do it again some day. And I still believe that. But I haven’t given a lot of thought to how I’m going to make that happen. It’s a little late for New Year’s resolutions, but perhaps that should be mine for 2004 – to start thinking seriously about what I’m going to do about my career. With the economy and Bay Area job market so screwed, I’ve basically been in a reactive, not proactive mode. I don’t know if the economy has changed all that much, but I’m getting tired of letting the current take me where it will. I need to start doing more of my own choosing, not what others choose for me.