Of course this is my opinion and not intended to offend anyone.

To me, the question is, is there a corporation in America that somehow does not face the same issues that Wal-Mart does? Why single out Wal-Mart? If I pay more at Vitamin Cottage, K-Mart, Target, or the Co-Op, does that mean that their workers are better off?

Where do you think that the same poor people working at Wal-Mart go to buy their groceries and clothing? They are grateful that there is a place like Wal-Mart where they can buy some affordable groceries and sundries.

Pretty much we're saying that in order to be ethical, about every discount store in this country or every company that pays minimum wage or is allowed to pay less than the minimum wage (which a lot of small business fall under) or uses unskilled labor should be boycotted. I think that would cover a lot of the natural grocery co-ops, too.

Even Ben & Jerry's, one of the most "green" and activist companies in the nation, changed their payscale. At one point they had a rule where the person in the company making the least amount of money wouldn't make less than a certain percentage of the highest earner in the company. After a while that wasn't practical any more and even that company fell into the corporate rut.

Let's face it, minimum wage itself is unliveable--it's not only Wal-Mart employees that are stuck with low wages. Most minimum wage workers don't even have the opportunity to buy insurance.

Unskilled labor is the most underrated work in the world--and you only get out of that rut by learning a marketable skill. Even so, you could graduate for Harvard and make less than $10 an hour working as a social activist/journalist for one of the green companies that comes to our door to solicit signatures. Of course it wouldn't pay back your student loans. I don't see anyone persecuting those employers for less than a liveable wage...

Unions are not the begin all and end all. In and of themselves there is corruption there as well. I used to work for the grocery store union in St. Louis, MO. When Krogers went belly up in that region, all the Krogers union workers who lost their jobs lost everything. They had to start over again with entry-level wages in a different grocery store chain. How did the union help them?

Yes, unions can help, particularly with benefits... but benefit prices are determined by private insurance companies--when I worked at my low grocery wage, the union dues and insurance took a chunk out of my pay. It's like saying that Cobra helps people who lose their jobs... heck, who can afford to pay for Cobra health insurance when you are unemployed?