MORE ON THE INEFFABLE SUMP CALLED WAL-MART is this must reading, on the new affinity the corp. has developed with the old-line communist government of mainland China (thanks to Stumpy for passing on the link). Buried in the following graph is a nugget about the relative enforced poverty of typical Wal-Mart employees:

"... America's largest employer has opposed every effort of its employees to form a union. Wal-Mart doesn't recognize unions; it doesn't even recognize 'employees.' The proper Wal-Mart name for its workers is 'associates,' a term that connotes higher status and collegiality and that actually means lower pay and workplace autocracy. For the privilege of associating themselves with Wal-Mart, its employees are paid so little that many can't afford the health insurance the company generously allows them to buy. One study of health care in Las Vegas revealed that a plurality of that city's employed Medicaid recipients worked at Wal-Mart."

Spreading democracy and standing up for the American way, yadda, yadda, yadda. Meanwhile, the granddaughter of one of the founders of Wal-Mart paid $20,000 over three years to someone else to do her college papers for her. Where'd she learn such values? (The ABC News investigation can be seen here -- scroll down -- including an interview with the young woman who did that work for her.)