nardelli

well....i got my deserved prize from subscribing to the wall street journal.

just when you think this bastion of conservatism has gotten stale, they throw in one article with a truly bitchy quote.

when referring to the soon-to-be-departed CEO Nardelli, he was quoted in the article as being "short, bald, agressive and hard-working"....can we say, underendowed?
however we should not feel bad for mr. nardelli. his compensation package is 210 MILLION dollars. and his strategy to return home depot to profitability? reducing the number of full-time workers (who are expensive but know a saw from a hammer) with part-time workers (who may, or likely do not, speak english) in order to minimize labor costs. if only the rest of us could be rewarded for being so prescient for reducing costs by firing people who know their ass from their elbow. oh wait, that might be most large corporations in america.

this article was, notably, concurrent with george will's op-ed piece today which clarified that the minimum wage ought to be 0 dollars, that is right ZERO. his position is that business ought to decide what the price of labor should be. however he left out (shockingly) how illegal immigrants affect the labor prices in the market. given that he is a republican apologist, how on earth does he reconcile the fact that illegal immigrants depress the rate of hourly pay? of course, he doesn't. further, how does he reconcile the actions of companies in small towns where the company is the predominant employer, ergo, the company can dictate the hourly wage downward since there is no alternative (but to move). and how does one move to a more prosperous region without the capital to do so? dear mr. will is also remarkably silent on this issue. the minimum wage was enstated in the 1930s as an antidote to the behavior or raw capitalists (oh, wait, it was supposedly to elevate depressed wages due to the economic malaise - due to the???? yup, you got it, the excesses of the 1920s where american capitalism had recovered from its late 1880s excesses). if bob nardelli is granted 210 MILLION bucks for being fired, what should we make of the decline of customer service at home depot?

the american public voted for nardelli with their pocketbooks over the nice old guy at sears or the hardware store....those guys could actually tell you how to do something. the american public has also voted for wal-mart and safeway and petsmart and all of those other souless chains. the free market reigns in this country. but should the free market allow federal law to be usurped? should companies be allowed to hire illegal immigrants (against federal law) in order to depress wages which in turn maximize profit? clearly the american public does not mind....until they lose their job. when 42% of households in california do not speak english at home, and likesie 28% in texas , and over 20% in florida, new york and illinois - will americans stop subsidizing the demise of the service/blue collar sector? if the market will allow mr. nardelli 210 MILLION bucks as severence, i think you have your answer.

do your duty...shop at independent stores, buy food at a local co-op, specifically avoid any big box retailer that ships your $$$ to another country (either by buying manufactured goods that are from those countries or hiring illegals), think about what your revenue does when you vote with your pocketbook to reward underacheivers such as mr. nardelli.