Where You Spend Your Dollars Matters

Consumers See Payoff in Consumer Activism

Perhaps it’s must me, but I believe that employers should provide healthcare insurance to full-time employees. Perhaps this attitude of mine comes from my employment history of white-collar office jobs, and that I don’t know what it’s like for working people in service industries such as restaurants and hotels. Is it normal to put in a 40 hour week and not have the option of having health insurance, paid either in full or in part by your employer? After all, doesn’t the guy sitting behind the desk calling the shots get health insurance? Isn’t there strength and bargaining power in numbers?

Darden Restaurants, Inc., found out recently that consumers care about the character and integrity of companies that they patronize. After announcing that they would scale back the hours of many of their full-time employees in order to limit healthcare costs, they saw a bump in business that made them change their tune. Customers and employees bombarded them through social media and their website to voice their disapproval.

Today’s consumer has less money to spend on dinners out. They have fewer dollars to spend on clothing, jewelry and movies. They are selective about where those dollars are spent. Although I don’t spend a lot of money going out to dinner, I do love those garlic cheese biscuits at Red Lobster (a Darden restaurant) and it wasn’t easy for me to turn my back on a favorite restaurant, but I did. I was appalled to hear about their cost-savings efforts on the backs of their lowest paid, most vulnerable employees, and I cut them off my list. Apparently a lot of other consumers did the same thing, because they have lowered their profit outlook for the year and are changing their tune. They are now saying that they find that their restaurants perform better and employee and customer satisfaction is higher where they employ full time hourly employees.

Ya’ think? Of course your employees are happier if they know they won’t be ruined financially because of an illness. This is common sense.

Let’s see if Darden Restaurants, Inc., can recover from the public backlash. In the meantime, let’s continue to consume wisely.

Middle School Wrestler with Cerebral Palsy “Wins” Match

It was a heartwarming video and story on Yahoo!. A coach carries a profoundly physically disabled youth into the wrestling wring and lays him down next to his opponent, who stands with his hand on his hip, watching. To the cheers and encouragement of the coach and the crowd, the match begins with the abled youth crouching next to his opponent, then laying down next to him, and, clearly struggling with the weight, pulls the disabled youth on top of him. The coach blows his whistle and calls the match won. The grin on the face of the disabled youth could melt the polar ice cap (especially now, since it’s been compromised by global warming).
The middle school wrestler who “let” the disabled wrestler win is being hailed as a great sportsman, and to be sure, kids that age are famous for their neediness and selfishness. They are kids, and kids are primarily concerned with their own needs, so he is to be hailed for his selfless act.

My concern is for the other kid. Is it fair to put a profoundly physically disabled child in a position to participate in a sport that they can never really achieve? I mean, the cheers and accolades are heartwarming, but they aren’t real. I think it’s cruel to lead him on in that manner. As cruel as it, the child can’t even walk or sit up, so what is he doing in the wrestling ring? Shouldn’t children be taught to be the best at whatever they are good at, rather than pretending to be good at something?

There are plenty of physically disabled athletes, and they inspire awe from me. I’ve seen athletes without legs whooshing down ski slopes that I wouldn’t dare try out. Watching the athletes compete at the Paralympics this year blew my mind – people achieving things that MOST of us never could. But wrestling when you are too weak to even sit up? I don’t think so.

The article in Yahoo! went on to say that the wrestler with CP was close to his age level intellectually. Why not help him to achieve his intellectual goals instead? Can’t his family help him with something that he can achieve on his own without being placed on a mat?

Maybe I’m just being a Scrooge, but I don’t think so. This past election has shown us that there are plenty of Americans out there that never learned how to lose gracefully; that still operate at the 3rd grade level when things don’t go their way. I don’t think we do our children any favors by being unrealistic about how life works.

http://youtu.be/J-pInwGuhJw

Chris Brown Allows Himself to be Goaded Into Losing His Mind Publicly, Again

This morning I read about Chris Brown deleting his Twitter account after losing his mind publicly, in cyberspace, on comedy writer Jenny Johnson. Some of the headlines bring to mind a big black he-monster attacking a poor defenseless white woman, headlines like “Chris Brown Attacks Female Comedy Writer,” and “Chris Brown Deletes Twitter Account After Vulgar Exchange with Female.”

To be sure, the exchange was nasty and vulgar, but it certainly wasn’t one-sided. She is no innocent bystander. She has been attacking him for years (since the Rihanna incident), and is pretty vulgar herself, spending her time attacking “celebrities.” Whatever works for you, I guess. But when you go online and write mean things about an emotionally immature person, knowing that he has a short fuse, don’t play victim when he explodes. It was, in my opinion, a fair fight. Ultimately, she won, because she got him to explode, but please. She is nobody’s victim here.

 

The exchange (with our commentary in italics):

 

@JennyJohnsonHi5: I know! Being a worthless piece of shit can really age a person. RT @chrisbrown: I look old as fuck! I’m only 23…

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I know! Being a worthless piece of shit can really age a person. :take them teeth out when u Sucking (notice the capitalization of “Sucking,” that’s an important word for him!) my dick HOE.

@JennyJohnsonHi5: It’s “HO” not “HOE” you ignorant fuck. (that’s right – if you are going to use slang, make sure you use it correctly.) RT @chrisbrown: take them teeth out when u Sucking my dick HOE.

@Chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I should fart while ur giving me top. “Seize the day” #CarpeDiem (teenage boy humor…)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: Your mom must be so proud of you. RT (Chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: I should fart while ur giving me top. (Wow, now she’s really hitting below the belt, bringing his Mama into it..)

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: see..I don’t even have to tell u what u already know. Thanks HO! #bushpig (well, at least he cleaned up his slang.)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: http://t.co/WpuEMPOP #SuckIt RT @chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: see..I don’t even have to tell u what u already know. Thanks HO! #bushpig

@chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5: mom says hello…She told me not to shart in ur mouth, wanted me to shit right on the retina, …#pinkeye (Wow! He’s really ratcheting up the playground fight here!)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: YOU FLIRT!!! RT @chrisbrown: @JennyJohnsonHi5 mom says hello… She told me not to shart in ur mouth, wanted me to shit right on the retina,

@chrisbrown: Let me leave this bitch alone… It’s good to know my worth by listening to a bitch that is worthless! #iwin #bushpigswag (now, that’s confidence!)

@JennyJohnsonHi5: Okay. I’m done. All I got from that exchange with Chris Brown is that he wants to shit and fart on me.