The Hightower Report

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REVEALING WAL-MART

Poor Wal-Mart. One day it's a peacock, the next day a feather duster. On Oct. 25, the retailing behemoth was basking in media reports about its new plan to reduce energy use. This was part of an overall PR push to buff up the battered image of the heavy-handed giant – so, on this day, Wal-Mart's honchos were strutting with all of their corporate tail feathers fanned.

Then came Oct. 26 ... and the peacock's plumes drooped. An internal corporate memo had been leaked to the media showing a bird of a different feather. In it, an executive vice-president sent a series of recommendations to the board of directors on ways to cut back on employees' benefits, thus saving the company a billion or so a year, while appearing for PR purposes to be offering more benefits.

The memo, for example, called for offering some education benefits as a lure to younger workers. How nice! But the real motive here is to push out workers who've been at Wal-Mart for a while and have earned higher pay and more benefits. The memo noted that someone with a seven-year tenure costs the corporation 55% more than a first-year worker, yet is no more productive. Better to ratchet up the turnover and rid the company of those more expensive veterans. Not nice.

Other not-nice recommendations were to hire more part-time workers (they don't get benefits), cut 401(K) contributions by one-fourth, and slash company-paid life insurance benefits by nearly a third.

Also, the memo admits that nearly half of the children of Wal-Mart's workers either have no health insurance at all or are on Medicaid. And while the company says it will offer a new health plan, it'll require out-of-pocket expenses so high that most of the low-wage workers will be priced out of the action.

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THE BEST IDEA SINCE SLICED BREAD

Have you heard of Otto Rohwedder? He's the guy who invented the bread slicer, back in 1928.

Well, if you can come up with the best idea since sliced bread, it could be worth $100,000 to you. That's the top prize being offered in a unique and useful competition sponsored by the Service Employees International Union. SEIU is looking for fresh, common-sense ideas to improve the lives of everyday Americans. From health care to education, from the offshoring of jobs to tax policies – what idea do you have for a better America?

The beauty of the union's approach is that it is totally grassroots, asking ordinary folks to come up with new policies that can actually help ordinary folks. Nearly all of today's policies come from the elites (CEOs, politicos, think tanks, and such), and you can see where that has gotten us! Their ideas are designed to benefit – big surprise! – the elites.

So, SEIU wants to reverse the usual order by hearing from you, drawing ideas from that great, untapped pool of creativity outside of the power structure. Go to their contest Web site (www.sinceslicedbread.com) and, in 175 words or less, put forth your brainstorm. Hurry – entries are due by Dec. 5. On the site, you can also read other people's ideas and comment on them. It's a free-for-all national conversation that you can join.

Then comes the voting. A panel of judges will choose 21 finalists and, beginning in January, all of America can vote on their ideas. On Feb. 1, the top vote-getter will win $100,000, and two runners-up will each get $50,000. The 21 finalists will be featured in a book, and their grassroots proposals will be delivered to the Powers That Be.

This contest is an even better idea than Otto Rohwedder had, for it slices through the usual top-down nature of politics. Join the fun – and help shape America's policy debate – by going to SinceSlicedBread.com.