General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsListen up, folks. Get ready for tomorrow's GOP talking point re Hobby Lobby decision!
A Company Liberals Could Love
by Ross Douthout, NY Times
"FOR a generation now, liberals have bemoaned the disappearance of the socially conscious corporation, the boardroom devoted to the common good. Once, the story goes, Americas C.E.O.s recognized that they shared interests with workers and customers; once wages and working hours reflected more than just a zeal for profits. But then came Reagan, deregulation, hostile takeovers, and an era of solidarity gave way to the age of Gordon Gekko, from which theres been no subsequent escape.
There are, however, exceptions: companies that still have a sense of business as a moral calling, which can be held up as examples to shame the bottom-liners.
One such company was hailed last year by the left-wing policy website Demos for thumbing its nose at the conventional wisdom that success in the retail industry requires paying bargain-basement wages. A retail chain with nearly 600 stores and 13,000 workers, this business sets its lowest full-time wage at $15 an hour, and raised wages steadily through the stagnant postrecession years. (Its do-gooder policies also include donating 10 percent of its profits to charity and giving all employees Sunday off.) And the chain is thriving commercially offering, as Demos put it, a clear example of how doing good for workers can also mean doing good for business.
Of course Im talking about Hobby Lobby, the Christian-owned craft store thats currently playing the role of liberalisms public enemy No. 1, for its successful suit against the Obama administrations mandate requiring coverage for contraceptives, sterilization and potential abortifacients."
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/opinion/sunday/ross-douthat-a-company-liberals-could-love-.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Higher wages are always encouraged, not providing an earned benefit to their women workforce is horrible. Besides the utter hypocrisy i.e. made in China, stock portfolio, etc. This company could easily be thrown back into the rightwings face on why they are so adamant about other corporations not raising their wages.
CTyankee
(63,903 posts)I'd bet money on it...I guess it's all they got in their arsenal. I hope Mika at least offers SOME rebuttal...but I don't hold out too much hope of that happening...maybe another woman on the panel if they dare to have one...usually it's just Mika and the guys...
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)The fact is we lost this case and it goes deeper than just Hobby Lobby, the outrage is that this decision is a slippery slope as corporations are being granted more and more rights by this SCOTUS while citizens are having rights taken away by this SCOTUS i.e. voting rights, union rights, citizens united, etc.
CTyankee
(63,903 posts)them up. Or at least go with the "on the one hand this and on the other hand that" weasily arguments we see on that show all the time...Mika says she reads all her tweets so I hope the women really let her have it...
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)audience is an insult to the medium.
Freddie
(9,259 posts)Substantial for some, by undermining the basic set of benefits that can be called "health insurance" under the ACA and forcing them to pay out of pocket what everyone else coveted by the law gets included in their benefits.
canoeist52
(2,282 posts)They just up the ratio of part-time workers. Nice try.