This weekend, the venerable Black Friday, there was more talk about workers, company owners and the divide between wages and profit. The best illustration of this was the WalMart walkout. On Black Friday, many WalMarts across the country had demonstrations in front of their stores, and a good number of them were spearheaded by WalMart workers. They were protesting the low wages, the lack of self respect and the internal hostility of management against those who would dare go against the company. WalMart played down the complaints by some employees, stating that very few of its one million 'associates' were involved.

Let's actually start this discussion off on the right foot. Many companies use the word 'associates' when talking about their workers. It's a way of making it seem that the worker is a part of the company family. They aren't a disposable worker but an 'associate' that has a say in working conditions and is a respected and valuable member of the company.

Many people may have issues with their job but they can look to other companies and point out things they feel make the other company much worse than what it is, thus making them feel grateful for the 'minor' inconveniences of their own job. What they refuse or unwilling to closely consider is the conditions of their own employment are just as oppressive as the ones they see in another company. The honest reason why people are reluctant to criticize their own company's labor practices are the current economy and societal perceptions.

When I saw people interviewed about the WalMart situation before Black Friday and read the comments people would leave on Internet comment pages, it was amazing to see how many people had the attitude that it was the workers fault for getting a job at WalMart and if conditions were so bad they would get a new job. It was a curious tone considering we just had an election where the basic premise of both sides was the economy was growing at a slower rate than it should, unemployment was too high and it was tough for families to make ends meet. What I believe was going on in a lot of people's minds was they were struggling to get by so why should WalMart workers get more money when others were suffering. It went over their heads that the main issue a lot of the WalMart workers had was Black Friday had morphed into Thursday, so at a time when they had a day off and TV shows and news reports were broadcasting happy stories about family and connection to good things, WalMart and many other retailers were telling their workers they had to be at the store, give up time for their families so the store could make a profit by opening up early to sell stuff.

The bigger issue in the Black Friday stories wasn't with WalMart, Target or Toys R Us. The big issue was how readily we are at dismissing the people who help us in the stores and not thinking of them as us. It happens to us in so many ways at all times of the year. We get upset at the drive thru worker because they get an order wrong. We wait in long lines and get mad at the cashier for not going fast enough. We abuse someone in customer service because of a 'we pay your salary' attitude. That attitude is passed through the company, so that 'associate' isn't part of the family as the pretty smiling faces on the advertisements would suggest.

The Black Friday WalMart protest wasn't about WalMart nor was it just about Black Friday. What has been happening for many years is workers in this country have been marginalized. Consumers, and consumers are workers, aren't factored in as being part of the economy. Pushing stock papers, mergers and acquisitions and stockholders are the people politicians and companies answer to when there is talk about the economy. That's why in the election there was so much talk about makers and takers and the job creators. Little mom and pop stores might be quaint in a Norman Rockwell America, but when a big box store like WalMart comes in it kills the mom and pop store. Just look at the push that went on during this week. People weren't waiting in line to buy something at the mom and pop store. They weren't going for mall sales. Target, Kmart, WalMart and other big tent stores were making profit. As I'm writing this on Monday, every news cast has had a story about the big savings people were having on Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is a joke because the reason why it was called this was back 10 years ago not many people had high speed web access at home, so they went to work to shop of deals online. Today a good number of people have fast Internet access at home, so they can shop anytime but the myth is perpetuated.

Just as a side example, for the past few months I have been shopping for part for a new computer build. I ordered some materials three weeks ago and the rest one week ago. I would say roughly half of the items I bought are on 'sale' now, yet I paid less for them than what they are selling for now. This has been pointed out in a number of news reports. For all the talk of sales and killer deals, the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday fever isn't as cost effective as we are lead to believe. We push workers harder to satisfy something that is manufactured to bring people into a frenzy. We have commercials calling this the most wonderful time of the year, we talk about this time of year we should be with family, yet our consumer culture has us scrambling for $5 headphones like a pack of hungry dogs fighting over a scrap of meat.