Did Slaves Catch Your Seafood?

Did Slaves Catch Your Seafood?

A few years ago, a friend promised Asorasak Thama a job in the Thai fishing industry. The job offered good pay for a few weeks of work. Instead, he wound up trapped at sea for a year, working in terrible conditions for no pay at all. Thama had become a slave....
Wal-Mart Does Something Right

Wal-Mart Does Something Right

Once, I indirectly forced a neighbor to drive far out of her way for a head of broccoli. I think she’s forgiven me, but I’m not sure the love is still the same. She was kindly caring for my child and running errands when she turned toward Wal-Mart for a...
Show Up on Thanksgiving or Get Fired

Show Up on Thanksgiving or Get Fired

Most Americans — from the Obama family in the White House to my little family in Texas — will get a much-deserved break from work on Thanksgiving Day. But millions of others won’t. Understandably, firefighters, police, and hospital workers will stay on the job....
You Just Got ‘Richsplained’

You Just Got ‘Richsplained’

Tiffany Beroid, a mother and Wal-Mart employee in Laurel, Maryland, was forced to drop out of college because of her employer’s low wages and erratic scheduling practices. When she spoke out about the problems she faced, Wal-Mart fired her. Since then, Beroid...
Wal-Mart Scrooges Us All

Wal-Mart Scrooges Us All

Gosh, time flies when it’s pushed along by a jet stream of greed. It seems like only yesterday that Wal-Mart announced, with much self-congratulatory fanfare, that the super-rich retailing colossus wasn’t a scrooge after all. Indeed, while the...