Florida’s new governor, Rick Scott, really loves Wal-Mart.
First, he hired the company’s disaster management chief to head the state’s emergency department. Then, he told residents that the state’s jail system, among other things, should run more like the big-box chain. And yesterday, he used the store corporation as an example of why residents didn’t give three hoots about treatment of state workers, or anything else beyond their own naked self-interest:
Scott said he saw a study last week (we’re checking to see where it came from) that showed the average government worker earns $9,000 more than the average private sector employee.
“It doesn’t mean the study is right. There are so many studies that come out,” Scott said. “But if you just think about it on the private side, if you’re a taxpayer, almost no taxpayer has a pension plan anymore. Very few, because the private companies couldn’t compete.
“Ninety-five percent of all Americans shop at Wal-mart at least once a year. When those Americans go shop there, they don’t say, ‘Gosh, I’m going to pay for that product because they have the best pension plan, or the best health care insurance or the nicest boss.’ They go based on price.
“As taxpayers and as consumers, we go to price.”
Translation: Shut up and be good customers, rubes.
Classy guy.
— From adamweinstein.tumblr.com
