I came across this great post on the DMI blog.

Last night, I watched KVUE news (an Austin ABC affiliate) do a number of Thanksgiving stories. One struck me as particularly meaningful; about a woman named Lola, the focus of local documentary director, Michelle Nehme. A damn good cook and human, Lola’s proof that you don’t have to have a lot to give a lot.

She is effectively homeless, living in the back of her tiny restaurant, Nubian Queen Lola’s Cajun Kitchen. On Thanksgiving eve, she got on her bike and rode through the streets of East Austin, handing out food to people who needed it. To her, “it’s not how much money you have, but what you’re going to do with what’s in your hands” that counts. It’s the idea that if you have enough, you can afford to give away the extra.

The key quote to remember is, if you have enough you can afford to give away the extra. That’s the sort of thinking that should be present in society. Not this “rugged individualism” and “every man or woman for themselves” thinking of conservatism.

Then there’s this intersting part about Whole Foods:

Close to Lola’s place, there’s another Thanksgiving phenomenon occurring. Whole Foods Market is bustling with people buying pie, sides and last minute turkeys. The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, publicly gets the concept of ‘enough’ with respect his employees. Company policy caps the amount that any of the executives can make at 14 times that of the average worker’s compensation. His network of stores continues to expand and he has one of the best balance sheets in the food industry.

Outside of Whole Foods, the average CEO made 431 times the average worker’s pay in 2004. In 2005, the average CEO made 821 times what a minimum wage worker took home. Since the last vote for minimum wage increase in 1997, Congress voted itself 8 raises.

The post ends with this:

Whole Foods doesn’t make the kind of profits Exxon-Mobil does, but it makes money, fairly compensates workers, and carries quality products – including amazing sweet potato pies, fantastic creamed spinach and pumpkin ravioli. It shows something that we, who are lucky enough to have Thanksgiving dinners, know in our stomachs: enough is enough is healthier individually and still leaves plenty to go around the table.

I’m not a fan of working for corporations. I don’t like sales or being pushed to meet sales goals. I also don’t like making other people even richer. I don’t ever want to do it again. But when there are companies that are doing the right thing you have to point that out. I understand that business drives the economy but I don’t want to work in it that’s all. There are tons of people who have no problem working in the corporate/retail/banking/service private sector world and that’s fine. If all companies were doing the right thing like Whole Foods and the ones listed at Coop America we would be a much better world.

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