I am a Dr. Pepper addict. So today is a bad day for me. You see as I sat enjoying a Dr. Pepper while watching the evening news I saw something on the screen which means I won't be buying my beloved Pepper for a long while to come - if ever again.
The Dr. Pepper Company is making record profits. Yet they are soooo greedy that they are cutting the wages and benefits of the very folks who produce their products. This impacts not only the families of the workers who lose a portion of their income, it affects the entire economy of the community to which they belong.
If the Dr. Pepper worker can no longer afford to take his family to a Friday night ball game and buy his kid a hotdog, the guys vending the hotdogs, cleaning the stands, taking the tickets, and manicuring the field earn less. SOOOOO when those vendors/cleaners/ticket-takers/groundskeepers go to church on Sunday their tithes are less, their Sunday suppers are more frugal, and they may be driving home on threadbare tires. That means the town's mechanics, grocers, and pastors all have less as well. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people suffer the consequences of the Dr. Pepper execs' greed. And I suspect those heartless execs congratulate themselves on causing all this pain by giving themselves fat bonuses from their enormous profits.
It makes me SICK!
So here's to you, Dr. Pepper Company. Thanks for curing me of my Dr. Pepper addiction. Not one more dime will I knowingly spend on your product until your execs grow a conscience.
So what does this have to do with writing? I don't know. Anyone care to stretch for some sort of meaning?
Something that's helping me write today: The boiling of my blood caused by a monumental sense of betrayal that the company I have spent so many dollars, days, and calories on has turned out to be a villain of the highest order.
The Dr. Pepper Company is making record profits. Yet they are soooo greedy that they are cutting the wages and benefits of the very folks who produce their products. This impacts not only the families of the workers who lose a portion of their income, it affects the entire economy of the community to which they belong.
If the Dr. Pepper worker can no longer afford to take his family to a Friday night ball game and buy his kid a hotdog, the guys vending the hotdogs, cleaning the stands, taking the tickets, and manicuring the field earn less. SOOOOO when those vendors/cleaners/ticket-takers/groundskeepers go to church on Sunday their tithes are less, their Sunday suppers are more frugal, and they may be driving home on threadbare tires. That means the town's mechanics, grocers, and pastors all have less as well. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people suffer the consequences of the Dr. Pepper execs' greed. And I suspect those heartless execs congratulate themselves on causing all this pain by giving themselves fat bonuses from their enormous profits.
It makes me SICK!
So here's to you, Dr. Pepper Company. Thanks for curing me of my Dr. Pepper addiction. Not one more dime will I knowingly spend on your product until your execs grow a conscience.
So what does this have to do with writing? I don't know. Anyone care to stretch for some sort of meaning?
Something that's helping me write today: The boiling of my blood caused by a monumental sense of betrayal that the company I have spent so many dollars, days, and calories on has turned out to be a villain of the highest order.
4 comments:
Wendy S Marcus said...
Hi Regina!
Don't be so quick to give up something you love. Fight for it! Write letters, send e-mails. And also remember, there are two sides to every story. The media is a powerful tool but does not always convey information accurately. What you saw may be union propaganda. Do some research. Find out for sure.
Regina Richards said...
Hi Wendy,
The company argues that wages in the area for similar jobs have dropped (duh! it's a recession) and so they need to bring the wages of their own employees in line with the wages in the area.
I'd buy that if the company was experiencing the same financial woes as other industries in the area. But they are rocking record profits!
They have no good financial reason to say to the people who helped them produce those record profits that they should adjust their lifestyles downwards by upwards of 25 percent so that the execs can produce even greater profits.
That's just greed, pure and simple. I won't support it. So...today I went to lunch with a group of ladies and as much as I wanted, wanted, wanted to order an ice cold delicious Dr. Pepper, I didn't. Iced tea with lemon.
Jen FitzGerald said...
Bless your heart, Regina. And what a shame--can no one give back anymore?
Regina Richards said...
Hi Jen. :)
Hopefully the Dr. Pepper Company will reconsider. If not it looks like my belly button may relocate a little closer to my backbone.