The date is August 16th 2003.

I my Wal~Mart job today.

Hi, my name is Tracy Saboe, and I'm a College Graduate from Augustana College. I started working at Wal~Mart a few months afterward in 2001. And I've been working there ever since as a cashier. As I've been out of college my life has been more and more shaped by my study of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, reading about our country's founding fathers, and libertarianism. Axioms such as "When the government robs Peter to pay Paul, it can always count on the support of Paul," have become a previlent part of my world view.

Which brings me to cashiering at Wal~Mart. As most of you know, Wal~Mart accepts E.B.T., or an electronic version of Food Stamps. Ever since they opened up the "Supercenter" or Grocery side of it. My life is largely inundated by people using Food Stamps to purchase Pop, Ice Cream, Chips, Cookies, Candy, Cake, and all manner of unhealthy [read "Junk"] food. When they aren't purchasing these artery clogging, insulin spiking luxuries; they're buying Gourmet Steak, Shrimp, Pork Ribs, and fancy name brand frozen TV Dinners that cost 5 times what it would cost if they'd learn how to cook for themselves. Or, (Two of my personal favorite) "I'm buying these steaks for my Dogs" and "My kid's having a birthday, and he just HAS to have a $40 decorator Scooby Doo Cake." Apparently she didn't feel her son's life would be complete with-out one. Sometimes, I'd look at the balance they have left on their EBT card (it's right on the reciept so we can tell them know how much is left) after buying all this stuff (that I can't afford) and notice they have more money left on it then I made in a paycheck.

You think I'm joking? I'm a cashier, I see it all.

It frustrates me to see my tax money used this way, but day in and day out, I smile and say "Have a good day." Usually I comment to the next person in line, "I just Love seeing my tax money used to buy 7 up, cupcakes and candy don't you?" The next person in line usually emphatically agrees with me. I had one older lady tell me, "You must have heard us talking about that. It's good to hear young people who think that way. Maybe they'll do something about it."

In fact quite often I'll get into Political discussions with my customers. They seem to like me. Many of them say that I'm their cashier. One lady said she'd go to me because, "[I'm] nice to old folks like her." I'll give mack change and mention how a penny used to be worth something (It's not now thanks to the federal reserve) Customers continually ask me, "Do you always have a smile on my face?"  I guess I won't be their anymore to cheer them up. One guy was like, "I've been in Wal~Marts all over this country and I've never seen a cashier who knows how to use the word "tyranny." I'm not sure exactly what he was referring to, but I'll bet it was my comment that Thomas Jefferson once said that it was tyranny to force people to pay for something they don't believe in (The current War Effort, Public Gay Schools in New York, The National Endowment for the Arts, etc.)

When age requirements for gun ownership come up, I voice my disapproval. "There used to be a time when it was considered a Right of Passage for a 12 year old to take his gun to school with him." Not anymore. In fact, the terrorist attack would never have been able to happen if we hadn't banned law abiding citizens from carrying guns onto the airplane in the late 70s. But that's another story. Here in South Dakota gun culture people emphatically agree with me on that point too.

But I digress.

A couple days ago a girl went through my line (Thursday, August 16th). I was chatting with her, and she seemed like a nice girl. Then I noticed that she pulled out her E.B.T. card and I felt the same frustration I always feel. I rang up her Sprite, her Dr. Pepper, her Little Debbie's mini cakes, and several other "food" items that wouldn't be healthy for anybody's pocketbook if they weren't getting a free handout from the Fed (Read from you and me). And definitely not physically healthy for anybody. (I challenge you to find any nutritionist who thinks Dr Pepper and mini cakes are healthy, much less a biological necessity.)

I thought I might try an experiment. (Which I probably shouldn't have done, but anyway.) Perhaps I could help her get out of the trap that is welfare. (It really is a trap. My wife's parents used to be on it because her brother, their son, had Cerebral Palsy, and they had to be very careful they didn't make $1 over their limit, otherwise they'd loose half of their help. The step-father, Jerry, agrees with me, "The government encourages slothfulness.")

I asked this girl if she knew how to cook. She looked at me, a bit estranged, "No." And I said to her, that it might be one skill she might want to look into if she wanted to free herself from the government control over her life. She said to me, "Well, it's just something that I do while I'm in college."

Ok, this really burned me. She's an able bodied person, living off other peoples money because of convenience. She's probably getting a federal grant or at least a federally subsidized loan to pay for college too. (Read, she's going to college with my tax money. Of course I must admit that I did the same thing before I realized the government theft involved in getting the money it needs to subsidies that loan. So, I'm a bit of a hypocrite. Now I'm paying it back as fast as I can, so I don't contribute to the expansion of the welfare state ) When I was in college, my parents helped pay for it. (And I have to pay them back.) but at least that's voluntary charity. And when my parents were in college, they definitely worked their way through it. In fact, one of the reasons why college tuition inflates 9% more every year then the inflation rate is because of all the government interference. It's because they have to pay all those college administrators and secretaries who do all that paperwork neccessary to get government moneys. The other reason is that whenever you give something to somebody for free, demand soars, which raises prices for everybody who doesn't get it free. But that's another story also.

So anyway, I said to this girl as I checked her out, "You do realized that you're buying this with other people tax money."
"Yeah, but I paid taxes all my life too." ALL HER LIFE? She's younger then I am, and I'm only 24. If she's in college on food stamps I sincerely doubt she's had much of a job and paid the income taxes that fund those stamps.

"Have a good day," I said as I helped her pack her bags into her cart.

But this is where the absurdity struck me. It's the income tax system that encourages the welfare state. People who pay taxes, now feel they have an entitlement to some of the money they paid in. And why wouldn't they. It's their money after all.

Apparently she didn't have a good day, because as I got up to go on my break a little later, one of the assistant managers came over and talked to me, and gave me quite a dressing down. Apparently she had complained: understandable.

So, I thought everything was OK. He had just said, "If I here of anything else like that again, I'm firing you."
"OK, It won't happen again."
"I hope not."

Now, I do admit, It was an inapropriate conversation to have in a cashier/customer relationship. It shouldn't have happened. After all, I'm representing Wal~Mart, not myself, and making a customer angry could be seen as stealing business, or time from my employer. But at the same time, I had never been talked to before about this. In fact it was the first time I had a conversation like that with any food stamp user. I thought that I would still be there, because of what the manager who initially talked to me said ,"If I ever hear about something like this again, I'll fire you." So I was suprised at what happened today, because I hadn't done it again. Anyway.

I went in to work today, August 16th, at 3:00 PM. And almost immediately as soon as I got on the register, they pulled me off, and said, "they want to see you in personal."

"Ooooo Key," I walked back there, and two other assistant managers were there sitting in the room. "Can I help you?" I asked.
"Hi, Tracy sit down."

I felt like I was going into an inquisition, but I'd gotten rewards in places like this too, so I wasn't sure what to think.

They wanted to hear me explain the incident to them. Apparently, this girl complained to district about it, and now all of management knew about it. So I did. Daryle, one of the two, said, "Tracy, this falls under gross misconduct."  gross misconduct? Inapropriate for a cashier/customer relationship, yes, but gross misconduct? I could have plainly told the girl to not buy junk food with my tax money. I could have called her names. A civil conversation with somebody: Gross Misconduct?

Daryle went an to explain that this could be interpreted as sexual harassment. Sexual harassment? Some of these people are extremely over sensitive. Their wasn't anything sexual or gender discriminating about the conversation. Inappropriate, or unprofessional for a cashier/customer relationship yes. But sexual harassment?

". . . If this had been a person of color, it could be construed as racism." Racism? Where do these people get this stuff. Seriously. They only hear what they want to hear. How could you get racism out of that conversation. I just don't like people buying junk food with my tax money. Why is that racist? Perhaps if it had been a white male, -- Or I had been a black female -- and the customer complained it might have all blown over or something. But she was a white female, so obviously it must be interpreted as sexual harassment. I couldn't help thinking of Larry Elder's book, Ten Things You can't Say in America, where one thing the black libertarian author asserts is that blacks tend to be more rascist then whites.

Well, the hypocrisy was getting to me anyway. I said, "well, it's probably good for both of us, because I was struggling with the morality of getting paid with that kind of money."

"Explain to us that statement. 'That kind of money.'"

"Well, frankly sir: Stolen money. Money taken from hardworking people (like like you and me), and handed out to others. Why does a person have a moral right to my money, or yours, just because she's poor? Secondly sir, the only person who really gets rich and wealthy from food stamps are people that accept them -- the businesses already big enough to have the money to invest in that infrastructure. People on food stamps don't spend that money wisely to better themselves. They spend it frivolously."

"But that's your personal opinion you should keep that to yourself" said Donna, the other assistant manager.

MY personal opinion? I should have told them that it's the personal opinion of every single other cashier up there. It's probably the personal opinion of every single grocery clerk in the state. It's just that  I might be a little bit more vocal about it. And it's not MY personal opinion, it's the U.S. Constitutions opinion. Nowhere, does the U.S. Constitution give the federal government power to hand out charity.

"Well Tracy, if that's the way you feel, it's probably good that we parted company," replied Daryle, "But you're probably going to have trouble finding other employment, because the fact is, There ARE poor people out there. And most of them not there by their own choosing."

"No?" I replied. "You guys don't cashier. Neither one of you ever did. You don't see the same things I do. In my almost 2 years here at Wal~Mart, I've only met one person, who was actually purchasing responsible foods on her food stamps. Do you really think that girl needed pop, and Little Debbie's cakes, and Ice cream? Which is what the VAST majority of them use it for. And then they have money left over for a TV, or something. No, most of the people on food stamps aren't truly poor, or needy. The ones that are, get plenty of help from private charity's and voluntary banquets already. Do you really approve of your tax money being used to help people by Junk Food?"

He didn't reply right away, so I went on, "Of course you do, because part of your paycheck comes from it. I have more integrity then that."

And so here I am today, with-out a job. I'll find another one. One where I'm not getting part of my paycheck from stolen money. At least my conscience is clear. The hypocrisy was getting to me.

Tracy Saboe