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Mike Huckabee on CorporationsRepublican AR Governor |
A: I think the Republican Party needs some repair. The Republican Party needs to remember that its strength was being the champion for small business. 80% of all jobs in this country come from small business. If we become the party that forgets that, if we become the party that does not empower the individual who wants to struggle from his place at the lower end of the economic spectrum up the ladder, then we’re going to lose a lot of the base that gave us great strength, that helped us to become the majority party, that built the Reagan coalition, that also helped elect both George Bush 41 and George Bush 43.
Wal-Mart has become the largest private sector employer in approximately 49 of our 50 states. And somebody apparently likes this company, since 150 million people a week enter its door.
Labor unions in particular have sought to disparage Wal-Mart as a workplace, despite the fact that the average wage paid to its 46,000-strong Arkansas workforce is some $4.50 higher per hour than the minimum wage. A new store in Chicago scheduled to employ 325 people watched as 25,000 applied.
One of the great challenges of life is determining that our pleasure shouldn’t be based on the amount of our treasure. When life and its enjoyment are defined by what we have accumulated, we’re to be pitied rather than envied. Our treasure should never become our job, home, car, property, or any other “toys.” Consumerism can be intoxicating and addictive. Those who are swept up in its power find their occasional moments of ecstasy tied to the purchase of something.
A sense of real peace is achieved only when you can say that material things are genuinely immaterial. It’s not so much what we have but what has us that will determine our inner tranquility. There’s no prohibition in God’s Word to having much, but there’s a strong admonition not to allow even a little to possess us.