Mark Maynard | Wal-Mart

Raising the minimum wage in Michigan is the right thing to do

By Mark | April 15, 2013

At the end of last week, Democrats in Lansing, led by State Senator Bert Johnson, proposed that we increase Michigan’s minimum wage to $10 an hour, from $7.40, where it’s been set for the past five years, in spite of the rising cost of living. Given that it would make Michigan’s the highest minimum wage [...]

Posted in Economics, Michigan, Uncategorized | Also tagged ALEC, Bert Johnson, Elizabeth Warren, Idaho, income inequality, minimum wage, Obama, poverty, shifting the tax burden to the working class, slavery, Subway, trickle down economics, Washington State, wealth inequality | 15 Comments

Why we have to support the workers of Walmart on Black Friday… and beyond

By Mark | November 22, 2012

Last night, Walmart warehouse and retail employees in Southern California walked off their jobs and began picketing. They were joined this morning by Walmart employees in Seattle. And, if all goes according to plan, a great many more will join them tomorrow, on Black Friday, when employees from over 1,000 Walmart stores are expected to [...]

Posted in Corporate Crime, Economics, Uncategorized | Also tagged anti-consumerism, Buy Nothing Day, consumerism, Corporate Action Network, food stamps, labor, labor movement, Making Change at Walmart, Rob Walton, Stand Up Live Better Fund, strikes, UFCW, unions, United Food & Commercial Workers, Walmart, welfare, Winning Words Project | 37 Comments

Is the Bank of Ann Arbor’s “non-local banker campaign” a hypocritical, pointelss mess of faux-localism?

By Mark | October 21, 2012

For the past few months, those of us who live in and around Ann Arbor have been subjected to a relentlessly pervasive advertising campaign featuring a balding, sunken-chested, Clearasil-colored cartoon banker with an often furrowed brow, and standard issue “nerd” glasses. He started showing up on billboards a little over a month ago. At first, [...]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Marketing, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged advertising, advertising campaign, analingus, Bank of America, Bank of Ann Arbor, banking, Banksy, billboards, Bongz And Thongz, Clear Channel, cool, culture jamming, Dustin Krcatovich, Encore Records, FM Dust, GG Allin, Half Ass, hipster, hypocrisy, hypocrisy watch, Iggy Pop, illustration, J.J. Sedelmaier, Jeremy Wheeler, JPMorgan Chase, local business, local economy, localism, localwashing, Mani Osteria, Matthew Altruda, Mayer Hawthorne, Nate Higley, Nike, non-local banker, Saagara, Saturday Night Live, social media, Sonic Lunch, TV Funhouse, VG Kids, viral marketing, what's cool and what's not | 112 Comments

Sending the wrong message with Instagram

By Mark | August 27, 2012

Today, after seeing the doctor about my persistent cough, I want to the drug store, to pick up the inhalers that I’d been prescribed. And, while there, waiting, I strolled around, looking at stuff, and coughing on things. I found two things to be particularly interesting. In front of Better Homes and Garden magazine, I [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Pop Culture, Special Projects, Uncategorized | Also tagged Ayn Rand, bondage, Christian cocktails, cocktails, Fifty Shades of American Women Who Love the Book and Live the Life, Fifty Shades of Grey, inhalers, Instagram, Libertarianism, lube, magazines, Mark's big ideas, pills, rats, sadism, Toddlers and Tiaras, Walgreens, Walmarting | 15 Comments

For-profit prisons… What could possibly go wrong?

By Mark | May 27, 2012

As it’s been a while since we’ve had a post here about the prison industrial complex, I thought that I’d pass along this clip from Charles Blow’s recent piece in the New York Times. “Louisiana is the world’s prison capital. The state imprisons more of its people, per head, than any of its U.S. counterparts. [...]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged Baldwin, Charles Blow, Corrections Corporation of America, G4S, GEO Group, Group 4 Falck, honey holes, House Bill 5174, Joe Haveman, John Proos, Louisiana, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Mark Ciavarella, Michigan Department of Corrections, Michigan House of Representatives, Natalie Holbrook, North Lake Correctional Facility, North Lake Facility for Youth, overincarceration, Pennsylvania, prison, prison industrial complex, prison industry, prison reform, prison sentences, prisoner rights, private prisons, privatization, Rick Snyder, security state, the cost of incarceration, unions, Wackenhut Corrections Corp, Wilkes-Barre | 18 Comments

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Raising the minimum wage in Michigan is the right thing to do

Why we have to support the workers of Walmart on Black Friday… and beyond

Sending the wrong message with Instagram

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