The Difference Between You and Me by Madeleine George

Author:Madeleine George [George, Madeleine]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781101567012
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

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What the Internet will teach you about StarMart:

One: That the reason it can sell its products so cheaply (only three dollars for a shirt?!) is because it manufactures them in places in the world like Bangladesh or Honduras where the laws are so unfair to workers that you can get away with paying people only a few cents a day for ten hours of work in a hot, filthy factory.

Two: That even here in the US, StarMart pays its employees so poorly that more than half of them are on welfare or have to get food stamps or other government assistance. They can’t afford to pay for basic food and medical care, even though they’re working full-time for StarMart. And any time the workers in one StarMart store try to come together and form a union so they can bargain for better wages, the company threatens to close down the store, or just fires them all and replaces them with new underpaid workers.

Three: That NorthStar Enterprises—which is the big company that runs all of the StarMart and StarBasket Select and ShootingStar Bulk Shopping Club stores—gives tons of money to conservative politicians who make laws that benefit big businesses. Their biggest contribution every year in this area is to State Senator Candace Reese-Allen, who famously cast the deciding vote against legalizing gay marriage and who was quoted in the paper as saying that gay people are “biological errors” who are “dangerous to society” and “hateful to God.”

Four: That when a StarMart moves to the outskirts of your town, it quickly drives all the small stores in the center of town out of business, because they can’t afford to compete with StarMart’s insanely low prices. A lot of times, after StarMart has moved in and killed all the family-owned businesses in one town, they’ll close down that store and open a new one in the next town over, because the new town will offer them fresh bonuses and tax breaks to build a new store. And the first town is left with nothing: no small businesses, no StarMart. A ghost town where a thriving community used to be.

Five: That StarMart opens a new store somewhere in the world every two days.

Jesse and Esther sit, stunned, staring at the computer.

“They’re like… the Death Star of stores,” Jesse murmurs. “It’s like they only exist to ruin people’s towns and take their money. It’s like they don’t even care what they do to the world.”

“Corporations don’t have consciences,” Esther explains. “They don’t have souls. They don’t care about things. They only exist for one purpose: to make money.”

“Well, we can’t let that money touch our school. I mean, clearly. We need a plan.”

“Posters,” Esther says.

“Posters,” Jesse echoes. She opens her notebook to a blank page to start taking notes for ideas.

“We’ll make them yellow, the StarMart color. And we need to go to the next student council meeting and make a presentation.”

Jesse’s stomach lurches.

“Student council? Do we have to?”

“Of course. They’re the ones running the

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