Goodwill Industries International, Inc.

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I AGREE

This video popped up today in one of my (mostly non-American) circles, and there was a bit of bandwagoning about the despicability of Goodwill's leadership, the evils of capitalism, and so on. I looked through the video with mixed feelings, and eventually caught that they are a non-profit, receiving "millions of dollars" in government funding, which wasn't entirely obvious.



Anyway, I'm not sure how I feel about them. They certainly offer opportunities for people that would otherwise not exist. On the other hand, they use federal funding (in several ways) in order to pay big salaries on a business model that would normally perhaps not be sustainable, and there is something of a dehumanizing aspect to the whole stopwatch deal. Another problem is that many of the workers suffer from various intellectual disability, and I wonder how much impartial help they get with agreeing to contracts. Do they understand how they're being compensated to a reasonable degree?



I lean toward the view that wages in an operation like this, as long as it is non-profit and government-dependent, should be standardized and set by the government, and executive salaries limited, in order to minimize abuse and to present a dignified work experience for people.



Then again, that might mean that there would be no nonproifts, and these people would have no job at all. But perhaps the money that goes to Goodwill, in various ways, would be better spent elsewhere, for other services for disabled people, for adaptations of regular jobs, and the like?



Thoughts? I feel that I don't entirely grasp everything about the issue, myself. It's not easy.

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