"Way back when, in the '50s and '60s and even somewhat into the '70s, companies invested in each and every employee they had. From the janitors to the engineers to the fucking CEO. It was good. People were doing good."

Ah yes. Benevolent luminaries like William Randolph Hearst, Andrew Carnegie, the Phillip Morris company, Bugsy Siegel and Las Vegas, Bayer and Dow Chemical, Henry-the-Nazi-Ford and every one of his progeny at Ford Motors, Martin-Marietta and Lockheed and Hughes Aircraft - hell, Howard Hughes himself - and... shall I go on?

I'm not gonna defend the companies who kowtow to investor whims, and the bottom-line feeding frenzy.

But calling out the 50's-70's as some sort of Leave It To Beaver nirvana of worker enchantment and equality is missing the core salient fact that we were the ONLY first-world country with a surviving manufacturing sector, who basically resupplied all of Europe after WWII.

And as soon as the barons of industry had raped the workers for every drop of sweat and blood they could, and OSHA standards came into effect (1970, by the way), they closed those production lines and moved them overseas.

NOT due to investor demands, by the way. They had to do it because their key market - Europe - was now saturated and self-sustaining, and no longer needed American products. They needed a cheaper workforce, so they could drop their prices and compete in a world market, and lose their sole-source position.

Short-sighted gains, once again, sabotaged the long-term health of the business and their employees.

So - getting back to our primary point - yay for Target for breaking this cycle, in a big and visible way. Maybe their rudimentary effort will be the first pebble in the lake, and the rings will spread out and finally get companies - and investors - to embrace the Triple Bottom Line that is the only way to build a sustainable business, professionally, ecologically, and for the workers, as well.