I’d never actually heard a complaint about St. Judes Childrens Research Hospital until a week or so ago when I brought the topic up in response to another one of those “America is in the toilet” statements someone offered in conversation .
” I heard they treat illegals for free and Americans go broke while taking their kids there ”
In all honesty I’d never given a thought to St. Judes stance on immigration or any other political issue , or even if they had any position on anything at all apart from the eradication of childhood disease . As he droned on I stood there thinking that we must be running pretty low on things to attack here in America if even St. Judes is fair game and that perhaps someone should plant a Harris / Walz sign in front of the hospital so that the local Sheriff could take note … I thought I’d take a closer look.
Kroger, the food store chain that is quite similar to multitudes of other large corporations enjoying their large tax cuts given them a few years past has to date raked in 1.4 Billion dollars in U.S. currency this year. That brings them pretty close to doubling last years tally to the delight of all of Krogers stock holders that are seeing larger dividends even though they can’t stop whining about how expensive things have become due to “inflation” …. funny how that works . I’m sure that a lot of this success is due to the efforts of Krogers CEO who’s efforts earned him an annual payment this year that’s whistling in at “15.7 million” dollars in U.S. currency . Surely that just can’t be fair considering it’s an 18% drop from his salary the year previous when Krogers profits were only half of this years .
Did you know the average donation from rich or poor given to St. Judes Childrens Hospital is $43 bucks while the average from those involved in the Partner in Hope program is a monthly payment of $25.00 ? …. yup , that’s $300 dollars a year mostly from those who have to scratch for it in order to give it. And give they did as St. Judes has received donations to the point that it has stockpiled enough cash that as of the present it could operate for 4 1/2 years with out a single donation more. And that’s where the complaints start and there are those calling for an investigation and more transparency even though you may look up St. Judes common knowledge financials at any time, including the CEO’s annual salary of $1.3 million .
Now it seems there are some that feel that St. Judes could afford to cover other sundry costs that those unfortunate parents accumulate while taking time from work while their children receive life saving treatment … like car payments and rent . As St. Judes isn’t burdened with stock dividend pay outs and income tax perhaps they could . But so could Krogers along with so many other corporations that are now bringing investigations upon themselves for price gouging for the benefit of those who don’t need any help at all with the rent or car payments .
