No Company On the Public Dole Should Be Allowed to Pocket ANY Profits

Make no mistake about it, the largest welfare user in this nation and around the world is Walmart, also the largest company on the planet too. They also make "profits" in the billions while underpaying employees to the point they cannot survive without skipping bills and going without electricity.

This is obscene that the Waltons, the richest family on Earth, is allowed to pocket money that should, by any rational thought process, be going to pay their employees livable wages.

But we know that is simply not the case and the Waltons are the greediest and most miserly billionaires there are. These are mentally defective greedheaded fools who think they need more money when there is no way they could EVER spend the money they already have.

Go and read, “I cannot continue to live and work like this”: How Wal-Mart drove me to shut down Park Avenue and then tell me how good you feel about giving money to Walmart and the Waltons. These are despicable exploiters who should be forced to pay livable wages or have their operating licenses yanked.

Pop Quiz Time (Hint, the Answer is Yes)

Is Walmart's request of associates to help provide Thanksgiving dinner for co-workers proof of low wages?

Yes, yes it is clear proof of Walmart's shitty employment practices.

The internets are kicking around this story about a donation zone set up in the employee area of an Ohio Walmart. These are not donations for local families, these are donations solicited for employees who don't earn enough in their crappy Walmart job to afford Thanksgiving.

Think about this for a minute or two. Also, toss in the fact that Walmart is the largest company on the planet and makes massive profits each and every year. Economists have examined the numbers and Walmart could easily pay livable wages and still pull massive profit (just not quite as much). They choose to screw over millions of people and force everyone to subsidize their profit margins by under-paying and under-employing people.

This is not a once off, this is a codified business practice.

And it is disgusting and should not be allowed.

Walmart is filthy and dirty and the money spent their goes into the Waltons' pockets or off to China. It does not trickle down, it does not re-invest in America, it sits in a bank account or is used by China to increase its grip on the US.

Why I Hate Walmart In a Single Quote

If the graphic doesn't load for some reason, the quote reads "I work full-time for one of the richest companies in the world, and my kids get state health insurance and are on food stamps." - Sara Gilbert, striking Wal-Mart manager.

Not just the bottom grunts, Walmart doesn't even pay their managers enough to live on.

Shop at Walmart and you're helping perpetuate the cycle of exploitation.

Shop elsewhere if you can.

Always Low Wages, Always

Not your average Walmart employee

DEAR WALMART, MCDONALD'S AND STARBUCKS: How Do You Feel About Paying Your Employees So Little That Most Of Them Are Poor?

What do you call a trio of companies that made $35 billion in profits last year and yet the majority of their employees make $12 an hour or less? Shrewd? Cheap? Exploitative? Despicable?

The reality is that Walmart, McDonald's and Starbucks can pay more and it would actually probably cost them less to do so. Better paid employees stay longer, work harder and spend more of their money at their place of work.

But why do they pay such crappy wages to begin with?

The consensus about these low-wage service jobs is that they're low-wage because they're low-skilled. 

But that's not actually true. They're low-wage because companies choose to make them low-wage. 

No, you say. Low-wage service jobs are low-wage because they're low-skilled. It's a free market. Companies should pay their employees whatever the market will bear. If those low-skilled, low-wage workers had any gumption, they'd go get themselves skilled and then then they'd be able to get high-paying, high-skill jobs. Employers shouldn't have to pay employees one cent more than the market will bear. This argument overlooks three things:   

First, all those good-paying manufacturing jobs that the U.S. has lost weren't always good-paying. In fact, before unions, minimum-wage laws, and some enlightened thinking from business owners (see below), they often paid terribly. 

Second, the manufacturing jobs also weren't high- or even medium-skilled. In fact, most of these manufacturing jobs required no more inherent skill than the skills required to be a cashier at Walmart, a fry cook at McDonald's, or a barista at Starbucks. (Yes, people who work on assembly lines building complex products need training. But cashiers, fry cooks, and baristas need training, too. Don't believe this? Go volunteer to be a Walmart cashier or a Starbucks barista for a day. ) 

Third, it is often in companies' interest—as well as the economy's interest—to pay employees more than the market will bear. For one thing, you tend to get better employees. For two, they tend to be more loyal and dedicated. For three, they have more money to spend, some of which might be spent on your products.

I don't expect monstrous corporations to do right by the people working for them unless they are forced to do so. And it's time to force these massive corporations to pay their employees livable wages, it isn't like they can't afford to and those massive profits (at least in Walmart's case) aren't doing anyone any good sitting in the Walton family reserves (the Walton's have donated a pathetically paltry 2% of their income to charity compare that to Bill Gates at 48% and Warren Buffett's 78%).