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The Working Poor: Welcome to Walmart!
It was recently reported in the news that Walmart is engaged in a(nother) “food drive” to help feed the needy. Isn’t that nice? Well, it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that the “needy” in these food-drives are its own employees. “Let’s succeed by donating to associates in need,” says the sign in an Oklahoma Walmart.
The dictionary defines “associate” (in this context) in two ways:
- A partner or colleague in business or at work.
- A person with limited or subordinate membership in an organization.
There is no doubt which definition applies to Walmart’s “associates”. It’s hard to get more “subordinate” than to work all day, and still need hand-outs to make it to the end of each month. The word that really describes (most of) the workers at Walmart (and most of all the workers in our societies) isn’t “associate” or even “employee”, but rather serf.
Merriam-Webster defines “serf” for us:
- A person in the past who belonged to a low social class and who lived and worked on land owned by another person
The only thing faulty about that definition is the need to erase the phrase “in the past”. The fact that the serfs of Walmart “belong to a low social class” (through no fault of their own) is indisputable. North American societies are now unequivocally divided into the “have’s” and “have-not’s”, with a microscopic demographic in between – the nearly-extinct “Middle Class”.
For the Privileged (especially those near the very top); life is a never-ending gravy-train. Their incomes soar higher and higher and higher – at a rate never before seen in our society. Their wealth soars higher and higher and higher – at a rate never before seen in our society.
Should they lose their pampered positions through sloth, or incompetence (or anything short of direct, criminal conduct); they are rewarded with a Golden Parachute. These rewards given to the Privileged for their failure often exceed the entire, lifetime income for the Serfs. And then after failing; the Privileged are (almost always) handed another Silver Spoon position – where once again it is immaterial whether they are either competent or productive.
Conversely; life for the “low social class”, the Serfs, is entirely opposite in every respect. Their standard of living falls lower and lower and lower – having collapsed by more than 50% since 1970 (when the Nixon regime assassinated the gold standard). Their wealth/possessions fall lower and lower and lower. Only their debts keep going up and up and up.
The median (nominal) income in the United States is approximately $27,600, or roughly $12/hr. The term “median” means that half of all American incomes are higher, and half are lower. That nominal income level is virtually unchanged over the past decade. Meanwhile the cost-of-living has soared higher (particularly food and housing costs), the same “inflation” which the lying politicians, lying central bankers, and lying media tell us does not exist – hundreds of times each day.
And that is how life is for the lucky Serfs. For the unlucky Serfs (over 50 million in the U.S. alone), they are not even given the opportunity to “work on land owned by another person” – for their slave wages. Those 50+ million are all unemployed; with millions of them having descended to a socio-economic class even below the Serfs: the Homeless.
The lying politicians, lying bankers, and lying media tell all of the Serfs and the Homeless that this is “the New Normal”: their lives are supposed to get worse and worse and worse every year (while the lives of the Privileged get better and better and better). There’s “no money” to pay the Serfs a fair, livable wage claim the corporate Robber Barons.
Another lie. While Serf incomes remain permanently frozen (and their standard of living spirals relentlessly lower); corporate profits for U.S. corporations have more than doubled since 2000. This isn’t “normal”; it’s simple, economic rape: the Rich stealing from the (Working) Poor day after day, every day or their lives. How successful have they been with this stealing? The “Poor” used to be the Middle Class.
How is the situation in Canada? Even worse, thanks to Stephen Harper. The median wage in Canada is virtually identical to the median wage in the U.S. However, when Harper (and his hand-picked Loonie Assassin, Mark Carney) came to power; the first thing he did (right after breaking his promise on “income trusts”) was to begin to destroy the value of the Canadian dollar.
His gross economic mismanagement, and Carney’s deliberate sabotage of the Canadian dollar caused our currency to quickly lose nearly 30% of its value versus the U.S. dollar. It went from being worth more than 15% more than the USD to being worth more than 12% less. In other words; the standard of living for Canada’s Working Poor majority has gone from being 15% higher than the Working Poor of the U.S. to being 12% lower than them.
Understand that the standard of living for Canadian Serfs during Stephen Harper’s eight years of abuse-of-power hasn’t merely fallen by 25%. It has fallen by 25% more than the plummeting standard of living for American Serfs. When Harper assumed power in 2006; Canada’s economy was the envy of the entire Western world. Now it lies in ruin.
North American politicians, our representatives, don’t simply endorse this economic rape of our previously prosperous societies. They go out of their way to deceive us, in order to defend this corrupt status quo for the oligarchs they serve.
They produce fraudulent/falsified economic “statistics” (which are bereft of even the tiniest degree of legitimacy) in order to attempt to hide this economic rape from their own populations. With respect to all the signs of this economic oppression which these Traitors can’t hide with their lies; they pat the Serfs on the heads, tell them this is all “normal” – and then order them to shut-up, and get back to serving the Privileged.
More specifically; we all serve the rapacious financial parasites whom readers now know as “the One Bank”. It is this cabal which has planted traitors like Stephen Harper and Barack Obama (and George Bush Jr., before him) on the thrones of these now-feudal societies. It is this cabal which pulls the strings of these political puppets, commanding them to lie, cheat, and steal from the very people they are (supposedly) sworn to serve.
There is much more wealth in our societies today than in the “prosperous” 1960’s, the zenith of the Middle Class in North America. Where is all that wealth? Stolen, and hidden, in the vaults of the One Bank.
All that those parasites have, we earned. Sadly, after decades of relentless brainwashing by the Corporate media (merely one of the One Bank’s economic tentacles); the Serfs of North America – who only one generation earlier were Middle Class citizens – now believe that they deserve to be serfs.
Our salvation, ironically, will only come once the One Bank has completed its economic rape of our societies. When our Serf-majorities are not merely poor and oppressed, but begin to starve (like the Homeless); then and only then will enlightenment begin to spread.
The endless lies/brainwashing by the thieving bankers, traitor politicians, and corrupt media will not be able to feed the hungry stomachs of the Serfs. Then and only then; the Serfs will open their eyes – and begin to look for where all their wealth (and food) has disappeared. Then and only then; the Serfs will discover the wealth-hoards of these oligarchs: mountains of money far, far greater than any hoards ever accumulated by any other tyrants of humanity.
All of these hoards of wealth are stolen, via the illegal manipulation of markets, or blatant, criminal, frauds. All of it belongs to the Serfs. Hundreds of years of history tell us that at that point “justice” will be meted-out via the guillotine, or similar instrument of socio-economic retribution. It’s time for the Serfs to start sharpening some blades…
- advertisements -



Wal Mart introduced the $4 prescription. All others followed along; CVS, Walgreens ect.
Yeah, yeah, it may seem bad on the surface, but to be poor in the land of free and home of the brave....you can't put a price on that now can ya? Bile rushing into my throat...violently coughing 3...2...1
i don't think hayek ever had in his rational, or equazation, an america, where the elected, and selected leaders, that their job was to spend trillions of dollars to ruin america, and have over 50% of the citizenry think it's ok.
how many of the fsa will go to work for $15 per. hr., they gross that tax free on entitlements.
best thing that happened to the poor was part-time work, then collect your entitlements, they advanced into middle-wage income with no tax liablity.
i shop wal-mart, i shop local, i shop amazon, you can find made in------just about anywhere you shop.
have you heard or seen any protest for $15 an hr. min, wage since the amnesty order from on high?
where do you think the these 5-15 million newly americanized are going to shop, work?
Walmart = WMT = TLA 'nuff said about that...
Also, Sam's sucks too compared to Costco which it alleges to compete with.
WMT used to be a good deal. Now it sucks just as badly as any other .gov agency... Oh, did I note that WMT gets over 40% of it's revenues from .gov. Yup nice bunch in Bentonville.
I stopped doing business with WMT in 2010 because they are quite simply a rotten deal now.
Happy Holidays ZH,,,
;-D
Is it just me? Or does anyone else not find it hilarious that a guy who produces no real work to speak of (In the old fashioned Force=Mass*Acceleration sense) is going on about minimum wage abuse by large companies he is probably invested in?
Shut up Nielson, and drink your fucking koolaid.
"His gross economic mismanagement, and Carney’s deliberate sabotage of the Canadian dollar caused our currency to quickly lose nearly 30% of its value versus the U.S. dollar. It went from being worth more than 15% more than the USD to being worth more than 12% less."
CAD is pretty highly tied to commodities, no? Seems fluctuations in WTI have more impact than BoC or the government.
Let's see, election was January 23, 2006 :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_federal_election,_2006
And CAD/USD was 0.86884 at that time, and is at 0.88324 right now:
http://www.xe.com/currencycharts/?from=CAD&to=USD&view=10Y
So, it would be more accurate to say CAD has increased 16.5%. If you take a weighted average over the period, it is higher than the previous ten year period too.
They STILL cannot keep .22 LR in stock.
it's walmart, they can't keep socks in stock.
I equate Walmart with Bill & Hillary Clinton.
Same state, same insider NWO -GMO-backed scum.
The opening up of the whole world to trade is showing up in the decreased prices of goods due to low wages paid in developing countries. Eventually I suspect we will see that spread to services. In medicine one can already see people traveling to Thailand or India for some procedures, in nice facilities by well trained docs.
How services will be effected is not as clear but robotics may play a role as well as immigration. One way or another $8 per hour in the USA won't last if it competes with $2 per hour else where. The overall economy won't be able to support such discrepencies in the long run. Even in medicine. ..if quality does not matter I can get you an appendectomy...real cheap....or an 'online' visit for your symptoms for $25 . Just don't complain about the experience or the results.
(face+palm)*2
The first for the rambling, repetitive, banality of the writing.
The second for this..
"[he snarks] There’s “no money” to pay the Serfs a fair, livable wage claim the corporate Robber Barons."
Let's have a national poll, asking "should the minimum wage be raised?" No matter the poll results, it shall then be declared illegal for anyone who voted "yes" to be paid less than $100 per hour. Consequently, 99.99% of these people will lose their jobs, become homeless, and starve to death - so that we shall be rid of their idiocy.
I see we are continuing to pretend immigrants, illegal and otherwise, have had no impact whatsoever on wages. "Supply and demand" isn't just a river in Egypt, folks.
Ironic that this time around, Hayek's work was used to get to this point - not get away from it.
Interesting comment without explanation.
How did you arrive at your conclusion?
The root cause of income and wealth inequality is an ever-larger and more predatory fed'l gov't.
Most of the work at Walmart is unskilled.
Such work does not pay much. If they were skilled and/or productive workers they would not continue to work at Walmart. Walmart provides entry level employment a necessary component of the economy but cannot be the bulwark of the middleclass. Walmart suffers from the fact that the rest of the economy has drained away and now they stand out as the center piece of our economy. The pols dont want to mess with a key source of "jobs". The situation will correct itself as Walmart workers cannot afford to shop at Walmart or anywhere else. They will live in moms basement and buy icrap with student loan money and food stamps. College graduates will be lucky to find quality work at Walmart. Not Walmarts fault.
Cheap credit makes it impossible for small business to survive against the big players. Soon it will self correct.
I'm going to somewhat disagree with you to mendigo.
Unskilled, I don't think you know the meaning of the word.
Define it for yourself, take your unskilled 12 year old boy out to the wood pile, hand him a 7 lb. splitter and tell him to get busy, and expect 1 cord neatly split & stacked within the 4-6 hour part time allotment. Now take your 12 year old girl, (that has 4 years experience splitting wood), and task her the same way, when you look at the results of both children you should learn the difference between skilled & unskilled labor.
I suppose 'the new normal' actually believes running a cash register properly is unskilled labor, and there is no need to recount change at the register, so that it is plain for both the cashier & the customer. How about stocking shelves properly, would you like to imagine for a moment the wreckage an unskilled stocker could do to your inventory reports?
Walmart has even changed the role of stockers by utilizing 'vendor labor', frequently the potato chip or bread aisle are stocked by the vendor labor, not Walmart employees. And yet to have the 'vendor skill' to operate a commercial truck, perform all the loading & unloading & returns, validate all processes thru documentation and do so in a timely manner...the management that oversees this sort of vendor employee would consider them 'skilled'.
And what about that production quota you mentioned mendigo? When the unskilled & improperly trained cannot make production quotas, they are reported, sometimes cautioned, and intimidated with the job security at every shortfall. The typical reasoning is "if you can't do it, we have 20 'others' lined up waiting for your job". Those unskilled laborers must learn their trade, whatever it be, to remain.
And remain they do, as only the skilled & productive commonly have 10+ years of service at Walmart, not because there is better employment elsewhere, but because that is the only employment they can find. The Walmarts & many other companies stand fast on their ability to brutalize daily, each and every unskilled or skilled worker that shows up to work...just ask one, when was the last time they were cautioned?
Oh and speaking of 'skilled' mendigo, you probably consider the management at Walmart somewhat 'skilled'. These are the same ones that intentionally set-up displays in the middle of the aisles, in the event that customers somehow forgot it was Halloween, and 10 pallets of pumpkins should be the first & last thing you see in the store. It seems cost effective to those skilled managers that overstocked aisle ways & profits commonly outweigh the only regress for people to use in the event of emergency. They are also the ones that chuckle a little when the long checkout lines happen every day and the labor schedule failed again.
mendigo said: "Walmart suffers from the fact that the rest of the economy has drained away and now they stand out as the center piece of our economy." Walmart hasn't suffered except for their reputation as being a leader of the cutthroat corporate, and I might add, they are proud of it. It is not a little thing that the economy & society has 'drained away' to what we have now, it is only right that the leadership of Walmart should acknowledge their proud contribution, and their proud history, expecting they shall not correct anything, as this is 'the new normal'.
wwxx
All of the work of government employees is unskilled...,
or counter productive, or both.
Target
Walmart
Cowabunga dude!
I'll somewhat disagree with you RickC, Walmart does not operate on such a slim margin of only 3%, you might want audit that percentage of 3% as it is totally in error. Closer to 40%+. Think about it, no retail survives on 3%, especially when you consider the amount of product handling that is involved to sell retail. Why you couldn't even pay your taxes on 3% margin.
You cannot even transport/distribute product at a wholesale level on 3%. And distribution is the foundation of Walmart's profit, their wholesale distribution/transportation has undercut every mom & pop in the USA for at least the last 30 years. Mom & pop rarely had wholesale distribution & transportation, nor the discounts related thereof, and therefore their throats were quickly cut. They undercut a bunch of others too, that is to say, union laborers & truck driver growth was totally obliterated as Walmart chose to go with the least paid form of distribution handlers anywhere.
And I might add, that Walmart distribution is a whole other world from their well lighted retail locations. Plenty of cutthroat labor practices have been Walmarts mainstay at the distribution level. I could even tell you how they cut the throats daily & give examples, but I doubt you would believe it even if you were on the dock floor.
I think you missed the whole point of the article RickC, serf-dom is prevelant in the USA, has been at least back to Ronald Reagan's/US Congress 'trickle down economics' strategy, which made legal many cutthroat activities.
It isn't just Walmart, although they are the example of the day, it is McDonalds, Schneider transportation, J.B. Hunt, Tysons, American Airlines and a list of many others that now 'lead the way' to the bottom of the ditch. Often plowing with international product, solely based on slave wages, the Walmarts and others just like them are commonly found to underpay employees...that is just the way it is, we call it here at ZeroHedge 'the new normal'.
RickC you can hold Walmart up as a great place to shop, and I would agree, but I don't think that justifies their cutthroat practices in general. I would fly American Airlines because I'm the customer, when buying an ticket there is no 'inherent vote to justify' their labor practice.
Part-time only, minimum wages, no labor contract, no benefits, overtime (whats that?) no holiday pay...these are the well known cutthroat practices, but there are many other daily practices (some legal some illegal) that force the standard of living in this country to totally unnecessary lows. (serf-dom)
wwxx
I must have been doing it wrong. When I had a business $100 in sales divided $97 in total expense meant a 3% profit margin. Is something wrong with my math? Of course I had $110 expense for every $100 in sales, that's why I no longer have a business.
You should keep in mind that big retailers like Walmart request ( and get, because of their volume ) deliverance credits of 90+ days, while when you buy their stuff, you pay IMMEDIATELY. As a matter of fact, their need for working capital is NEGATIVE. Warehouse manutention is ever more automated, so wages really dwindle every day. The real challenge of todays employment is linked to the fact that "lowskill" physical work is steadily and ever faster being replaced by machines, and that evolution is not going to stop.
Walmart transfer prices offshore. They make over 200% on some Chineses items. I saw $7 rubber flip flops in there on special that I could buy I china for 50 cents in bulk.
I'm a specialty manufactuer (we don't build it, until you need it). If it's made of plastic of any kind, it's huge mark up.
You may be confusing gross margin (sales less purchase costs) with net profits (gross margin less overheads, labor, marketing and admin costs). The first is close to 45% , the other, 3%.
Take a look at the stock price "while our whole world is burning."
It's really sad what America has become. We have more debt now than ever. 13 billion for a ship? You can't even leave the country on it..let alone have it support yourself or your family.
The folks that know know. "Ramp up the debt, pay yourself. Ramp it up more. And whatever you don't don't pay for anything or anyone.". Hard to imagine at one time there was so much silver in the USA we had to pass a law to force the USA to purchase 100 million ounces per month.
We were purchasing well high zero before that.
Hopefully North Dakota is still smart enough to buy their own oil....
Right you are. Not that it hasn't been the obvious plan for a very, very long time.
The Road to Debt Deflation, Debt Peonage and Neofeudalism
Michael Hudson
http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_708.pdf
Whatever.
It has been 50 years since any "associate" worker-bee in a department store has been able to support a family on their wages at that job alone. Even semi-skilled retail workers like people that work at Home Depot and Lowes only make a buck or two more than a Walmart employee. This is the reality of retail.
Sprott's lead off is a is an indignant distraction from reality. Walmart is far from blameless, but in the end much of their behavior is a symptom of reaching to the end of the inflation-driven, cheap stuff era that marks the end of the American experiment. Walmart is far more participant than cause of this phenomenon, no matter how much we hate them. Let's keep our guns trained on the corrupt and bloated central government, the banking cabal, and the puppet masters from the uber riche royalty pushing for global governance. C'mon Sprott, really?!
.
An American, not US subject.
Agreed that, in the larger picture, Walmart is a symptom of a bigger problem that leads ultimately to bankers . . . the point Hudson made in very clear detail.
But, until we're brought to final ruin/serfdom in the ancient sense, there will be an entire class of organizations and sycophantic individuals preaching the neoliberal gospel of "freedom" vested only in property who will pave the way that, just as you say, now features a government owned and controlled by the super-wealthy and the corporations they control, which of course is an obvious outcome when mind-boggling wealth concentration is allowed via tax incentives, "free trade" agreements, tolerance of monopolies, the corporate veil, white collar lawlessness, etc,
But there's nothing wrong with calling out the hypocritical predation of the "work for your money" crowd in ways that show them for what they are, far as I can see. Keep your guns trained on the right guys is exactly the point--too many suckers and sycophants glory in blaming the poor for all the world's evils. You might wanna keep a gun or two trained on them as well, because no matter what they might claim on the other issues, they sure as fuck don't get it and, when the chips are down, there is no doubt where their guns will be pointed.
"This is the return to perfect barbarism. Many still believe in the myth of the free market. They have an ideal situation in mind where everyone will be free from the state suppression and the free market will drive societies and individuals to balance and prosperity. It's just an illusion because in reality the game is more rigged than ever. We are not talking about capitalism, not even neoliberalism. We are talking about the new global, brutal feudalism!"
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/08/the-dominant-elite-ready-to-b...
Median income of $12/hour?
Wow, -15% in income tax and that's ~ $1,738/month, no wonder everyone is on EBT!
Only a single family household would pay anything on $12 a hour, and it wouldn't be much.
Median is at least as horrible of a figure to pick as average, because for every good paying job out there, there's ALWAYS goign to be several entry-level jobs. GDP per capita is the only reasonable way to look at the situation.
Yea and the biggest employer in the US is.....drumroll....Walmart paying 8.00 an hr. That's how we are going to pay off that 18 trillion dollar debt. By taxing Walmart employees making 16k a year.
Average WM employee is making approx. 10 an hour.
2 million people worked for WalMart in 2013. Some percentage of those workers' total compensation came from taxpayer sources. 4.3 million worked for the US Government. 100% of those workers' total compensation came from taxpayer sources.
How about we start where it really matters?
You're using a standard 2000 hr work-year, assuming a 40 hr/wk full-time employee. Why would Wal*Mart use anything but the cheapest labor: part-timers. Each store has a half-dozen full-time employees and hundred part-timers.
The plans are to pay off the $18 trillion dollar debt by taxing $12K/yr part-time Wal*Mart employees. If every man, woman and child in the U.S. would just do their patriotic duty and only work part-time for Wal*mart, we would have the debt paid off in... well, never.
I think the next part of the plan is to start taxing EBT and other welfare benefit payments. Disbursement taxes! Why didn't we think of that earlier?
I tend to agree with this piece. Walmart is the absolute standard bearer for exploiting people.
Walmart pays their employees 8 bucks an hr. with little or no benefits. Costco pays their employees 15 bucks an hr. with good benefits. Both are very successful. The difference being- Costco employees share in the wealth where the Walton family steals every last penny they can and pays a pittance to their Walmart employees.
Where do I shop? The quality, prices, and service are hands down- far better at Costco.
Don't forget, WMT is notorious for pressing down on its suppliers. IIRC, the was a documentary a few years back where a good number of suppilers were interviewed as they chose to move their Plant Operations to CHN to make their own margins selling to WMT.
Just a little over a few decades back, they used to have "Made in the USA" Mosaics on the Wall - that was when Mr. Sam Walton was still alive.
Being one of the Largest Retailers in their Genre (I am not a Retailer), they are quite the participant in this Plunge into Peonage. Small Retailers get wiped out, gutting the number of (Mfg)Suppliers and Retail Workers thorughout the Land. Add the Supplier Shift to Overseas, then we haven't much left save for Govt Employees, Medical Services, Construction, Legal, Financial Services, Entertainment (Circus), Agribusiness(Wonderbread), Public Utilities, MIC, the ever decaying Shale extractions, and the Prison Industries.
I forgot Cloud-based Apps and Games for the Tablets and phones - I'm sorry. /sarc
All it takes is to reconsider domestic sourcing requirements and Tariffs. IMO, there's no fracking way 300+Million People are going to make it through this mess for the better unless tariffs are raised.
That's good though you ignore costco's biz model completely. they make most of their money from thememberships.
Also, walmart is increasingly in the grocery biz. a grocery store runs around on a 3% profit margin.
cosco has a tiny fraction of the SKU's wally world has.
I'm not a huge fan of wally world, and I do shop at Costco. but the only similbarity is tha tthey have customers. :)
Walmart is a symptom.
The poverty and destruction that Walmart exploits begins with the theft by the banksters, and ends with the theft and violence of the banksters' violence-puppets, government.
TO concentrate on Walmart is to miss the real criminals and thieves in the night.
Reading Hayek's "Road to Serfdom." is a life altering experience, as it will bring clarity to the inanity, insanity, and barbarity of governmnet.
An American, not US subject.
Guillotine the Fed!
Bull, you are on the fringe. Walmart pays more than the Mom and Pop stores. Costco has a made a business decision to overpay it workers in an effort to limit turnover. But, if everyone were to do that, then Costco would have no competitive advantage. Besides that, you better compare prices at Costco or you will get taken. They do not always have a good price despite the fact they sell in bulk. What's more, you can't count on getting this week what you got last week.
Walmart serves low income people and has a margin of 3-3.5%. People who shop at Walmart are trading time for money. It takes longer to checkout at Walmart than it does at an ordinary supermarket, but the prices are less. Guys like Nielson don't shop at Walmart. They shop at high end shops and pay a huge margin. What is the margin on a Rolex? I'll bet it is a whole lot more than a $30 Timex. Heaven forbid, Nielson actually has to stand in a checkout line for 10 minutes. He would probably pay someone to shop for him.
The article by Nielson and the comments by the appropriately named "lunaticfringe" are all nonsense, written by people who are not just barely scraping by. Walmart has done more for poor people with its low prices than all the government programs have done. Next time a Walmart opens up, look and see how many people apply for those "horrible jobs".
Wal Mart is loosing low income people in droves. 26% of Walmarts shoppers can not get to Walmart because they don't have access to a car. This is why the various Dollar stores have been pinching their market share.
Been to a walmart? Shelves are empty. No envelopes, no this no that AND no choice of brands. You get Kraft Cheese or walmart's inhouse cheese. I go to my local grocery, and I get 6 different brands of cheese at the same or cheaper prices.
PS I love the walmart checkout lady with tattoos on her face.
PPS Store of last resort.
"Walmart has done more for poor people with its low prices than all the government programs have done"
hear hear
Wal mart spurs economic growth. Look at any undeveloped land where a WM was built and you'll quickly see many businesses filling in those adjacent lots. On the other hand, we have noticed a very precipitous drop in quality, selection, and competitive prices during the past year for sure. We now no longer shop that much at WM, especially for groceries.
Rick takes a barrage of down votes
Then he
the predatory nature of walmart extends past their employees to their vendors and the communities they set up in. numerous case studies have been written on the deleterious effects of a walmart coming to town.
the bottom line is this. in 1969 the usa controlled almost 60% of the world economy. gm was the largest employer paying great middle class wages allowing the line workers to buy a new car. in 2014, the largest employer in the usa is walmart paying their employees not enough to buy a turkey for thanksgiving. just where do you think the usa is headed?
Yes, walmart is just like those predatory automobile companies that came into existence awhile back and put the horse and buggey proprietors out of business.