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In fact, they made millions of peoples lives better.
In some ways yes, in some ways no. Sam Walton and the people who helped him build his dream earned it. I don't know the story about the heirs. I do know they didn't start the business.
If they're lining their pockets at the expense of 47% of the population I take issue. What are your values?
you need to realize that much of those profits that wal mart posted were from overseas operations. second those profits are generated store by store and not as a whole company, though they are posted as what the whole company made. each store has to be self sufficient.
Worldwide exploitation is still exploitation.
They were kicked out of Germany because of their business practices.
And the government/tax payers are footing the bill for the record profits that walmart makes.
Stealing from taxpayers, but hey, it's big business and you're for our tax dollars going to business and not to people.
You've made that abundantly clear.
Which is why we need to do away with the government programs we are talking about so that low income workers push back on wal-mart to improve wages. When you artificially control an economic system (as social welfare programs do), this is the result.
Stealing from taxpayers, but hey, it's big business and you're for our tax dollars going to business and not to people.
And if the very poor can increase their buying power by 15-25% by shopping at Wal-Mart you'd rather have them shop elsewhere ?
You must be against poor people stretching their food dollar to feed their families.
Who benefits more from the low prices, their millions of customers or the people they employ ? I say both.
And if the very poor can increase their buying power by 15-25% by shopping at Wal-Mart you'd rather have them shop elsewhere ?
You must be against poor people stretching their food dollar to feed their families.
Who benefits more from the low prices, their millions of customers or the people they employ ? I say both.
chielgirl will just shout "give them more food stamps" to shop elsewhere..
Which is why we need to do away with the government programs we are talking about so that low income workers push back on wal-mart to improve wages. When you artificially control an economic system (as social welfare programs do), this is the result.
They won't.
Fire at will states, employers will exploit as they choose.
If people are desperate, they'll take anything rather than starve.
What power do the employees have?
You're against unionization, what protections to these employees have?
"Accurate and timely data on Wal-Mart’s wage and employment practices is not always readily available. However, occasional releases of demographic data from public assistance programs can provide useful windows into the scope of taxpayer subsidization of Wal-Mart. After analyzing data released by Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that a single 300- person Wal-Mart Supercenter store in Wisconsin likely costs taxpayers at least $904,542 per year and could cost taxpayers up to $1,744,590 per year – about $5,815 per employee."
I think many are missing the larger point, which is that businesses costs states and cities and localities money. Oftentimes those costs are hidden from the public that isn't thinking comprehensively about how much businesses add to the cost of running a town and often the tax receipts generated from that business doesn't pay for those additional costs.
A great example of this is Bakken North Dakota, not a liberal hotbed, but one that is experiencing these business costs.
schools Superintendent Viola LaFontaine expects as many as 3,800 students this fall, about 57 percent more than her primary schools were built to hold.
Dave Hynek, a commissioner in Mountrail County, North Dakota, E. Ward Koeser, mayor of Williston, North Dakota, and Viola LaFontaine, superintendent of Williston School District, talk with Bloomberg's Jennifer Oldham about the impact of North Dakota's oil boom on their community. North Dakota's economy outpaced every other state in 2011, with the fastest personal income, employment and home price growth, according to Bloomberg Economic Evaluation of States, or BEES, index data. Yet the boom fueling the nation's lowest unemployment rate is also pushing rural North Dakota’s housing, electric, water, police and emergency services to the breaking point. (Source: Bloomberg)
“It’s absolutely destroying our infrastructure,” said Hynek, a Mountrail County commissioner.
Higher tax receipts fostered by oil-industry revenue are helping finance a new water pipeline, rehabilitation of the state penitentiary and renovation of the state’s heritage center -- even as calls for more housing and funding for school construction go unheeded.
Williams and Mountrail counties recently banned construction of “man camps” -- temporary developments for oil workers -- until they can expand sewer, electrical and water systems.
City and county officials say they’re not getting enough money back from the state -- which collects an 11.5 percent tax on oil -- to finance infrastructure upgrades.
Funding Gap
“No one ever anticipated this type of impact,” said Donald W. Longmuir Jr., a planner and emergency coordinator for Mountrail County. “We’re actually three to five years behind in funding.”
Calls to the county’s volunteer ambulance and fire services tripled since 2009, Longmuir said.
Mountrail’s 1,600-mile road system -- which became so overloaded last spring that officials ran out of “road closed” signs, and postal carriers were unable to deliver the mail to some places -- needs to be rebuilt at a price tag of $600 million, Hynek said.
Williston received $1.5 million in 2011 from the oil extraction tax, which Koeser said “doesn’t even come close” to paying for its infrastructure needs.
LaFontaine, the Williston schools superintendent, said she needs about $87 million to build two elementary schools and one intermediate school and to hire new teachers. State lawmakers voted down a bill last year that would have provided some funding. LaFontaine, who based her estimate of 1,200 new students this fall on new housing construction, asked oil company executives to meet with her recently and asked for help paying for new facilities.
“I don’t know where else to go to beg for money,” she said. “I’m desperate.”
LaFontaine and Koeser recently visited Governor Jack Dalrymple to request aid and ask that the formula used to return oil taxes to municipalities be revised.
“It’s too early to say whether the Legislature would respond to that,” Dalrymple said in an interview. “About 30 percent of the taxes are returned to the counties and they return those to the cities and townships. Revenue is going up dramatically and that means their share is also going up dramatically.” The North Dakota Legislature set aside $1.2 billion last spring to help counties cope with the oil boom’s impacts. About $885.3 million remains to be distributed.
Demand for aid is high. The state received 167 applications last fall for $50 million in road improvement grants alone, said Gerry Fisher, assistant director of the state’s energy infrastructure and impact office.
Apple and Abercrombie aren't paying their employees minimum wage.
The issue is that corporations who are profiting need to do more to take care of their workers.
Sure they do. Mall retailers pay less than Wal-Mart on average. And they have profit margins that are much higher than Wal-Mart.
You are caught up in the absolute value and ignoring the profit as a percentage; their margin is low on high volume.
Wal-Mart employs 2.5 million people. If they gave each employee $3.00 per hour raise, they would have zero profit for the year. I suppose for you commies that would be just fine.
You are letting emotion take over and ignoring basic math.
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