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'Walmart earned $16 billion last year (it just reported a 9 percent increase in earnings in the third quarter of 2012, to $3.6 billion), the lion's share of which went instead to Walmart's shareholders -- including the family of its founder, Sam Walton, who earned on their Walmart stock more than the combined earnings of the bottom 40 percent of American workers.
Is this about to change? Despite decades of failed unionization attempts, Walmart workers are planning to strike or conduct some other form of protest outside at least 1,000 locations across the United States this Friday -- so-called "Black Friday," the biggest shopping day in America when the Christmas holiday buying season begins.
At the very least, the action gives Walmart employees a chance to air their grievances in public -- not only lousy wages (as low at $8 an hour) but also unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, excessive hours, and sexual harassment. The result is bad publicity for the company exactly when it wants the public to think of it as Santa Claus. And the threatened strike, the first in 50 years, is gaining steam.'
"A half century ago America's largest private-sector employer was General Motors, whose full-time workers earned an average hourly wage of around $50, in today's dollars, including health and pension benefits."
Ok, we're going to stop right there.
Fifty years ago his former boss, Bill Clinton, hadn't given us free trade agreements with Mexico and China.
Q: When you were the labor secretary to the first term of the Clinton administration, they pushed through the North American Free Trade Agreement. You were part of that administration. Was that a mistake?
A: I don’t think it was a mistake, but it wasn’t really a tremendous help.
Kudos to Sam Walton and his offsprings, for starting with a single store, and through blood, sweat and tears, growing it into the mammoth empire it is today.
Wouldn't it be great if just ONE of these picketing employees would harness that jealous / envious energy and start their own single store. Who knows, through blood, sweat and tears of their own, they have the opportunity to be the next Sam Walton. The freedom of the U.S......you can be anything you WANT to be.....BUT, you have to truely WANT it."
The present-day Walton heirs have done nothing but count their money. Kudos to the old man, but the heirs have probably never worked a hard day's work in their lives. And that fortune came about through the blood, sweat, and tears of the thousands of Walmart employees.
Why are you all so eager to admire a bunch of filthy rich people who don't work for a living, and pay lower taxes than you do? I thought you didn't like people who don't pay their fair share?
Kudos to Sam Walton and his offsprings, for starting with a single store, and through blood, sweat and tears, growing it into the mammoth empire it is today.
Wouldn't it be great if just ONE of these picketing employees would harness that jealous / envious energy and start their own single store. Who knows, through blood, sweat and tears of their own, they have the opportunity to be the next Sam Walton. The freedom of the U.S......you can be anything you WANT to be.....BUT, you have to truely WANT it."
The present-day Walton heirs have done nothing but count their money. Kudos to the old man, but the heirs have probably never worked a hard day's work in their lives. And that fortune came about through the blood, sweat, and tears of the thousands of Walmart employees.
Why are you all so eager to admire a bunch of filthy rich people who don't work for a living, and pay lower taxes than you do? I thought you didn't like people who don't pay their fair share?
Why do you assume that the offspring of the Sam Walton "have done nothing but count their money........... the heirs have probably never worked a hard day's work in their lives."
That's quite an accusation but based on what? Your inside knowledge of the Walton family?
Have you ever run a successful company?
If not then get after it and show everyone how it should be done.
It is undeniable though that because Walmart does not pay employees a living wage, and a majority of their employees are women supporting families, that the government has to help these households out.
So you, me, and every other taxpayer is subsidizing Walmart. And you do know that members of the Walton's family are some of the wealthiest people on this planet, "Walmart heirs have as much wealth as the bottom 40 % of Americans combined."
If Walmart paid a living wage, they wouldn't even need to increase the cost of their goods, they could just reduce their profits and boo hoo, the Walton family would maybe not continue to grow their wealth quite as much each year.
The Waltons make up 4 out of the top 10 top wealthiest Americans, with fortunes as follows:
If you choose to work at Walmart, you are choosing to work when they require it (and they can probably request a different shift if they don't want to work a certain day).
No you don't have a choice. Welcome to retail. That is how it is. If they tell you to come in Black Friday, you'd better be there or else.
I have not stepped foot in a Wal-Mart since 2006; I hate how they run their business, I hate how they treat their employees.
I cannot believe anyone who claims to be conservative can stand by a company that works its employees 30 or less hours a week (a practice that's been done long before Obamacare) and of which is well aware of the fact that employees qualify for every sort of handout imaginable. Its been in the news over the years that Wal-Mart actually gives its employees paperwork to file for welfare, food stamps, WIC, and Medicaid, and feels no shame in it. The shareholders rake in money like greedy slobs while the taxpayers pay for people who don't make enough to survive without government handouts. Your tax dollars at work.
If Wal-Mart is so danged profitable that the shareholders are making off like bandits and the Waltons are getting richer and richer surely they can afford to pay their employees a living wage to where they don't qualify for government benefits.
I cannot believe what has come of conservatives in this country who think the fat cats are entitled to fleece the poor and the middle class like this. Its disgusting and appalling. Meanwhile Joe Six Pack goes and gets the only job he can get to support his family, only to be shamed by the idiots on here for being so poor despite working at Wal-Mart that even in states with almost no safety net he'd qualify for every handout offered.
A sizeable chunk of Wal-Mart employees work 28 hours a week (full-time at Wal-Mart and many other retailers, and this was the case long before Obamacare) for $8 an hour; that's $896 a month pre-tax. I doubt you can live on that even in the deep south. Plus, no health benefits. Is this the future of labor in this country? If so the rich really don't pay their fair share. Its not my job as a taxpayer to subsidize the poor because the rich are greedy slobs who won't pay their employees a wage sufficient enough to get off the dole. At that level of pay, I'd qualify for almost every single benefit in California as a single adult woman with no dependents. I'd also get every dime I paid in taxes back plus the EITC in full at that rate!
Whether one wants to admit it or not, the greedy rich are part of the problem in this country.
Why? Do you think they're any better? They're now part of K-Mart.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaimuki
I don't care for Warren Buffet. As for Walmart, I don't like how they conduct business, and they don't sell anything that interests me.
Walmart sells sewing supplies, e.g. fabric, thread, patterns, sewing machines and the like. It also sells scrub uniforms, something NO other discount retailer does, to my knowledge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ellemint
That is simply not true. Otherwise a government study wouldn't have concluded that WAL-MART Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees (remember Walmart is the U.S.'s largest employer)
"The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that the low wages at ONE average Walmart store result in the following additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers:
- $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
- $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family.
- $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children.
- $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of 2 children.
- $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an average of two children qualify.
- $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance."
The total figure is based on the average $420,750 per-store figure, multiplied by 3700 (the approximate number of stores currently in the United States).
Source: Rep. George Miller / Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, "Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart", February 16, 2004.
Why do you assume that the offspring of the Sam Walton "have done nothing but count their money........... the heirs have probably never worked a hard day's work in their lives."
That's quite an accusation but based on what? Your inside knowledge of the Walton family?
Have you ever run a successful company?
If not then get after it and show everyone how it should be done.
I'm not assuming. That is my understanding from everything I have read about them.
Well, according to one article "they are constantly in contact with each other and with family advisors, and they meet three times a year to discuss and manage their fortune." wow, that must almost be a full day's work!
Mostly, that's what they do: they manage their fortune. So, "they are not running a successful" company either.
Christy Walton did not make any of the money. She is the widow of John Walton one of the sons of Sam Walton (founder of Wal-Mart). [in other words: lucky
Alice Walton, breeds horses and ran over and killed a woman in an auto accident at an intersection (drunk?). [breeding horses is not her job, it's an avocation
Rob Walton , chairman of the board for Wal-Mart, his words "not a nine-to-five job" I guess not, they meet, what 4 times a year ?- Rob oversees the board and runs shareholder meetings
Samuel Robson Walton - also on the board. [still no signs of anyone with a job here
Jim Walton - runs Walton Enterprises Inc. - the company that "manages the money and affairs of a single wealthy clan " - i.e. the Walton's money. Well I manage my own investments too, that's not a job.
John Walton - venture capitalist, and philanthropist [not a real job]
And finally: "None of Sam's grandchildren currently work for the company, though some have interned there. " -- so looks like none of them are going to be working at Wal-mart either, but I'm sure they will inherit lots. and in the future you can admire them also, think of the blood, sweat, & tears !
If anyone can find that any of these people have actually put in a hard days work in the Wal-Mart corporation , go for it.
Since you have an issue with the Waltons, how much should they be worth?
OK, many Walmart employees have to rely on public assistance just to survive, so taxpayers are in effect subsidizing the Walmart fortune ---- and you think I have an issue with the Waltons? My question is: why don't you have an issue with them?
The current set of Walton heirs did nothing to grow the business and contribute nothing now other than acting as figureheads on the board. Why would anyone admire them? They're wealthy. Period. Big flippin' deal. They pay their employees starvation wages (literally, given the number of employees on food stamps), don't provide healthcare insurance, and now want their employees to work on a family holiday? Again---what's so great about the Waltons that anyone should admire them?
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