Wal-Mart employees cost US taxpayer 6.2bn per year

[Mike_Yates]

Wal-Mart employees cost the US taxpayer 6.2 billion dollars per year due to poverty wages and welfare assistance.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoc...t-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/

 

[Que]

Lyndon Johnson has far more to do with taxpayers incurring 20 trillion dollars in debt than Sam Walton.

The distortions in the labor market, the disincentives to work, the wage and the natural price inflation that follows that have done far more to insure the War on Poverty is about as successful as the War on Drugs than anything any employer has ever done.

As the largest employer in the world and the largest brake on price inflation for goods the poor need to buy, Walmart has done far more to reduce the costs to society than it could possibly cost society. If all those employees earned nothing because Walmart did not exist the costs would be far higher.

Walmart should put tip jars at the registers so liberals could come in, shop, pay lower prices and put their money where their mouth is.

The other day I saw someone saying that they would not shop at Walmart because they had heard the Walton Family is not generous with their after profit earnings, never mind that their before profit expenses includes signifigant local charity disbursements.

Here's an idea. Buy at Walmart at the lower prices than say Target, then donate the difference to a charity of your choice.

Why does Government or Big Business have to pay the costs of the altruistic fantasies of leftists? Fund it your own damned self, like those on the right do. Those on the right, constantly vilified by the hypocritical left, give far more to charity than the left does. As Penn Teller says, voting to take money from one person at the point of a gun to give to another is not charity.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Why does Wal-Mart pay their employees such extremely low wages?

Most of them don't have health insurance and can't even afford a one-bedroom studio apartment.

 

[Que]

Why does Wal-Mart pay their employees such extremely low wages?

Most of them don't have health insurance and can't even afford a one-bedroom studio apartment.

So?

Walmart does so, because when they advertise for the entry-level job at that wage with those benefits they are able to fill those jobs with people who are willing to take the job at those wages and benefits and are capable of executing the job.

Why do you hate the young and inexperienced, the disabled, recently arrived, unskilled immigrants and the elderly? Why do you want them priced completely out of the job market?

Businesses exist to turn a profit. If they do not, the cease to exist and help no one. They do not exist to make up for the employability inadequacies of their work force. They are not a charity. The frame you are putting this in suggests that the same employee today at Walmart earning beginning wages will stay at Walmart and not take that experience elsewhere for higher wages, or qualify for promotion at Walmart. Walmart promotes from within. Plenty of Walmart employees do earn a "living wage."

If your only opportunity in life is to work in an entry level position at Walmart for life, I applaud Walmart for making that available to you. If you have no hope of promotion or bettering yourself thorough their tuition reimbursement programs or making a lateral to a higher paying competitor, you have no business living on your own. You do not have the life skills necessary for independent living. Heaven forfend that such a person is bringing children into the world which, after all, is how all those Walmart employees are "qualifying" for the level of benefits in your original post. Getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant does not mean that society, much less Walmart, owes you a "living wage."

 

[Que]

The coming market distortions because of the ironically named "Affordable Care Act" will result in people making the same sort of statements as other companies because of the rising cost of plans due to the ACA and the relatively low cost of paying a penalty and helping their employees sign up for government subsidized exchanges. It will be cheaper for the employer and better for the employee, and it will all come at taxpayer expense.

So upon whom will the blame for that be placed? On the employer and employee, navigating the pitfalls of a rigged system for their best benefit, or the politicians that are incapable of considering the potential for unintended or undesirable consequences for programs that they create with these perverse incentives.

Society is not getting wealthier from the constant robbing of Peter to pay Paul which is all government programs can ever amount to in the end. They do not and cannot increase the net wealth of a society and carry an administrative burden that actually reduces the amount of capital available in society at large for wealth creation.

There is a very good reason that societies that incentivise not working and that remove capital from those that would use it to grow wealth have the lowest standards of living.

Yes some socialists can point to resource rich, low population, low immigration countries and suggest that that somehow would work with our open boarders and hoards of unskilled, uneducated laborers. Apples to pop-tarts comparison. No society has grown richer taking from the rich and giving to the poor, because that defies economic reality. Else Venezuela would be showing an increase in per-capita wealth instead of a decrease.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Well, most of the wal-mart staffers have a GED or high school diploma at best, and do not possess the level of intelligence required to earn any sort of degree that would enable them to get a better job.

So they deserve to be paid poverty wages.

Powerful corporations like to keep the poor, disabled, and disadvantaged under their thumb so that the wealthy, educated, and intelligent can thrive and prosper at the detriment of the poor.

Long hours of backbreaking labor for poverty-level pay for the destitute, disabled, ill-educated, and unfit is just rich and powerful industry's means of of suppressing these groups, preventing the propagation of their kind and further spread of their unfitness.

Failure breeds failure, success breeds success.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the third world, look at all of the slave labor factories run by large American corporations in China, India, and South America. These jobs could easily be performed by robots/machines but they are not.

This is called social darwinism.

 

[Que]

Well, most of the wal-mart staffers have a GED or high school diploma at best, and do not possess the level of intelligence required to earn any sort of degree.

So they deserve to be paid poverty wages.

Powerful corporations like to keep the poor, disabled, and disadvantaged under their thumb so that the wealthy, educated, and intelligent can thrive and prosper at the detriment of the poor.

Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the third world, look at all of the slave labor factories run by large American corporations in China, India, and South America.

This is called social darwinism.

No. They don't. Why is it that the same people that scream "corporations aren't people" ascribe evil motives to corporations?

Corporations exist (once again) to turn a profit.

Walmart would love to have its employees better themselves make more money and spend it at Walmart. They have no problem at all training a replacement when one of their employees goes off and betters themselves.

Henry Ford, contrary to the mis-characterization of what he actually did, did not set out to make a company that could pay the wages that would enable his workers to buy his product, he set out to automate and improve processes to get the price of a car down to where an actual factory worker could afford one. He did more by making cars affordable than by making "living wages."

These days he would be vilified for using assembly lines and putting thousands of coach-builders making cars one at a time unemployed.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Here is some great information about social darwinism and the reasons behind capitalism's deliberate exploitation and suppression of the poor.

In my opinion, Wal-Mart is one of the largest practitioners of this.

It isn't evil and greed, it's eugenics and the survival of the fittest.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/herbert-spencer-theory-social-darwinism.html

 

[PayDay]

They should get second jobs. Also, most people in poverty in this country have flatscreen TVs and cable.

 

[Que]

Here is some great information about social darwinism and the reasons behind capitalism's deliberate exploitation and suppression of the poor.

In my opinion, Wal-Mart is one of the largest practitioners of this.

It isn't evil and greed, it's eugenics and the survival of the fittest.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/herbert-spencer-theory-social-darwinism.html

You mistake the effect of millions of people making for better or worse choices that impact the quality of their lives. No mytical puppeteer controls that

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

So what do the part-timers at KMart cost us?

 

[Mike_Yates]

You mistake the effect of millions of people making for better or worse choices that impact the quality of their lives. No mytical puppeteer controls that

It is their inherent level of intellect that largely dictates their life outcome.

 

[SgtSpiderMan]

It is their inherent level of intellect that largely dictates their life outcome.

Shaquille O'Neal and Miles Davis would disagree with you.

 

[Que]

It is their inherent level of intellect that largely dictates their life outcome.

Nothing about anyones life is dictated to them. 50% of the population is below the median for intelligence. What people choose to do with their strengths and challenges is what is determinate.

Not being trapped in poverty is statistically simple. Obtain at least a high school eduction. Avoid being ensnared by drugs and alcohol. Obtain a job and show up for work. Avoid having children as long as possible, and at the very earliest your twenties.

The flip side is simple too. Teen pregnancies result in a lifetime of poverty. Drug and alcohol abuse and absenteeism are major factors affecting employment.

 

[BotanyBoy]

Wal Mart like every other business out there only exist because people GIVE them their money.

If you don't like how Wal Mart does business then don't give them your money. It's really just that simple.

Taking your business, your MONEY to another business that better reflects your values/ideals is probably the single most powerful vote/voice you have in this country.

 

[Mike_Yates]

Nothing about anyones life is dictated to them. 50% of the population is below the median for intelligence. What people choose to do with their strengths and challenges is what is determinate.

Not being trapped in poverty is statistically simple. Obtain at least a high school eduction. Avoid being ensnared by drugs and alcohol. Obtain a job and show up for work. Avoid having children as long as possible, and at the very earliest your twenties.

The flip side is simple too. Teen pregnancies result in a lifetime of poverty. Drug and alcohol abuse and absenteeism are major factors affecting employment.

I doubt that anyone with an IQ below 130 could become a doctor, an engineer, scientist, lawyer, or business professional.

What kind of job or career you can have depends on the level of education that you have completed, and this is greatly amplified by which college you went to. A Harvard graduate takes precedence over those who graduated from lesser schools and has access to prestigious jobs and career paths that are reserved exclusively for ivy-league graduates.

Some occupations are only possible for the high-end of the intelligence spectrum, like at least an IQ of 130.

1 in every 1,000 people has an IQ of 140.

Your intellect dictates a lot about your life.

 

[PoppingTom]

Why does Wal-Mart pay their employees such extremely low wages?

Most of them don't have health insurance and can't even afford a one-bedroom studio apartment.

To be honest: it's the market. Wal-Mart isn't the only one, even German brands like ALDI or Lidl do it.

In the end, minimum wage is the only thing that helps in this case. Or unions.

 

[BoyNextDoor]

It is their inherent level of intellect that largely dictates their life outcome.

It is the position their parents occupy in society as it relates to the production, appropriation and distribution of surplus value that largely dictates their life outcome.

 

[hazbeen]

Why does Wal-Mart pay their employees such extremely low wages?

Most of them don't have health insurance and can't even afford a one-bedroom studio apartment.

why dont they become ballplayers or rockstars and earn more?

or

Doctors and earn more

or

lawyers and earn more?

 

[Mike_Yates]

why dont they become ballplayers or rockstars and earn more?

or

Doctors and earn more

or

lawyers and earn more?

Because they do not possess the necessary level of intelligence.

 

[hazbeen]

Because they do not possess the necessary level of intelligence.

THERE is your answer

why they are at Wal Mart....if not there, in the streets

so in effect, it costs less to have em there then at Wal Mart

 

[Que]

It is the position their parents occupy in society as it relates to the production, appropriation and distribution of surplus value that largely dictates their life outcome.

No, except for the fact that if mom and dad were teen parents, the kids probably will be as well. A child of teen parents, given up for adoption and not raised in poverty tends to see the benefits of not becoming a teen parent. On the other hand, plenty of kids raised in luxury, opt to play the defiant card, drop out, get knocked up and do drugs.

Poverty is a self inflicted condition. It is not inherited except as it comes from mimicking the bad behavior your parents modeled.

Consistent condom use alone would reduce poverty a theoretical 99% since having a child in your teenage years is the number one predictor that you will raise a child in poverty.

 

[Sean]

No, except for the fact that if mom and dad were teen parents, the kids probably will be as well. A child of teen parents, given up for adoption and not raised in poverty tends to see the benefits of not becoming a teen parent. On the other hand, plenty of kids raised in luxury, opt to play the defiant card, drop out, get knocked up and do drugs.

Poverty is a self inflicted condition. It is not inherited except as it comes from mimicking the bad behavior your parents modeled.

Consistent condom use alone would reduce poverty a theoretical 99% since having a child in your teenage years is the number one predictor that you will raise a child in poverty.

Actually, social mobility is at its lowest level in decades. And falling.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

If you provide value to your employer, your employer will pay to keep you:

http://fortune.com/2015/06/02/walmart-workers-raise/

As a member of my company's management team, I have been made very much aware of how few employees will go out of their way to provide value to the company. Most of the time they don't even attempt to exert the minimal amount of effort to do the job they eagerly campaigned for when we were hiring...

 

[Que]

To be honest: it's the market. Wal-Mart isn't the only one, even German brands like ALDI or Lidl do it.

In the end, minimum wage is the only thing that helps in this case. Or unions.

No, minimum wage results in less opportunities for the chronically unemployed to work as it makes automation or outsourcing even more viable. Minimum wage increases, not decreases unemployment rates and there is no poverty like having no wage.

Unions do nothing but extort money for their members at the threat of disrupting business. Nothing about that process increases the net wealth of a society. It merely transfers a modest amount of wealth to their members until such time as the market finds a way to eliminate the surcharge on labor that the extortion created.

Usually it results in those jobs being entirely eliminated in that locality. Might take a decade or two, but you cannot extort the market forever. Someone will find a way to do without your services and still get a product or service produced.