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The Waltons are worth more than almost all nations on the planet. That's more than they need, and it's on the back of employee wages, both their own and their suppliers. As you said, we're paying for this scheme because the workers aren't making enough to survive, so they collect benefits on the taxpayer dime. Then there's all the cheap foreign crap that is all Walton (and such) workers can afford, putting the US in impossible debt with the trade deficit.

While all this has been going on for decades, small businesses in local communities have been decimated. The government is complicit by there being so many laws that it's almost impossible for a business to get started. Sure does seem like fascism....government hand-in-hand with huge corporations to control everyone else.

I don't see anything in that scheme that supports conservative values of self-reliance and the ability to make a living wage if one works hard.

“The Waltons are worth more than almost all nations on the planet. That’s more than they need” - Karl Marx

“As you said, we’re paying for this scheme because the workers aren’t making enough to survive” - They agreed to work for that pay I think. They should quit and start working elsewhere then.

“government hand-in-hand with huge corporations to control everyone else” - The values that Donald Trump loves right there.

I don't see anything in that scheme that supports conservative values of self-reliance and the ability to make a living wage if one works hard.

There are people unwilling to work hard enough to make what you would consider a "living wage".

There are people who are just intellectually incapable of doing something that will give them what you consider a "living wage".

This is especially true is by "living wage" you mean the ability to support not just yourself, but multiple kids. The only real solution may be "Don't breed them if you can't feed them".

***That’s more than they need, and it’s on the back of employee wages,***

Sam Walton alone was responsible for breaking the economic stranglehold the Chicken processors had in this area. They paid LOWER than Minimum agricultural starvation wages, keeping this area in abject poverty. You worked for their wages or you starved. Too poor to move you had no choice.

The Sam bought out some bankrupt Ben Franklin stores and started WALMART, and paid a much better wage.

Soon the Chicken Men could not get anyone to work for their starvation wages as evryone was working for that upstart Walmart. So they went to Mexico and brought in the first load of legal Mexicans. Then Marshallese Islanders, then Hmong, now Somalis. They finally learned agricultural wages don’t keep workers and started paying a fairly competetive wage.

Now thanks to Walmart, we no longer live in a poverty stricken area but one of the richest areas in the southwest.

Oh, by the way, I’ve NEVER worked for Walmart.

When I see posts like yours, it amazes me how successful the Leftists have become in getting people to parrot Marx and Engels in conservative forums and be serious about it.

The Waltons are worth more than almost all nations on the planet. I hope this is hyperbole. Maybe worth more than Luxembourg but Denmark surpasses the 150 billion net worth of the Walton's in 2014.

However, it is the first part of the Leftist attack, class warfare. Demonize the bourgeoisie!

That's more than they need

Obama has said the exact same thing.

and it's on the back of employee wages

Classic Marxism. The capitalists feed off of the sweat of the proletariat. Or as Obama put it, "you didn't build that." Sam Walton had nothing to do with risking his own funds and livelihood in buying the original bankrupt stores that would become WalMart. And certainly highly trained, educated, and experienced personnel should never be paid more than a high school dropout. That's unfair to the masses!

the workers aren't making enough to survive

From Marx to the Occupy movement to here. Amazing how some sewage will travel. One, back in that rest or the world the Waltons have more money than, 7 to 9 dollars an hour would be luxurious. Two, here in this county, you can live off of WalMart wages. You won't have a brand new car, a big house,the latest smartphone, etc. but you can survive just fine. Not easy, but it's done. That's why some people work their way up for something better but others are content with our poor being another nation's middle class.

The rest of your post veers from the Know Nothing party to anti-corporatism. But still - deficit spending made our debt impossible, not a trade deficit, which inherently is an arbitrary estimate. Those cheap foreign goods come from unions driving up the cost of labor to an unsustainable level with the early pushes for a "living wage." So now those jobs have moved to countries that are thrilled to live on those wages.

In short, you provided a clear example of how pervasive Leftism has become, whether you call it Progressive movement, Communism, Marxism, or the Living Wage movement.

hat's more than they need,

A VERY dangerous phrase to utter in a capitalist economy.....who gets to determine that....socialism seeks to take all that excess money from those evil business people and GIVE it to others so that they may be more "equal"

That has never worked, nor will it ever. Those who don't like Wal-mart's way of doing things are perfectly able to start their own business and pay their employees as large a salary as they see fit.