Posted on 11/22/2005 8:19:51 AM PST by Millee
Robert Greenwald's latest documentary, "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price," feels like a rushed, poorly edited film.
That is understandable, considering the director assembled more than 800 "field producers" who, in a few months, fanned the country and also headed to Wal-Mart factories in Bangladesh, China and Honduras to collect stories of how the nation's largest retailer is undermining the American quality of life.
He spliced dozens of those stories together, many with poor sound quality or shaky footage.
But the voices of current and former Wal-Mart sales associates and managers bring to life the way that corporate dominance and stockholder greed have created a segment of the American workforce, 1.3 million people, who earn slightly above the U.S. poverty rate.
The film documents that, even after putting in a 40-hour workweek, workers are eligible for food stamps, Medicaid and other public-assistance programs. It's an insult to these workers and a drain on taxpayer-funded programs. (Welfare was never meant to help supplement exploited workers.)
All the while Wal-Mart raked in billions in profits - $10 billion in 2004 alone - while chief executive H. Lee Scott Jr. reported earnings that year above $17.5 million.
Watching this film will make you never want to shop at Wal- Mart again.
I haven't shopped there in years because the so-called low prices cost us too much.
There will be those who will turn a blind eye, justifying their Wal-Mart purchases because they need to save a few dollars. They will say all companies want higher profits and that Wal-Mart continues to grow because it buys in bulk and Americans like shopping there.
But at what point do you stop saying the ends justify the $15.78 jeans?
Consider that those jeans, Lee, are assembled overseas by workers making just enough to feed themselves. Keep in mind that "NBC Dateline" revealed in 1992 that Lee paid workers in Bangladesh to sew "made in the USA" labels in jeans being shipped to Wal-Mart.
Among the information revealed in the film, most of which has been established by government agencies and labor organizations:
The average Wal-Mart sales associate earns less than $14,000 a year and can't afford the $1,000 deductible
Advertisement
required by the health-care plan.
Wal-Mart has a history of union-busting.
Wal-Mart factory workers in China make less than $3 a week, after putting in more than 72 hours of work.
Family-owned businesses collapse when Wal-Mart moves to town.
The company has denied the movie's claims and says the film distorts Wal-Mart's image.
Can this Arkansas-based company, under public pressure, change its predatory business style?
Wal-Mart should take its cues from rival Costco, a highly profitable yet benevolent company.
Costco pays its average employee $17 an hour. It offers workers an affordable health-care package that 85 percent of employees take part in. It contributes to employees' 401(k) plan.
Of course, Jim Sinegal, the CEO of Costco, takes a more modest annual salary of $350,000, a sliver of what Wal-Mart's Lee brings to his palatial estate.
Perhaps Wal-Mart's CEO greed trickles down from the top.
The Walton family - widow Helen and three children Rob, Jim, and Alice (another son, John, died in a plane crash in June) have a collective net worth topping $100 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The film reports the family donated just $6,000 to a company fund that helps needy employees.
The more you find out about Wal-Mart, the more you realize that the low costs come indeed at too high a price.
Shop elsewhere. Boycott Wal-Mart, the company known for always low wages.
Another Wal-Mart hit piece.
"Stock holder greed"---lol, I bet the author has no idea that the institutional union pension funds that invest heavily in Walmart (like CALPERS) are part of that "greed."
Lefties kill me.
Well I'm convinced. Communism is definately the better way to go. What's a hundred million dead anyway?
Didn't you know that high quality selection coupled with low prices is the work of the Devil? We must all pay for the same goods at triple the cost!
Interest article at:
http://acuf.org/issues/issue48/051119med.asp
The author forgot to mention that the film is edited to make it deceptive (is the director a Michael Moore protege?). For example they portray a hardware store that went out of business in an area with a new WalMart. What they don't tell you is that the store closed three months before the WalMart opened.
I love Walmart.
The implication is that Walmart owns these factories. Is this true or instead do they purchase from these factories? The argument might be made that Walmart is their only or primary buyer and that these factories wouldn't be in buisiness were it not for Walmart but I haven't seen that evidence. Instead, I see much the same products in many stores so I suspect that the term, "Walmart factories" is misleading.
Yeah.
I think I'll go buy at all those other stores that sell only American made products, which aren't in business for evil profits and pay their employees a living wage. Oh, wait...
Gee that's too bad. I HATE getting gouged and raped by these tiny monopolies. Everyone has to pay 2 times as much money so a few Mr. Potter's can prosper, AT EVERYONE ELSES EXPENSE!
This is all part of the union corporate campaign. Shame on the "reporter" for doing their bidding!
Think I'll run out and get me some of them 15 buck jeans!
Here's a novel idea: why don't these people that hate Wal-Mart just NOT shop at Wal-Mart; that should be the end of WM, right?
Since Walmart & the Waltons are refusing to recognize the birth of Christ but want to profit from his birthday;
we are taking our business elsewhere.
Let the anti-Christians & Chicoms wallow in their bigotry.
We'll buy online and we'll BUY AMERICAN!
And you ask "where can I buy American?"
right here:
http://www.usstuff.com
and before I am accused of being a "union thug" LOL
the only unions I belong to are the United States Marine Corps and Christianity!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Semper Fi,
Kelly
crodriguez@denverpost.com
For those who enjoy exposing union hacks and socialists.
I'm not against Walmart, but people- you really need to STOP buying things made by countries that have slave labor and forced abortions. I don't care if it's Target or Walmart. And while we know that Walmart is targeted b/c of their campaign contributions- Any supercheap store that mass produces things in China should be avoided. And it's poor quality. It's better to spend the extra money on something made in the USA, it lasts longer and it's a better value in the long run. You may think I'm crazy for buying 30 dollar black and white t-shirts from Banana Republic but you know what- I can wear and wash those things a thousand times more than you and not have to go out and get a new one every month.
So making more than minimum wage is now proverty?
If these workers are so valuable why aren't they working elsewhere?
The only problem I have with Walmart is this American company
is buying most of their stuff overseas. But then who's fault is that?
If American workers didn't demand so much money for unskilled/semi-skilled
labor maybe we wouldn't have GM having to lay-off 30,000 workers and
shut down plants. Maybe we would still be the greatest steel producers
in the world.
The modern Union is a communist tool designed not to protect workers
but the Union leadership.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.