Wal Mart's Exploitive Practices Attacked By Website

Wake Up Wal-Mart ^

[Clintonfatigued]

Because of Wal-Mart's inadequate wages and benefits, Wal-Mart employees are eligible for $2.5 billion in Federal assistance, which comes from your tax dollars.

[scrabblehack]

Yes, there's a whole lot of assumin' goin' on here...you would think something prepared for the US Congress would involve genuine research...

[Aliska]

Get used to the competition. Or are you too much of a weenie to compete? Oh wait, I bet you want all those Chinese, Indians, Eastern Europeans, etc. to stay in sqaulor under the jackboot of tyranny so you can make an extra buck an hour putting a grommit into a hole.

America first. Money goes further in third-world countries. I wouldn't want an extra buck an hour. That would get me nowhere. People such as you describe used to make $16 per hour until the factories were shut down and driven out of business, partly because the unions got too greedy. That does not mean that I am against unions per se.

More people work for the government than ever before and get better pay than equivalent work in the private sector. Taxpayers are paying every penny of their salaries.

I would like to see some of those jobs come back for people. Now a lot of those jobs are seasonal.

Maybe you think everybody should be college-educated and have a high paying job, but we need the other kind of people to do the hard and dangerous work of keeping our highways repaired so people like you can drive your family to Disneyland, Adventureland, Six Flags, for getaways.

[gogipper]

A living wage does not include two cars. It should include one dependable car, money to pay for insurance, modest housing, adequate food, a night out once in awhile, internet access and computer, can get by without cellphone and cable tv. You can take classes on the internet to get a college degree, if they have your IQ.


See this is the crux of the matter. There were times recently when I didn't feel I could afford cable TV. There were other choices that I made. During one of those times I heard a "poor person" complain that she couldn't afford cigarettes and cable.

When I was just out of college and stupid, I didn't have health insurance. It was a rational choice based on my health.

If I am working at that level, internet access and a computer is something I should get FREE at the local library (my (sales) taxes are already paying for that).

See, your living wage reflects your choices and you impose them on your imaginary low wage person. However, there are millions and millions of people on low wages that don't fit your socialized mental map.

When the government starts imposing their mental map on each person then YES THAT IS MARXISM. And the inevitable result is tolitarianism because each person's choices will have to be taken away from him or her to attain that "ideal". Its all there in the history books, we don't have to make that mistake.

[since1868]

To be honest, I work at Sears in the Brand Central dept. the average full time employee who works 40 hours makes over 50k.

[Betaille]

"we need the other kind of people to do the hard and dangerous work of keeping our highways repaired"

Absolutely. Entrepeneurs who create products, fix roads, etc... will make far more than a living wage.

[Betaille]

The laborers who work on highway construction make more than living wage.

[Gabz]

but they usually have a spouse or partner who works for a company who hasn't been driven overseas

Good Grief - don't you see that even you are stating exactly what the problem is.......?????

And what had forced those companies overseas - the ridculous regulations, expenses, and taxation that you yourself are actually espousing by such things as demanding a living wage.

[A. Pole]

These whiners are examples of people who believe that everyone is entitled, not just to an equal OPPORTUNITY to succeed in life but rather, equal OUTCOMES!

Living wage is like safety net - it is a minimum to live modest honest life. It does not mean equal outcomes.

You can still be rich, actually if you get/are rich, your wealth will have greater value.

It is much better to have five million dollars in USA than ten million in Colombia . Don't you see it?

[gogipper]

Locked in overnite -- wasn't that a movie? LOL what a joke!

[Conservative til I die]

Do you have similar ideas about other issues, like abortion?

Huh? What does abortion have to do with Wal-Mart wages? Really now.

[Betaille]

"Living wage is like safety net - it is a minimum to live modest honest life."

So what is the living wage? Give me a number! Why can't you people give a number?!

[Betaille]

You still haven't given me a number. What is the living wage that should be the minimum any employer is allowed to pay any employee in your fantasy world? why cant you give me a number?

[angkor]

It isn't WalMart's fault that the people who work their don't have hardly any marketable skills.

If I'm not mistaken, each and every Wal-Mart employee is perfectly free to quit and start their own company. Nothing - absolutely nothing - stops these people from exercising their own free will, creativity, and hard work to become billionaires like the Walton family.

Did Sam Walton have health insurance and 4 weeks paid vacation?

[gogipper]

Ah, but they usually have a spouse or partner who works for a company who hasn't been driven overseas yet who supply the bulk of the family income.

See my post about your imaginary mental map. You have a very specific magic-friend person in mind, where I just talk about the choices that people make.

Big Brother says we must all be alike.

[TeddyCon]

Hmm, let's see....nobody does what Halliburton does as well as Halliburton does it, and nobody does what Wal-Mart does as well as Wal-Mart does it!

I believe I'm detecting a trend here.

[Conservative til I die]

You know, thinking back, last time I went to Wal-Mart none of the employees had chains on their legs. They seemed to be free to roam at will. Those who have skills and initiative and don't want to work at Wal-mart will soon find a position that they do like, because they are not enchained there.

But, similar to those involved in a lot of the socialist and Marxist revolutions in other countries, the people working at Wal-Mart are by and large too incompetent and ignorant to work elsewhere, instead taking the easy road out ranting about "unfair business practices". It's like my old boss at a diner said, "There's a reason these people have been flipping burgers for 20 years!"

[Betaille]

"Did Sam Walton have health insurance and 4 weeks paid vacation?"


LOL, don't forget Internet, a Car, an affordable auto mechinic who was honest... and all of the other things that these spoiled brats are claiming to now be part of a "living wage"

[A. Pole]

So now God's is a communist?

God is the autocratic King and the REAL Owner of everything. What you "own" is only a loan from Him. He can take and He WILL take it from you when it will please Him and he will demand the exact account how you used it.

[Fledermaus]

I'm sorry you are so bitter at life. Money went further then? HA When did you think I went to college? I clearly said I graduated in 1982. The prices for good and services were MUCH HIGHER than even today with FAR LOWER WAGES.

Gasoline hit $1.20 in 1982. If that price kept up with inflation since then it would be over $3.00 today. As I mentioned I delivered pizza and a large supreme from Pizza Hut was close to $20. It's about $15 today.

I was a Busch beer fan and a six-pack of 12 oz. cans cost $3.25 ($3.50 for six 16 oz. cans). Today it's about $3.59 for six 12 oz. cans.

I paid $400 a month with two roommates in 1980 for a crappy house in 1980 and today my nephew pays $300 a month with one roommate for a nice place with far better amenities than I ever had like cable, AC, private bath, big kitchen, etc.

My mom, in 1972, got appendicitis. There wasn't health insurance like we know it today. My dad went back to California (we moved to Ark), lived with his parents again (at age 37) and worked as a mechanic at the dealership he used to work at to earn California wages and sent the money back to us in Ark to pay off the hospital that billed us what we could afford. I didn't see him for 14 months. I had to take up the slack at age 13 and got a job stacking goods a local grocery where they were kind enough to offer us credit.

I rode my bike. I walked a mile to the store and back when needed.

So don't tell me about struggling. It's useless. There is nothing, NOTHING, that can't be overcome if you just want to. And there is LOTS of help out there that doesn't come from the government or taxpayers. What really TICKS ME OFF is that now THERE IS so much taxpayer funded programs that go to those than DON'T need it so whiney-assed politicians that use the same language you do can buy votes or attack capitalism.

We hire LEGAL immigrants like crazy at my hotel. A lot from Eastern Europe. A lot from Mexico. And we currently have over 20 unfilled positions that pay anywhere from $8-$15 an hour. The overtime I pay is unbelievable because I don't have enough bodies. I offer health insurance after 90 days for only $36.98 a month for single coverage. I offer a free meal a day. I pay 401(k). I offer other employee paid health benefits if you want to buy into them. I pay for the uniforms. I offer cash bonuses for cleaning more rooms than the daily allotment.

I can go on and on and on and on. And I still can't fill the jobs. So don't tell me people are struggling. People that struggle just won't do what is necessary to make it better. The #1 reason most people don't do better is that they just won't MOVE! That's right. Bad off? MOVE!

Oh, then the excuses really start to fly. They don't have the money to just pick up and move the family. Who says pick up the entire family? Read again about what my dad did. He left us. He had to. Or, my favorite whine, they say "I can't just sell my house" which implies THEY OWN ONE! Poor them.

Or, "I can't leave my family in the area". Why not? If you are that joined at the hip with your family in some city then make them give you money. OR MOVE TO WHERE THE JOBS ARE!

Face it. You are going to live your life complaining, making excuses, finding some little problem in life that can be blamed on the evils of capitalism, the rich, greed, etc. You are an unhappy person and that will never change.

Personally, I pity you and everyone like you. But then it does make Oprah very wealthy (as I notice you sit behind a computer with internet access I'm sure you think someone else should pay for).

[em2vn]

What do you mean about the loan sharks? I don't understand what you mean.