"It's up to the employer to treat their employees fairly, starting with paying them enough money to live on or they are nothing more than exploiters"
Businesses operate in order to make money... not to provide livelihoods for their fellow citizens.
You're kidding me? Of course they don't give a rat's ass about their employees, but pretend they do when they send them off to AA meetings because it's discrimination if they do what they probably would like to do, fire them.
I still maintain it is immoral not to pay a living wage. Satisfied employees work better and are less likely to steal from their employers.
Wal Mart has that all figured out though. They watch their employees like a hawk. Don't think they don't. I think they have bought off Paul Harvey. But it used to be that way when I worked for a department store. You could only go out one door and have all your packages checked. Meanwhile, government employees furnish home offices with staplers, paper, pens, pencils, you name it, from the supply room. My boss was a bad example. Fortunately, my conscience kicked in, but not before I helped myself to a couple of pens.
I made the amazing discovery when I worked for a company that I could ask if it would be all right to take home some used desk folders and was given permission. I felt a lot better about myself than if I had sneaked them out the door. And I wasn't paid all that well.