Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance

a reply to: AzureSky

This middle class of Russia is salaries between 15k-30k a year per person. America's poverty line is 23k for a family of four, but that 23k isn't the poverty line for a smaller family. Russia has a lower standard of living compared to the United States, and the people there expect less than Americans.

15k a year is working our minimum wage 40 hours a week, so our minimum wage job is the lower scale of the middle class in Russia.

Do not believe the hype, poor people here, are the middle class in other countries. Our standard of living has vastly surpassed most other countries.

originally posted by: mOjOm

originally posted by: NthOther
You guys do know that if they pay their employees more their prices will go up, right?

Americans are addicted to cheap useless crap. Walmart is their cheap useless crap dealer. One isn't going anywhere without the other.

Yes, but do you realize that the reason they would raise their prices isn't because they need to in order to balance the overhead with the profit. It's because their greed to get absolutely everything for themselves is too much for them to handle. Paying the employees of Walmart a living wage would mean the Waltons would have to sacrifice some of their own Multi Billion Dollar Profit which they take in. They would still be Rich beyond belief, but that isn't enough for them. They must have it all for themselves.

Do you really think they would Have to Raise prices to make it???? Not even close. They just choose to.

One thing we shouldn't forget is that most walmart employees also shop at walmart, so everything walmart gives them actually goes right back into walmart. They wouldn't lose much at all.

originally posted by: Stuship
a reply to: AzureSky

This middle class of Russia is salaries between 15k-30k a year per person. America's poverty line is 23k for a family of four, but that 23k isn't the poverty line for a smaller family. Russia has a lower standard of living compared to the United States, and the people there expect less than Americans.

15k a year is working our minimum wage 40 hours a week, so our minimum wage job is the lower scale of the middle class in Russia.

Do not believe the hype, poor people here, are the middle class in other countries. Our standard of living has vastly surpassed most other countries.

When you see your country trending in the wrong direction, I'd rather keep the glass half empty and try to stop it. I don't want rose colored glasses. I don't have to see eye to eye with the people who have it worse to know I don't want it to get worse. There is no reason why we can't be the most successful nation in the world in all aspects. We have everything we need, people just need to stop being assholes.

People like to talk about America's greatness, but compared to other empires of history we are still infants. I'd like to stay on top a bit longer.

Actually I don't even have to be on top, I just want peopled treated right.

a reply to: links234

We are paying taxes for our slavery and oppression.

originally posted by: spurgeonatorsrevenge
And why and the hell do conservatives always come in and shill for the rich Elites?

WTF is that all about?

It is like a compulsion to rush in and bash the working class and also defend the rich, why???

Most non-billionair republicans are poor, paranoid, and uneducated. They are convinced that they are just temporarily embarassed millionaires, being held back by *insert random minority here* rather than who is actually holding us ALL back. The corporations.

We need not just a minimum wage, but a living wage, and a maximum wage.

originally posted by: mOjOm
a reply to: NthOther

Look at it from this perspective. The Walton's are using the System to Subsidize their own payroll. Meaning that the Walton's themselves essentially are the one's who are on public assistance by not paying their employee's enough and therefore the tax payers make up the rest for them. That money the Walton's are "Saving" by paying low wages is actually the Tax Payers money which they are in effect stealing by using a completely corrupt and broken system. That "Savings" or "Subsidized Profit" is in addition to their actual profits that they make by selling crap.

That is the Lie that Corporations use and then spin to make it seem like Welfare is the evil born because of the poor. Actually it's the Evil which is born from the Rich and Their Greed.

Do you think Wal-Mart would pay their employees more if we took away the government benefits?

originally posted by: Metallicus
a reply to: links234

Maybe Wal-mart should just close and make all those people unemployed.

Don't get paid enough then work somewhere else.

Seriously, no one expects to make a living working at a discount store, do they? You probably should be on Federal assistance if you are too stupid to get a better job. It sounds about right.

Never Happen.
Too many millions to make for the investors and head elites.
As long as people keep buying they'll need employees to keep selling.
Besides, they are Too Big Too Fail and the Gubmint would step in and prop them up to keep the commie products coming.

originally posted by: Stuship
a reply to: AzureSky

This middle class of Russia is salaries between 15k-30k a year per person. America's poverty line is 23k for a family of four, but that 23k isn't the poverty line for a smaller family. Russia has a lower standard of living compared to the United States, and the people there expect less than Americans.

15k a year is working our minimum wage 40 hours a week, so our minimum wage job is the lower scale of the middle class in Russia.

Do not believe the hype, poor people here, are the middle class in other countries. Our standard of living has vastly surpassed most other countries.

Looking at the standard of living for the average American from the past to the present shows stagnancy and decline.
But we should all look to other countries in this Globalist Utopia for where we are headed?

a reply to: links234

This what the working poor looks like, sadly we have the government that mislead the public claiming that jobs are been created, but if you work and still depend on government to help your family, your are within the hard working poor in the nation, while you struggle the government claim you are a success.

The irony.

Shouldn't we be advocating that government benefits be abolished?

a reply to: links234

Not that I am an advocate for Walmart, but people(dems/libs mainly) need to stop focusing on them. There are plenty of bad apples out there that do the exact same thing as Walmart does. The only difference is that Walmart employs thousands of people that otherwise could NEVER get a job.

I am not saying that every single person who works minimum wage at Walmart isn't qualified to get a better job. What I am saying is that they hire a lot of people with disabilities, medical issues, and a lot of older people as well.

How many employers out there pay thousands of people everyday just to sit/stand and say hi to people? They also employ almost half a million people who earn more than $10/hr.

So again, this isn't a post praising Walmart, far from it. However, I am willing to play Devil's advocate and put out some facts for the people hell bent on hating on only Walmart.

Lastly, how much would those 1.3 million workers cost the taxpayer if they had no job at all?

Come on. Who are kidding here? Ourselves? If suddenly the Wal-Mart workers had no government benefits Wal-Mart wouldn't pay them a #ing dime more. You know that. They are rapcious capitalists, remember? That's the fact that puts the lie to the claim Wal-Mart being the beneficiary of the benefits. Also, the workers would be even more desperate for the wages Wal-Mart is paying. The price of merchandise would be totally unaffected.

What a bunch of lazy welfare recipients, those lazy people should just tighten their belts, cut out some meals, get two more jobs and stop being such cry babies.

We can't ask poor Walmart to pay them more...they hardly make a profit. Do you know what it would do to the economy if Walmart didn't make that extra billion???

/sarcasm off

originally posted by: RKWWWW
Shouldn't we be advocating that government benefits be abolished?

Our government is run by an oligarchy consisting of heads of banks and corporations that have every loop hole known to man to skirt the responsibility of paying for the policies they helped create.

They would never abolish it because with 40 million people on some sort of welfare buying their products, it would not be only the poor that would be hurting. They want the middle class to pay for it and point the finger at the poor as the ones that passed these policies that got us where we are at.

originally posted by: jacobe001

originally posted by: RKWWWW
Shouldn't we be advocating that government benefits be abolished?

Our government is run by an oligarchy consisting of heads of banks and corporations that have every loop hole known to man to skirt the responsibility of paying for the policies they helped create.

They would never abolish it because with 40 million people on some sort of welfare buying their products, it would not be only the poor that would be hurting. They want the middle class to pay for it and point the finger at the poor as the ones that passed these policies that got us where we are at.

Are you seriously saying the origin our public safety net was from the scheming heads of banks and corporations? That's laughable. I have another wild, crazy theory. Hold on, cuz this is gonna blow your mind! What if the origin of our public safety net sprang from the public concern for the less fortunate among us, manifested as a bill passed through the House and Senate by the public's own duly elected Representatives, and signed into law by the President? Hmmm? Hows that for a wacky conspiracy? I realize it's not as sexy as yours, but it's all I got! LOL.

originally posted by: RKWWWW

Do you think Wal-Mart would pay their employees more if we took away the government benefits?

No. If they wanted to pay their employees more then they'd already do that, which they don't. Taking away the government assistance that these people also get along with their pay would only hurt those people and I don't think that is a good way to go either. Therein lies the problem and I'm not sure I have the solution either.

What should happen is that Walmart, which makes absolutely massive profits, should pay their employee's better wages. They could do that and still make an obscene amount of money for themselves. However, the way things Should work is almost never how the Do work. I wish it wasn't that way, but that's how things are now and how they've been in the past too. But there is hope for the future that things could change. Maybe....Got any ideas???

a reply to: RKWWWW

Here is one such example where one of the Big Banks is reaping in the rewards from Food Stamps, not to mention, the smattering of fast food joints that would love to get in on the Food Stamp Wagon:


Food Stamps: JPMorgan & Banking Industry Profit From Misery

This week’s credit check: A record 43.6 million Americans are using food stamps. JPMorgan’s segment that makes food stamp debit cards made $5.47 billion in net revenue in 2010.

You might think that if you’re on food stamps, big banks won’t be very interested in you. What could they possibly want with someone who’s struggling just to put food on the table? But it turns out that you’re actually part of a profitable business for big bank JPMorgan. While the money to pay for the stamps comes from the government, the technology to access it lies in private hands. Food stamps used to be literally stamps — that is, pieces of paper — but in this day and age paper is so old fashioned. Now you get your food stamps with a debit card, and JPMorgan knows all about creating plastic credit products.

As the head of this division at JPMorgan, Christopher Paton, told Bloomberg, “They act and feel very much like a debit card. A lot of stores increasingly take food stamps.” What convenience! And Paton points out that his bank is the largest processor of food stamps in the country. These are boom times for such services — a new report from the US Department of Agriculture reports that 43.6 million Americans are now using food stamps, nearly 14% of the population, which is a record number. Paton notes this trend himself: “Volumes have gone through the roof in the last couple of years,” he says. “This business is a very important business to JPMorgan in terms of its size and scale.” And the numbers bear him out. According to the company’s most recent quarterly filing with the SEC, the Treasury & Securities Services segment, which is the division that includes the food stamp business, was up 2% in the last three months of last quarter and brought in $5.47 billion in net revenue for most of 2010.

The Big Banks and Big Business have absolutely no problem with taking Food Stamps, if they were against it, they could refuse to take them.

abcnews.go.com...

Fast Food Chains Getting Into the Food Stamp Act

In an ever-growing number of states, if you crave a taco or fried chicken from a fast-food restaurant, you can pay for it with food stamps.
Food stamps - known more formally as the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program - have been in use for grocery staples, such as bread and milk, since 1934, but now, for the first time, they can be used for fast food in four states across the country.
The number of businesses – including convenience and discount stores, gas stations and pharmacies – that have been approved to accept food stamps has increased by a third over the course of three years from 2005 to 2010, USA Today reports, and fast-food chains are working hard to get a cut of the federal dollars in Florida, California, Arizona and Michigan.
The funds allocated to the food stamp program have increased exponentially, from $28.5 billion to $64.7 billion in that same time frame, according to USA Today, and at a time when people have less money to spend, the bump in federal dollars can mean a lot to the fast-industry.
Yum! Brands, based in Louisville, Ky., which operates a string of restaurants that includes Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silver’s and Pizza Hut, are among those applying for inclusion in the food stamp program, saying that elderly, disabled and homeless people have difficulty preparing meals, ABC affiliate WHAS reported.

I have seen the claim bandied around a lot where the consumer is responsible for keeping certain business running when they by their products. Noone is forcing the above to take food stamps and in fact they are lobbying to get a cut of that money from Uncle Sam.

originally posted by: RKWWWW

Are you seriously saying the origin our public safety net was from the scheming heads of banks and corporations? That's laughable. I have another wild, crazy theory. Hold on, cuz this is gonna blow your mind!

www.washingtontimes.com...

In the study, “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens,” researchers compared 1,800 different U.S. policies that were put in place by politicians between 1981 and 2002 to the type of policies preferred by the average and wealthy American, or special interest groups.

Researchers then concluded that U.S. policies are formed more by special interest groups than by politicians properly representing the will of the general people, including the lower-income class.

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence,” the study found.

Read more: www.washingtontimes.com...
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

a reply to: links234

This means that they make all that profit for having low prices, because they pay their workers low also, and then the consumers fit the rest of the bill anyway covering their employees welfare needs. Somethings gotta give, they cant have those low prices everyone loves and pay their employees cheaply. My only concern is the consumer will not magically see a difference in the tax they pay, it will just go to some other useless thing.

originally posted by: Stuship
a reply to: AzureSky

This middle class of Russia is salaries between 15k-30k a year per person. America's poverty line is 23k for a family of four, but that 23k isn't the poverty line for a smaller family. Russia has a lower standard of living compared to the United States, and the people there expect less than Americans.

15k a year is working our minimum wage 40 hours a week, so our minimum wage job is the lower scale of the middle class in Russia.

Do not believe the hype, poor people here, are the middle class in other countries. Our standard of living has vastly surpassed most other countries.

You are right, there are no poor people in America, move along folks, nothing to see here.