Who's the Biggest Welfare Queen? Wal-Mart!

[gblowfish]

They force their employees to live off federal assistance in many, many ways. Flame away, neocons:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13...ZSJi8.facebook

Good news everyone, after more than thirty years of searching by the news media, Ronald Reagan’s infamous “Welfare Queen” has finally been found. She lives in Bentonville, Arkansas.

“She has eighty names, thirty addresses,” Reagan warned during his 1976 run for President about a nameless, Cadillac-driving woman who’s conning the social safety net. He added: “She’s got Medicaid, getting food stamps, and she is collecting welfare under each of her names.” In total, Reagan said, “Her tax-free cash income is over $150,000.”

For more than thirty years, Republicans have used the existence of this “Welfare Queen” to justify their attacks on public spending and prove that the “welfare state” has run amok. Yet, her identity has never been revealed. After decades of searching, the best and brightest minds in the field of journalism were never able to discover who’s behind the wheel of the “Welfare Queen’s” Cadillac, or if she even existed.

That is until now.

We now realize our mistake. In our search for this “Welfare Queen,” we were looking for actual people when we should have been looking for corporate people. We should have been looking at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is the largest private employer and brought in more revenue in 2011 than any other company in the nation. Wal-Mart pocketed a not-too-shabby $16.4 billion in profits that same year and the six Wal-Mart heirs, the Walton family, own roughly $100 billion in wealth, which is more than 40% of Americans combined.

But, despite making all of this money, Wal-Mart’s business model hinges on mooching from the government. It hinges on being the biggest “Welfare Queen” in the United States.

Because of the “everyday low wages” that the retail giant pays its employees, our government has to step in and provide public assistance to Wal-Mart workers just so they can survive…which is why the Wal-Mart workforce represents the largest recipient of federal aid in the nation.
A Wal-Mart worker makes on average 31% less than a worker for any other large retailer, and requires 39% more in public assistance.

A recent study by UC Berkeley found that Wal-Mart’s low wages are costing the state of California alone $86 million a year to provide public assistance like food stamps and healthcare to the retailer’s 44,000 low-wage employees in the state. The state spends nearly $2,000 every single year on each Wal-Mart employee who can’t afford basic essentials like housing, food, and healthcare with their Wal-Mart paycheck.

In total, it’s estimated that Walmart stores loot more than $2.6 billion every single year from the federal government in the form of tax-payer funded public assistance to their employees. That includes more than one billion in healthcare costs associated with Medicaid, and $225 million in free or reduced-price lunches for school children of Wal-Mart employees.

And now, as reported by the Huffington Post, Wal-Mart is planning to loot even more from us taxpayers, as the giant corporation adopts a new healthcare policy that will deny insurance for any employees working fewer than 30 hours a week.

Wal-Mart routinely forces their workers into part-time schedules, working fewer than 30 hours a week, so many will lose their health insurance under this new policy. When asked for comment by the Huffington Post on how many workers will be affected, Wal-Mart declined to answer.

Make no mistake about it, while it may be individual Wal-Mart employees who are collecting government benefits, the corporation itself benefits tremendously.

If the government didn’t step in to provide food assistance, Wal-Mart couldn’t operate with a team of emaciated workers unable to lift ballets of canned foods or count back the correct change at the checkout lanes.

If the government didn’t step in to provide health insurance, then Walmart stores would be a breeding ground for infectious diseases since their employees can’t afford to see a doctor on their own.

If the government didn’t step in to provide school-lunch assistance, then parents who work at Wal-Mart may have less money to put gas in their car and may not even make it in to work.

How can a business succeed with a sickly, tired, tardy, or altogether absent workforce? It can’t.

And while most businesses understanding that a healthy, happy, productive workforce is good for business, Wal-Mart hasn’t. Instead, Wal-Mart, with its enormous fortune, has shifted this responsibility onto taxpayers like you and me. They are, indeed, among the biggest of the big welfare queens in America.

The only difference is Walmart actually exists and Reagan’s “Welfare Queen” doesn’t.

With the help of “Welfare Queen” argument, Conservatives have targeted individual Americans who rely on public assistance as irresponsible and argued that it’s time to end the “handouts.”

But in reality, it’s time we target the actual institutions of irresponsibility in America – Wal-Mart and the other corporate giants who don’t give enough of a damn about their workers to pay them a living wage stick us with the bill for their well-being.

If a corporation can’t afford to pay its employees enough that each worker can afford basic essentials like healthcare, food, and housing, then that corporation – no matter how big or small it is – shouldn’t be allowed to do business.

No more corporate Welfare Queens in America!

[blaise]

[QUOTE=loochy;9179763]

Originally Posted by El Jefe

Yeah, laugh now but wait until YOU have to stand in line next to a fattyrascal while you wait 20 minutes for the hispanic lady that doesn't speak english to check out her 20 sets of baby clothes that don't have tags or ring up properly.

The South Park episode where the Wal Mart was so full of rascals that people couldn't fit in the aisles was maybe the funniest 30 minutes of TV I've seen in the last 10 years.

[dirk digler]

The one thing I do like about the Walmart in my town is now they have 4 full time self checkout kiosks. Works great and no one uses them probably because most people are stupid but that is fine with me.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Im no Wal Mart fan, but trying to blame them for their employees welfare issues is asinine. Why are we not attacking, Target, Toys R Us, Price Chopper, Best Buy or Costo employees? Its not the employer, its the line of work that has a low earning potential cap.

When it's blatantly obvious that Walmart targets these kinds of people for employment, then yes it is the employer.

You only need to look at Walmart's long detailed list of labor suites, employee discrimination suites, allegations of poor working conditions, predatory pricing, low health care employee coverage, union opposition, etc.

Painting Walmart a victim of their employee's welfare issues doesn't make any sense at all. We're not talking about the other employers because they don't treat their employees this badly. That's why the studies show Walmart costing the general public so much more than those other stores.

[Easy 6]

Everyone needs to get off wal-marts back, taking out health insurance policies on your employees, without their knowledge or approval, so you can cash in when they die is just good business.

Why does everyone hate good business?!

[Saulbadguy]

Originally Posted by dirk digler

The one thing I do like about the Walmart in my town is now they have 4 full time self checkout kiosks. Works great and no one uses them probably because most people are stupid but that is fine with me.

They took those out of our Wal-Mart because the customers were too stupid to use them.

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by KCWolfman

You are incorrect. The "average" American income is 63,091. Well above groveling.

http://financemymoney.com/average-am...a-median-wage/

I see why you took the 2nd link in your google search instead of the first in your google search. It supported your argument better. However, the 1st one paints a bit of a different picture. And it's a more reliable link.

http://money.cnn.com/2012/09/12/news...rty/index.html

The fact is, that's ****ing chicken scratch in a big city. That's not enough for home ownership. Remember growing up when your Dad went to work every day and your mom stayed home to take care of your kids? No ****ing way average folks can do that anymore.

The fact is, where homes are affordable at that price range, those aren't the average wages. Continue to try and twist the situation as you see fit, but 2 incomes sometimes isn't enough for home ownership anymore for many people, let alone 1, like it used to be.

People work harder. People have less...

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Originally Posted by blaise

Well, I do live in a heavily Republican area.

Hilarious.

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

People work harder. People have less...

Are you sure about that? Go talk to your parents.

[stevieray]

Originally Posted by Mr. Flopnuts

It blows my mind when educated folks can be so delusional. It's either that or being heartless. Either way, go you!

...the shame sham.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by Saulbadguy

They took those out of our Wal-Mart because the customers were too stupid to use them.

Did the same thing here. Plus, the people who had to stand watch to make sure people weren't cheating the system (scan one item, drop two) equalled the same number who would just be doing the checkout.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by Fish

When it's blatantly obvious that Walmart targets these kinds of people for employment, then yes it is the employer.

You only need to look at Walmart's long detailed list of labor suites, employee discrimination suites...

Suites? You're bitching about Wal~Mart and their laborers get SUITES??

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by Fish

When it's blatantly obvious that Walmart targets these kinds of people for employment, then yes it is the employer.

You only need to look at Walmart's long detailed list of labor suites, employee discrimination suites, allegations of poor working conditions, predatory pricing, low health care employee coverage, union opposition, etc.

Painting Walmart a victim of their employee's welfare issues doesn't make any sense at all. We're not talking about the other employers because they don't treat their employees this badly. That's why the studies show Walmart costing the general public so much more than those other stores.

Mind your own business.

[gblowfish]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Suites? You're bitching about Wal~Mart and their laborers get SUITES??

Suites! Like Snickers and Kit Kat Bars!

[InChiefsHell]

Originally Posted by Fish

When it's blatantly obvious that Walmart targets these kinds of people for employment, then yes it is the employer.

Sooo...they should hire college grads as checkers and stuff?

You only need to look at Walmart's long detailed list of labor suites, employee discrimination suites, allegations of poor working conditions, predatory pricing, low health care employee coverage, union opposition, etc.

Union opposition...well, there you have it then.

Painting Walmart a victim of their employee's welfare issues doesn't make any sense at all. We're not talking about the other employers because they don't treat their employees this badly. That's why the studies show Walmart costing the general public so much more than those other stores.

Meh. I don't shop there anymore, so I guess I have no skin in the game, but honestly, there is a reason it's cheap to shop there. This is just more finger pointing at the evil rich people. Nobody is forced to work at Wal Mart.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

Sooo...they should hire college grads as checkers and stuff?



Union opposition...well, there you have it then.



Meh. I don't shop there anymore, so I guess I have no skin in the game, but honestly, there is a reason it's cheap to shop there. This is just more finger pointing at the evil rich people. Nobody is forced to work at Wal Mart.

Finger pointing? That's dense. It's much more than finger pointing when Walmart is costing taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars because they target welfare losers and encourage them to get on government assistance.

Explain how this is simply finger pointing? $86 million dollars of taxpayer money is being spent due to Walmart's practices. That's just one state. You don't understand this at all.

• Reliance by Wal-Mart workers on public assistance programs in California comes at a cost to the taxpayers of an estimated $86 million annually; this is comprised of $32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance.

• The families of Wal-Mart employees in California utilize an estimated 40 percent more in taxpayer-funded health care than the average for families of all large retail employees.

• The families of Wal-Mart employees use an estimated 38 percent more in other (non-health care) public assistance programs (such as food stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, subsidized school lunches, and subsidized housing) than the average for families of all large retail employees.

• If other large California retailers adopted Wal-Mart’s wage and benefits standards, it would cost taxpayers an additional $410 million a year in public assistance to employees.

Full document is here: http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/retail/walmart.pdf