Biggest waste of government money ever

[hemet dennis]

The problem with Wal-mart is that it is a big part of company policy to move into poor areas, mainly what are called food deserts, urban or sub-urban areas where stores with food are few and far between save gas stations and the like, driving people to have to travel anywhere from 7mi to 20mi for food. These places are overwhelmingly devoid of food because they are areas of high poverty, and because of the high poverty few business open leaving few jobs in the area.

So wal-mart moves in, offering low prices and jobs. Only, it's also company policy to pay as low a wage as possible for starting employees who are often hired only part-time because it's cheaper to have 3x as many people employed at part-time minimum wage believing they'll get full-time and benifits one day than to have less hired at full-time. They also have a very high turnover rate. Anyway, wal-mart opens and people start working there and quickly find that you can't pay rant and bills and buy food on $7.25/hr (fed min. wage), and to make things worse the working conditions are awful. Now, like you say, no one is forcing them to work there. Sure, they could leave. But how would they pay their rent? How would their kids eat? $7 is better than nothing, but does that make a non-livable wage and awful working conditions okay? Of course not.

It also ties into a cycle called wage slavery, which is what happens when companies exploit the system knowing they can pay low wages because there are no other viable options. Workers could leave, but they'd risk homelessness, inability to get a new job, and be left with nothing. It's easy for people who have job security and are't below the poverty line to say "well no one s forcing them" "why not go somewhere else" "it isn't a crime to do..." and you're right, but it's not that easy when you aren't even living paycheck to paycheck and it's a little more like paycheck to bounced check to cash advance to paycheck.

Now wal-mart obviously opens in areas that aren't full of poverty, because those are profitable areas, but you can bet there will be some single moms, elderly, or teens in need of a first job.

Because of such low wages and their hiring practices wal mart actually costs tax payers money because there is no way to live on $7.25/hr even working more than the average full time without applying for aid.

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html
http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision...unt-13-million/story?id=18355239#.UdEOPvnVCSo

and a graphic that highlights why minimum wage is such a problem
http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/paying-rent-on-minimum-wage/?_r=0

This statement is wrong "company policy to move into poor areas, mainly what are called food deserts, urban or sub-urban areas where stores with food are few and far between".
Wal-Mart has opened 2 super stores within 20 miles of me and there were plenty of Grocery stores here and there has been a couple more that have opened sense Wal-Mart opened theirs.
One friend of mine started part time and now is a department head. It's true that no one is forcing anyone to work there and is disgusting that you would even compare it to slavery in anyway. Any place you don't want to work you go find another job. Is it the other businesses that wont hire them that keep them at Wal-Mart ? How the heck is it Wal-Marts fault that no one paying better will hire them ? If the person is not being advanced at Wal-Mart and cant find anyone else to hire them for more pay then maybe they need to look at themselves and ask why. But it's easier to blame someone else for any failures then to take responsibility.

 

[Mike Winters]

Any place you don't want to work you go find another job. Is it the other businesses that wont hire them that keep them at Wal-Mart ? How the heck is it Wal-Marts fault that no one paying better will hire them ? If the person is not being advanced at Wal-Mart and cant find anyone else to hire them for more pay then maybe they need to look at themselves and ask why. But it's easier to blame someone else for any failures then to take responsibility.

Most people in rural areas don't have the option to find a better paying job else where since must jobs are in the city, and even cites have a poor variety of jobs this isn't 1940's- 50's were there was a job on every street corner if you lived in the city or suburbs. If you been to the south people think your rich if you find a job that makes 10+ in hour, in the north east 11+ in hour in considered OK to average for a first job. The guy from 30 days proved you can not survive on anything less then around 15 dollars in hour if you have a spouse. Food takes up allot of money and getting sick well, you may as well just die because the bill is going to be ugly unless you can get welfare before you got sick. Its easy to tell someone to just get a job if they live in a area that has more jobs then the rest of the country like the Northeast, or the west coast.

 

[DHinton]

This statement is wrong "company policy to move into poor areas, mainly what are called food deserts, urban or sub-urban areas where stores with food are few and far between".
Wal-Mart has opened 2 super stores within 20 miles of me and there were plenty of Grocery stores here and there has been a couple more that have opened sense Wal-Mart opened theirs.
One friend of mine started part time and now is a department head. It's true that no one is forcing anyone to work there and is disgusting that you would even compare it to slavery in anyway. Any place you don't want to work you go find another job. Is it the other businesses that wont hire them that keep them at Wal-Mart ? How the heck is it Wal-Marts fault that no one paying better will hire them ? If the person is not being advanced at Wal-Mart and cant find anyone else to hire them for more pay then maybe they need to look at themselves and ask why. But it's easier to blame someone else for any failures then to take responsibility.

you mean the mom & pop stores that walmart puts out of business?

or the mom & pop stores that simply can't compete once walmart moves into town?

or is this a classist thing and poor people (i.e. without degrees) should just die?

i guess i'm lost at the lack of understanding of the real world in the above post.

 

[DHinton]

you mean the mom & pop stores that walmart puts out of business?

or the mom & pop stores that simply can't compete once walmart moves into town?

or is this a classist thing and poor people (i.e. without degrees) should just die?

i guess i'm lost at the lack of understanding of the real world in the above post.

This statement is wrong "company policy to move into poor areas, mainly what are called food deserts, urban or sub-urban areas where stores with food are few and far between".
Wal-Mart has opened 2 super stores within 20 miles of me and there were plenty of Grocery stores here and there has been a couple more that have opened sense Wal-Mart opened theirs.
One friend of mine started part time and now is a department head. It's true that no one is forcing anyone to work there and is disgusting that you would even compare it to slavery in anyway. Any place you don't want to work you go find another job. Is it the other businesses that wont hire them that keep them at Wal-Mart ? How the heck is it Wal-Marts fault that no one paying better will hire them ? If the person is not being advanced at Wal-Mart and cant find anyone else to hire them for more pay then maybe they need to look at themselves and ask why. But it's easier to blame someone else for any failures then to take responsibility.

however, i AM very interested to know where it is you live, that after TWO walmarts move into town - that other grocery stores are prospering and even more are opening. along with the deals walmart brokered with the local councils, i.e. non-competition in... the meat market, for X years (like they did in st louis/st charles), or what exactly... along with what kind of tax breaks walmart is getting for moving TWO stores into the local area - compared to the tax breaks that those grocery stores don't get.

or, do you live in some hug metropolitan area and two walmarts are simply a drop in the bucket that not many people notice?

 

[Anarchick]

This statement is wrong "company policy to move into poor areas, mainly what are called food deserts, urban or sub-urban areas where stores with food are few and far between".
Wal-Mart has opened 2 super stores within 20 miles of me and there were plenty of Grocery stores here and there has been a couple more that have opened sense Wal-Mart opened theirs.
One friend of mine started part time and now is a department head. It's true that no one is forcing anyone to work there and is disgusting that you would even compare it to slavery in anyway. Any place you don't want to work you go find another job. Is it the other businesses that wont hire them that keep them at Wal-Mart ? How the heck is it Wal-Marts fault that no one paying better will hire them ? If the person is not being advanced at Wal-Mart and cant find anyone else to hire them for more pay then maybe they need to look at themselves and ask why. But it's easier to blame someone else for any failures then to take responsibility.

Did you just scan over my post? I clearly said wal-mart opens in other places, it would be business suicide to only open in poor areas, but they take advantage of the poor areas. Yeah, you can move up in the company sometimes, otherwise they would have nothing but temp workers, but again, that is in areas not full of poor people. Wage slavery is also a term used overwelmingly in sociology and social justice and activism, there's nothing disgusting about comparing a job that makes you work long hours for money they know you can't live on or encourages off-the-clock work so you don't get paid at all to slavery.

So just go find another job? Have you done any job searching lately as a teen or elderly person or an unskilled worker? I'm gonna say no. There's not a whole lot out there. I've been out of work for almost a year now. I apply to tons of jobs, I search craigslist, I hit the streets, but guess what, almost everyone wants an online application. I've applied for everything from cleaning out horse stalls to flipping burgers, a dog walker, a nanny, a maid. Nothing. That's what happens when the economy turns down. So, it's not as easy as just go get a different job. If it was, no one would work a job they hate.

 

[Mike Winters]

however, i AM very interested to know where it is you live,

Profile says southern California . like i said, northeast and west coast are more economically stable then the rest of the country but not by much.

 

[redhen]

Okay...lets have Walmart shut their doors then..
How many will suffer because they lost their jobs then?
Oh wait...nevermind..they'll just go on welfare ...(which SOMEONE will HAVE to fund somehow..)
Yeah..
Not to mention those that don't have kids..they cant even get welfare! So I guess they'll lose the roof over their heads because they cant afford rent now...
Yep... :/

Look the simple fact is ..they ARE providing many many people with MUCH NEEDED jobs..

 

[oldrooster]

Quote: Yes in my town I have a wal-mart super center, 8 chain grocers and 4 independents (and one is in the process of opening another location). Also we have a large Target (just smaller than their super target size and bigger then their next size down, they got a bargain on a location and where forced to build that size even tho they wanted bigger). also the comment later that compares minimum wadge to slavery, if you raise minimum wadge the prices of items get larger too.

 

[Anarchick]

Yes in my town I have a wal-mart super center, 8 chain grocers and 4 independents (and one is in the process of opening another location). Also we have a large Target (just smaller than their super target size and bigger then their next size down, they got a bargain on a location and where forced to build that size even tho they wanted bigger). also the comment later that compares minimum wadge to slavery, if you raise minimum wadge the prices of items get larger too.

And in mine there are three Publix, two produce markets, three weekly farmer's markets, a two Targets, and a Winn-Dixe. Again, a few locations do not discount a proven action of abusing poverty to get away with awful pay and awful working conditions.

As for raising the minimum wage, that is not how it works at all.
Did you know the wages of some of the op CEOs have increased by almost 60% in the past ten years, while minimum wage has been raised only 6%?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/raising-the-minimum-wage-_b_2750336.html

"This fear of inflation from the minimum wage is not based on any reasonable description of how these minimum wage hikes will likely impact businesses, or the economy more generally. The potential impact of minimum wage hikes on the overall price level is simply too small to have any appreciable impact on inflation."
http://backtofullemployment.org/2013/01/18/minimum-wage-hikes-do-not-cause-inflation/

Yes, sometimes raising minimum wage can add to a build up triggering higher prices, but if it were true that raising minimum wage directly raised prices in a loop with no win you wouldn't have places like Norway where, yes, prices are high, but the pay people make is enough that they can afford it thanks to steady and slow increases in minimum wages, legislation limiting how great a profit the head of a company can make compared to the lowest paid, and using tax money as a buffer until it evened out. Now they have one of the highest standards of living in the world.

 

[duckinnut]

Wow this thread has a taken a turn. Won't be long before the door is closed.

I think I can answer the OP's original question or theory or constitution without much debate.
"What is the biggest waste of government money?'

Well duh!!!!!!!!!!!
The government itself.
We pay these people(idiots) to decide how to spend OUR money. Here we sit debating about it.

Precarious at best..............There is sooooooo much waste in the federal govt. What part of the apple do you begin with?