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

Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.

Rather than paying a wage that would keep their employees above the requirements for social programs, one of the most profitable corporations in the world depends on the taxpayers to cover the rest.

As Adam Smith said in 1776:

A man must always live by his work, and his wages must at least be sufficient to maintain him.

a reply to: links234
THATS THE LAST STRAW!......SCREW WALLYMARK...THEY GET NO MORE OF MY MEAGER SUBSISTANCE DOLLARS!

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.

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?

Serious question? Too many people do. You fail to acknowledge in your statement that this corporation like the rest is lobbying to take all the money away from you they can. Down with corporatism !

a reply to: Metallicus

They should.
Considering most of the jobs being offered these days are minimum wage crap work. What's a middle class again? Oh right it's been destroyed. I hear russia has a wonderful middle class where half the countries wealth sits. How is wealth distributed in the US? Some people are just not meant to get past working at wallyworld or mcdicks, some people aren't mentally capable of it. Should they lead a less than comfortable life, be a draw on the tax payers, and do it all with a smile?

Note: Costco pays its employees a wage people can survive on.

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

LOL

Guess all that "cheap" and "discounted" merchandise ain't so cheap afterall eh.

Gives a new meaning to "it's all relative"

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.

Wal-mart employs about 1% of U.S. workers, making it the largest civilian employer in the country. The Walton heirs combined wealth is as much as the bottom 42% of the U.S. population. Wal-mart is a cancer that has spread through this country destroying local businesses and the better paying jobs they provided. It's not just the traditional discount retail sector, but grocery, automotive, etc. Say what you will, but we're all part of the same society and we're what makes their vast fortunes possible. We unload their containers full of Chinese crap, stock their shelves and shop in their stores. There is a point that's been reached time and time again in different nations around the world — a point when too few have too much and too many have too little and that's when the rich get drug out of their mansions and killed in the street.

Also, "get a better job" is a ridiculous thing to say. There are a finite number of "better jobs" to be had and for that matter, there's a finite number of jobs as a whole and increasingly less all the time. You hate big government? You hate welfare? You should hate that people who WORK, not the "lazy poor" that conservatives like to blame everything on, good ol working class folks, who are paid such a pittance that they rely on government assistance to live while the owners of Wal-mart have more money than 120 million plus Americans COMBINED. Unlike their workers, who put money back into the economy when they shop, pay rent, mortgages, buy cars, etc.. the super rich hoard huge sums of money in banks and put it into massively expensive assets.

It just kills people to think that the biggest retailer, making huge amounts of money, should pay their workers a bit better.

No wonder the US work ethic is terrible for the most part.

They make huge profits at the expense of there employees and the American tax payers and yet people still defend them.

Pay up walmart you can more than afford it.

a reply to: roadgravel

True that. If you present people with a game they can't win, they give up trying to play the game at all.

come on people lets do the sums

The USA spends about $1tr a year on self defense and is not even under attack so this $6bn or so is just two days worth of the military budget.

now punk you think i am wrong well I'm just looking for people like you to try to prove me wrong so take your best shoot and get an education along the way.

meanwhile in Reality news..

Top 100 companies get 1.2 trillion dollars in Wefare.

They employ 1% of the us population and I can't find an open checkout line?

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.

Yes. Yes they should close down and make those people unemployed. Every single Walmart in every single town. You know why? Because corporations like Walmart are part of the cycle that feeds outsourcing and kills small businesses.

There is nothing good about what Walmart does to our nation. And if you can think of something "good", I can show you how that "good" thing does more damage than it's worth. It's centralized capitalist lobbying at its finest and is fast tracking our nation back to the middle ages of feudalism and serving lords of the land.

So yes. I would love to see those people unemployed for a few months while they wait for those eyesores to be demolished to make room for small businesses and mom-n-pop stores.

originally posted by: roadgravel
It just kills people to think that the biggest retailer, making huge amounts of money, should pay their workers a bit better.

No wonder the US work ethic is terrible for the most part.

Exactly. I don't think our problem has ever been the "work ethics". The problem has been our business ethics all along.

a reply to: links234

(ATS is acting weird tonight I can't tell where this is being inserted as I see posting on my screen under this as I type!)

Anyway, I don't love Walmart, but I have to questions for those of you that hate it. Did you ever wonder what good paying jobs those people had before they agreed to work for Walmart? Oh, you say, Walmart put a bunch of local mom and pop stores out of business. they HAD to go to Walmart. Do you really think those former employees of the mom and pop stores were making a lot more money with mom and pop? The answer is, no, they were not, those types of jobs never did and never will pay a good wage and never will. Yes, Walmart put them out of business with a better business model, but that is what business is all about, competition for the dollar.

Where I live in central Texas a bit east of Austin two new Walmart stores have opened in the last few months. One of the little towns has been drying up since the end of WWII, many empty buildings litter main street. The new Walmart store within its city limits will be a boost to the community with its sales tax revenues....and get this....the many local jobs that it has to offer. It will be great for those that have to have that sort of work and can't afford the expense and time of an hour's drive into Austin and back for work at a job that doesn't pay any better! In the other communality, not actually a town with any typical little town stores, it is a double bonus again. Local--albeit low skilled jobs and convenience for workers and shoppers. Texas has all too many little towns that have lost their souls as the young and the reckless move into the bigger cities. Left behind are the unfortunate, the old and needy, those that need Walmart as perhaps the single life-blood supply of the area.

Folks, Walmart is filling a gap in American society as is the Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc. stores. One other argument is that Walmart is killing Target, Sears, JCPenny's etc. --Really? The general economic downslide in this country has killed the middle class and the lower class (and former middle class) are at least getting a bit of a break with the cheaper viciously efficient retailers. That Walmart excels is indicative of how the country is faring, not how bad it is as a business and employer.

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.

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.

originally posted by: mOjOm

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.

Oh, I don't disagree at all. The owners are indeed taking full advantage of the situation. My point is that Walmart is a "natural" (inevitable, perhaps) development of the garbage culture in which we find ourselves. It's easier to blame everything on something external and attack it than it is to self-examine and do what's right.

In other words, we are the problem. We made Walmart and now want to tear it down for reminding us of the fact.

originally posted by: mOjOm

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. - See more at: www.abovetopsecret.com...





i wish sam walton was my dad!

too bad they don't pay what you want them too.

open your own biz and employ some people for a living wage.

i dare ya.