<p>So, BC, you’re agreeing that Walmart can afford to raise it’s wages without raising it’s prices then? </p>
<p>If more of us shopped at Costco and created the demand, and the growth that would surely follow, maybe Buffet would increase his holdings. </p>
<p>You’re talking about shareholders. I’m talking about taxpayers. Apples and oranges.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>This is more than minimum wage in my state and a neighboring state. My son was making less than this in his college job.</p>
<p>yes but if your working only 20 hours a week your making 200 a week, that is below minimum wage.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Phishing? How could asking quirky questions on a forum possibly be phishing?</p>
<p>I have never set foot inside a Walmart, and I never will.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I’ve spent my whole career trying to help very very poor people get to a place in their lives where they can be self sufficient. Your suggestion that getting a tax break on your mortgage interest or real estate deduction is equivalent to having to rely on the government to buy your food is heartbreaking. </p>
<p>I get the math from a revenue standpoint. But I’d be willing to bet my bottom dollar that your itemizing your deductions is not as profoundly degrading to your sense of self worth and dignity as having to rely on food stamps to get milk for your four year old is.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>It depends on what you mean by afford. The purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder value. If they raised wages without raising prices, would they be observing this rule? Why do George Soros and Warren Buffet invest so heavily in WalMart given their public personas of being for the little guy?</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I don’t think that Buffet owns any Costco. Yeah, I just checked, neither Soros or Buffet are in the top ten holders of Costco.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Well, a lot of taxpayers are shareholders and a lot of people with pensions and 401k plans are shareholders and a lot of people have interests in the S&P 500 which happens to include WalMart. You may not like tobacco companies but they do seem to provide good investment returns and so all sorts of people are dependent on them to find current and future obligations.</p>
<p>You seem to want something really badly but the market (consumers) won’t cooperate. There’s typically a reason for that.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I don’t think that you understand the definition of minimum wage.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Not sure, but I’m bettin your son isn’t worried about bills or healthcare and only WANTS to be working part time.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>I always told him if that someone offers you a professional full-time job, quit school and take the job. You can always go to school but you can’t always get a job. The important thing was that he learned a lot of social skills in his job and he could pay for his miscellaneous college expenses.</p>
<p>Are there states where the minimum wage is over $10? I think that it’s in the 8s in my state.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>?? I still don’t get your argument. Are you suggesting that if everyone suddenly stopped shopping at Walmart and started shopping at Costco and their stock value exploded that Buffett still wouldn’t invest? I think I missed something. You don’t need to convince me that Walmart is a ridiculously profitable business. We’re not arguing about that. </p>
<p>We’re debating the fact that Walmart’s profits are due in part to the subsidies taxpayers provide their employees. They don’t have to pay living wages, because us taxpayers are willing to pick up the slack.</p>
<p>The ironic thing is the people who complain the loudest about the lazy people on welfare are also shopping at Walmart, thus perpetuating the vicious cycle. (Most people don’t understand that most folks on public assistance are WORKING.)</p>
<p>What don’t I understand about minimum wage? i am talking about the able bodied working person earning 200 a week works partime(not by his choice) because that is all which is offered, so the company skips on benefits. He qualifies for government assistance because he is under poverty level income wise.walmart has the same work hour policy, many of their employees are on government assistance. </p>
<p>I know how to calculate a minimum wage salary. </p>
<p>[Walmart</a> and Workers » Making Change at Walmart](<a href=“http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/walmart-and-workers/#_ftnref4]Walmart”>http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/walmart-and-workers/#_ftnref4)</p>
<p>Although the company will often cite higher numbers, the average Walmart Associate makes just $8.81 per hour according to a study published by Bloomberg News. An employee who works Walmart’s definition of full-time (34 hours per week) makes just $15,500 per year.[3] That means hundreds of thousands of people who work full-time at Walmart still live below the poverty line.
Many Walmart workers are forced to utilize state subsidized benefits. Three major studies—one in Georgia, one in California, and one in Massachusetts—found that Walmart was the employer that had workers most reliant on government assistance. It is estimated that Walmart employees cost taxpayers more than $1 billion nationwide.[4]
As of January 2012, Walmart no longer offers health benefits to employees who work less than 24 hours per week. Walmart also raised premiums for full time employees by up to 120 percent.[5</p>
<p>our state minimum wage is $9.19.
[Minimum</a> Wage Laws in the States - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor](<a href=“http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/america.htm]Minimum”>State Minimum Wage Laws | U.S. Department of Labor)</p>
<p>BC: since you’re focused on the fact that Walmart’s business model is justified by their success from a stockholder point of view, I looked up some stock prices. </p>
<p>FWIW, I own a fair amount of Costco stock, which I bought a couple of years ago. Since that time the value of my stocks is up 55%. </p>
<p>During that same time frame, Walmart’s (store) stock went up 30%. </p>
<p>I’ll let you draw your own conclusions then about which company’s stockholders are happiest.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Multiple people at the same Wal-Mart location with IQs not high enough to read Fifty Shades of Grey? Wow. Oh, wow. Is this location by chance located within walking distance of the Capitol building? ;)</p>
<p>I don’t know anyplace that gives employees who work under 24 hours benefits. And Walmart does have full time employees. And no one is holding them there. I have worked jobs like that, and let me tell you, for the time that I did, I was so grateful there was a place for me to work. Yes, I was poor for a while, that doesn’t mean I was stuck there. I learned a lot from those years!</p>
<p>There is more than one way to run a porfitable company.</p>
<p>The most profitable, from the viewpoint of owners, CEO level employees and stockholders, is to base the business model around squeezing the most profit from every decision, every worker, every roll of toilet paper sold. The end result of that model is Walmart, where lower level employees bear the brunt of those decisions, forced to work hours limited to less than full time, where wages are such that employees qualify for food stamps and government provided services. Walmart profits, by breaking the backs of its employees and by taking advantage of our government provided safety net that was never intended to be manipulated in this way. Thus, taxpayers are paying part of the “wages” of the low level Walmart employee. Great for stockholders and owners, awful for the country and for the vast majority of Walmart’s employees.</p>
<p>A less profitable (for owners and CEO level employees) business model is one that revolves more around building employee and customer loyalty by paying living wages (wages that allow an employee to earn enough to support themselves without the need for public assistance as a full time employee). That would be the Costco model, which suprisingly has a pretty strong return for stockholders. Also suprising that we don’t mind the stripped down warehouse surroundings at Costco because that is part of the “experience” of shopping there. </p>
<p>I base my purchasing decisions on more than price. I try to support small locally owned business when I can. I avoid Walmart if possible, but I have the income to be able to do that, and I understand people who shop there based purely on price.</p>
<p>My new college grad. S worked a part-time job at a national sporting goods chain store last summer. He averaged working 35 hours/week for just a few cents above minimum wage. Health benefits were offered to p/t workers but the options were terrible. The premiums were exhorbitant(roughly one third of his paltry bi-weekly paycheck) and the benefits very subpar even if purchasing the “highest” benefit plan. Even if low wage p/t workers are offered benefits that doesn’t mean they are good/affordable esp.if they have children.</p>
<p>As I posted earlier,Walmart is the only store of it’s kind in our county. There is no KMart,Target,Costco,etc. For us, it’s Walmart or nothing. I can’t feel guilty about shopping there when there’s no other choice within 25 miles.</p>
<p>My kid is working 32-40 hours a week at hourly pay. NO benefits were offered at all. My guess is her whole salary would have been used to pay for them.</p>
<p>I am enjoying reading this discussion. I want to thank everyone for not taking this discussion to a personal level like so many threads on here do. I am learning a lot. I do appreciate the discussion and willingness to be civil and above board.</p>
<p>I love Walmart and do shop there although the one near me now that we moved is not as nice as my old Walmart.</p>
<p>I have grown up in small town America where the poor could only shop at mom and pop stores that gouged them outrageously. Walmart was how the poor could finally buy their kids new jeans and sneakers instead of at a flea market. </p>
<p>It seems as if a lot of the outrage at Walmart pretends to be in defense of the poor but I suspect the real dislike of Walmart is class prejudice against the poor who don’t frequent the quirky little boutiques and fresh air markets of the educated affluent sophisticates. Walmart offends their aesthetic sensibilities.</p>