Every Walmart in the United States of America could close in the nation would be better off for it. No corporation has done more damage to the American economy than Walmart.
Their wages and pricing policies reduced worker wages across the board in the retail sector for decades. Workers then required food stamps, Medicaid/Medicare, and earned income credit to support their families, all while Walmart was booking record profits.
Locating their stores, just outside town limits for reduced taxes, Walmart destroyed the downtown retail stores by undercutting their prices. When the stores closed, the local tax base was lost as well as sponsorships for little league, teams, and other community supports that businesses provide. Employees of these retail businesses were left with nowhere else to work, but Walmart.
Last, but not least, Walmart pressured suppliers to offshore manufacturing to further lower their prices. By Walmarts own admission, USA lost more than 120,000 jobs due to their policies. SourceWatch says it’s 200,000.
No other country in the world uses “earned income credit” to subsidize low wage workers at the expense of the middle class. Make companies pay for their own damn workers and stop forcing taxpayers to subsidize lower wages.
This report is nearly 10 years old but it’s still very relevant to the problems you have today. Wages are too low and profits are the highest they’ve ever been. There needs to be a balance.
Workers need a bigger cut of the pie and those sitting on their asses at home collecting dividends need to pay their workers first. Workers should always be paid first because they’re the ones who are really earning the money, not the shareholders sitting on their asses waiting for their dividends.
www.sourcewatch.org