I hope I answered your question, sad part is that you asked for my point. The article was very self explaining and I rather deal from a point of fact, rather than be involve myself in alot of "speculation".
Which means one or two things:
1) So uninformed or unaware of this problem that you had to ask.
2) You do know and for some reason don't see this as a problem and okay with Corporations squeezing the last bit of blood out of the common worker and don't care that wages not only haven't gone up, but in alot of cases have gone down over the years.
Once again that is the truly sad part, so which one are you?
#2. Keeping labor costs down and doing everything you can to increase productivity is the only way for businesses to survive in the Obama economy.
Some people read the facts and draw a conclusion from them. Other people have already drawn the conclusion and assume the facts support it. I already know which one you are.
I'll use Walmart as an example:
They don't pay their employees a "livable wage", so most of their employees end up going on various programs in order to survive (public assistance, etc.) which local or Federal Government has to pick up the tab. Taxpayers, subsidizing their wages, because they don't make enough to support themselves nor offers health insurance, etc.
It is not the responsibility of an employer to pay workers a living wage. Employers are in business to make a profit, and a big part of that is keeping costs down. One of which is labor costs; you don't have to like it, but that's the way it is. If an employee wants more than what they're being paid then the onus is on them to improve their value in the labor market.
Now before Walmart sets up a store in any town or City, they bully the local government to give them enormous tax breaks for years. So they setup shop and eventually most all local businesses are destroyed because they can't compete, now forcing wages to stay real low.
All businesses want tax breaks or special deals to build a new store or plant. You can call it bullying, but that's the facts of life; if this other town or state or country is offering me this deal then why should I do business with you if you're not giving me a better deal? And BTW, it ain't just about tax breaks, there are a number of other factors, some of which involve tangilbe and intangible employee benefits.
One other point, I think it's true that local businesses are destroyed to use your phrase when Walmart moves in. Times change and progress marches on, when somebody can offer your customers a better price through economies of scale or any other reason, then you've got a problem. You tell me, would you rather pay $10 or $20 for the same product?
The Walmart heirs which is probably less than 5 of them have more wealth than over 40% of the rest of the U.S. population. Yet you have these workers without government assistance couldn't survive.
I knew this was coming, sooner or later you were going to ***** about the top 2%ers. You know what, I don't give a shit what they make; I don't care how much inequality there is cuz all those people on the bottom end have a choice as to whether they want to do what is necessary to get off the bottom. I don't think life on the bottom should be all that comfortable; if it is, then what incentive do they have to do anything about it.
When is the greed enough? Paying those same workers at least $15.00 per hour would NOT make them any less rich.
Yeah it would, cuz the stockholders would pull their money out of Walmart in favor of some other business that was more profitable. And if $15 was the minimum wage here, then they'd invest in foreign companies or in some other way. What you're talking about is socialism, paying somebody what they need instead of what their labor is worth in the labor market.
Pay no taxes and expects the government to subsidize their workers in order for them to survive.