I. (![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} i_) wrote,@ 2005-11-07 10:39:00 |
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the thing about Wal-Mart
So, it seems to have become the progressive-liberal status quo to bash Wal-Mart for paying too little and providing too little in benefits (particularly health care). Let me point out three things.
1. Given inflation in costs versus increase in salary, I am hard pressed to buy clothes anywhere but Wal-Mart, unless I splurge and go to K-Mart or Target. How can I justify $50 for a pair of khakis at Eddie Bauer, much less $25 at Old Navy, when I can get khakis at Wal-Mart for $12 or so? The same argument goes for a lot of goods. For me to not buy them at Wal-Mart puts me in a worse financial position. This is the natural end-product of capitalism/consumerism as we have it in this country, especially now when the government has stopped providing appropriate safe-guards against these things--see points 2 and 3.
2. Wait, we're bashing Wal-Mart for paying salaries that are below the poverty line? That's horrible that they can do that. That should be illegal. We need some sort of law mandating that all companies pay some sort of minimum wage that provides enough... oh, shit, we do have that, it's called the minimum wage. If you want Wal-Mart to pay a living wage, tell your congressmen to raise the minimum wage.
3. Repeat argument in #2, but applied to forcing employers to provide health care and/or having the government provide it. Keep in mind that the government does for pennies on the dollar what private insurance does.
So, it seems to have become the progressive-liberal status quo to bash Wal-Mart for paying too little and providing too little in benefits (particularly health care). Let me point out three things.
1. Given inflation in costs versus increase in salary, I am hard pressed to buy clothes anywhere but Wal-Mart, unless I splurge and go to K-Mart or Target. How can I justify $50 for a pair of khakis at Eddie Bauer, much less $25 at Old Navy, when I can get khakis at Wal-Mart for $12 or so? The same argument goes for a lot of goods. For me to not buy them at Wal-Mart puts me in a worse financial position. This is the natural end-product of capitalism/consumerism as we have it in this country, especially now when the government has stopped providing appropriate safe-guards against these things--see points 2 and 3.
2. Wait, we're bashing Wal-Mart for paying salaries that are below the poverty line? That's horrible that they can do that. That should be illegal. We need some sort of law mandating that all companies pay some sort of minimum wage that provides enough... oh, shit, we do have that, it's called the minimum wage. If you want Wal-Mart to pay a living wage, tell your congressmen to raise the minimum wage.
3. Repeat argument in #2, but applied to forcing employers to provide health care and/or having the government provide it. Keep in mind that the government does for pennies on the dollar what private insurance does.