It's that time to make people cringe again! It's time for people to read my blog title and think to themselves, "Oh here Polly goes again." Well, I wish I would stop talking about the 'W' word as well. I wish I could live in a world where this sort of thing doesn't exist, so I wouldn't have to keep bringing it people's attention, but we do, and Walmart continues to be the biggest culprit.
Here's what I want you to think about while reading this. Let's say you own a business and make $3 million dollars pure profit a year and you have 10 employees. You've been making this profit for the past 10 years and you've paid off your house, your cars, sent your kids to college, you can go on vacation anywhere you want, etc. You have no needs because you've been able to use this money in a way to help you get the life you want. Your business is thriving and your projected profit from the coming years see no sign of dwindling. What if you initially paid your 10 employees $30,000 a year because you needed to make sure your business could stay afloat, but now that you're seeing profits well beyond what you could use it for, would you pay your employees more? Would you see that your employees struggle to make rent, struggle to budget for food, struggle with any unexpected costs and lose sleep over money issues and say, " Eh, they're fine. They don't need to be paid more because that's how capitalism operates. There will always be people who make less and that's how it is!!" If the answer is no, you wouldn't pay them more, then maybe there's no hope for you anyway, but if the answer is yes, I want you think about this next question in context of my points below. Why do people who make about $50 billion dollars a year refuse to provide reasonable and livable wages for their employees??
Here's the thing, it's hard to resist cheap and convenient, even when you don't necessarily need it to be. I get it. If I were living on $8 an hour and needing to feed my family, I would likely shop at Walmart too. But this is more about bringing awareness to people who don't need to shop at Walmart and how it impacts them negatively whether they realize it or not. This is about bringing to light how consumerism choices affects us either negatively or positively in the long run.
Walmart costs Tax-Payers (Hey that's you!) $7.8 BILLION a year:
Yes, this is correct, or least correct in the year 2014. Walmart uses many strategies from using government subsidies, cashing in on tax loopholes, avoiding paying taxes, and using money from the government that could be used elsewhere. Walmart actively tries to seek out ways it does not have to pay taxes or that is can benefit off of government funded programs, and guess who pays for all that.... you! It's also true that the very government funded social programs that are intended to help the poor are being used by Walmart employees, about $13.5 billion in food stamps money is given out to Walmart employees. (Please read source below "Walmart on Tax Day." It provides all the numbers you need).
I could use many other statistics and research to point out how much money Walmart is being greedy and avoiding paying the government taxes or using money from the government, but the question remains the same. Why is a top Fortune 500 company profiting billions of dollars each year allowed to use government money to 'help them out' and using up tax money that could be spent on other things. Just think about what an extra $7.8 billion dollars a year could do. One source sites it could hire 105,131 more teachers; and we all know how schools are in need of teachers.... and supplies.....and adequate infrastructure....etc.
I think a lot of people look at their paychecks and think, 'Hey, those Democrats and their social programs and helping people are costing me money.' But what they really need to ask is, how much of these taxes are unnecessary (not helping people) and going toward people who already make billions of dollars? If more people would ask these questions and look into the unnecessary use of tax dollars, they would try to figure out how to stop it.
However, the great thing about capitalism is we can use our individual power of consumerism to send messages to companies, which is why this is so important to me. I can choose not give companies like Walmart money to send a message, and that message for me is: Stop being a greedy dick to your employees and America! Companies respond to bottom lines and decrease in profits, unfortunately, they don't usually respond to pleas of human rights, fairness, and ethics. So if more consumers make it a point to stop shopping at Walmart because they don't like the idea of them taking advantage of the system to the tune of $7.8 billion dollars a year, then maybe Walmart might get the hint. Just maybe they'll start to pay attention to how they treat people and make people pay much more in taxes to benefit the Walden family. And yes, maybe, the world might be just a little bit better because there would be more money for public schools, more people able to afford to go on vacation and reduce stress, more people able to pay for their medical bills.....it goes on and on.
Also, as everyone's attention is likely focused on violence recently as well, I would also briefly like to touch on the correlation between economic injustice and violence. If the 1.5 million workers at Walmart got adequately compensated and were provided benefits, not only would that help out every tax-payer, but would also help those workers not be as stressed, frustrated, angry, and hopeless. That means the less people are likely to act on their frustration. So yes, as a mental health professional I can say that people who get treated like shit, may often treat others like shit. It just makes sense. People who can afford life and have less stress don't usually want to take out their frustrations on others. People who try and try, work over-time, don't have benefits, and who are exploited, tend to get frustrated with the world. Understandably so. So while you may not see how these can be connected and how it might be absurd to connect Walmart's greediness with acts of violence, just think about it more. Think about being stressed day in and day out and how that impacts your decisions and how you might accidentally lash out at someone. So yea, this is also a violence issue too, because if we treat people better and people don't get exploited by billion dollar companies, than yes, the world could be a better place.
As always, I don't get this stuff from thin air. Check out my sources and read up on it yourself. There's always going to be arguments for jobs and economic productivity etc, but really think about my scenario at the beginning. Economic productivity, treating employees fairly, and paying taxes doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Plenty of companies are profitable while also paying taxes and fair wages, they just aren't AS profitable as Walmart and would be willing to give a few billion out of 50 billion to make sure their employees can eat and afford to live. Wouldn't you?
How to Think About Walmart - The Atlantic
Walmart on Tax Day - Americans for Tax Fairness
I Work for $8.25 at Walmart, What Would You Like to Know? - The Guardian
As Wal-Mart Blitzes Internet Retail, Debate Rages over Company's impact on US wages - CNBC
Here's what I want you to think about while reading this. Let's say you own a business and make $3 million dollars pure profit a year and you have 10 employees. You've been making this profit for the past 10 years and you've paid off your house, your cars, sent your kids to college, you can go on vacation anywhere you want, etc. You have no needs because you've been able to use this money in a way to help you get the life you want. Your business is thriving and your projected profit from the coming years see no sign of dwindling. What if you initially paid your 10 employees $30,000 a year because you needed to make sure your business could stay afloat, but now that you're seeing profits well beyond what you could use it for, would you pay your employees more? Would you see that your employees struggle to make rent, struggle to budget for food, struggle with any unexpected costs and lose sleep over money issues and say, " Eh, they're fine. They don't need to be paid more because that's how capitalism operates. There will always be people who make less and that's how it is!!" If the answer is no, you wouldn't pay them more, then maybe there's no hope for you anyway, but if the answer is yes, I want you think about this next question in context of my points below. Why do people who make about $50 billion dollars a year refuse to provide reasonable and livable wages for their employees??
Here's the thing, it's hard to resist cheap and convenient, even when you don't necessarily need it to be. I get it. If I were living on $8 an hour and needing to feed my family, I would likely shop at Walmart too. But this is more about bringing awareness to people who don't need to shop at Walmart and how it impacts them negatively whether they realize it or not. This is about bringing to light how consumerism choices affects us either negatively or positively in the long run.
Walmart costs Tax-Payers (Hey that's you!) $7.8 BILLION a year:
Yes, this is correct, or least correct in the year 2014. Walmart uses many strategies from using government subsidies, cashing in on tax loopholes, avoiding paying taxes, and using money from the government that could be used elsewhere. Walmart actively tries to seek out ways it does not have to pay taxes or that is can benefit off of government funded programs, and guess who pays for all that.... you! It's also true that the very government funded social programs that are intended to help the poor are being used by Walmart employees, about $13.5 billion in food stamps money is given out to Walmart employees. (Please read source below "Walmart on Tax Day." It provides all the numbers you need).
I could use many other statistics and research to point out how much money Walmart is being greedy and avoiding paying the government taxes or using money from the government, but the question remains the same. Why is a top Fortune 500 company profiting billions of dollars each year allowed to use government money to 'help them out' and using up tax money that could be spent on other things. Just think about what an extra $7.8 billion dollars a year could do. One source sites it could hire 105,131 more teachers; and we all know how schools are in need of teachers.... and supplies.....and adequate infrastructure....etc.
I think a lot of people look at their paychecks and think, 'Hey, those Democrats and their social programs and helping people are costing me money.' But what they really need to ask is, how much of these taxes are unnecessary (not helping people) and going toward people who already make billions of dollars? If more people would ask these questions and look into the unnecessary use of tax dollars, they would try to figure out how to stop it.
However, the great thing about capitalism is we can use our individual power of consumerism to send messages to companies, which is why this is so important to me. I can choose not give companies like Walmart money to send a message, and that message for me is: Stop being a greedy dick to your employees and America! Companies respond to bottom lines and decrease in profits, unfortunately, they don't usually respond to pleas of human rights, fairness, and ethics. So if more consumers make it a point to stop shopping at Walmart because they don't like the idea of them taking advantage of the system to the tune of $7.8 billion dollars a year, then maybe Walmart might get the hint. Just maybe they'll start to pay attention to how they treat people and make people pay much more in taxes to benefit the Walden family. And yes, maybe, the world might be just a little bit better because there would be more money for public schools, more people able to afford to go on vacation and reduce stress, more people able to pay for their medical bills.....it goes on and on.
Also, as everyone's attention is likely focused on violence recently as well, I would also briefly like to touch on the correlation between economic injustice and violence. If the 1.5 million workers at Walmart got adequately compensated and were provided benefits, not only would that help out every tax-payer, but would also help those workers not be as stressed, frustrated, angry, and hopeless. That means the less people are likely to act on their frustration. So yes, as a mental health professional I can say that people who get treated like shit, may often treat others like shit. It just makes sense. People who can afford life and have less stress don't usually want to take out their frustrations on others. People who try and try, work over-time, don't have benefits, and who are exploited, tend to get frustrated with the world. Understandably so. So while you may not see how these can be connected and how it might be absurd to connect Walmart's greediness with acts of violence, just think about it more. Think about being stressed day in and day out and how that impacts your decisions and how you might accidentally lash out at someone. So yea, this is also a violence issue too, because if we treat people better and people don't get exploited by billion dollar companies, than yes, the world could be a better place.
As always, I don't get this stuff from thin air. Check out my sources and read up on it yourself. There's always going to be arguments for jobs and economic productivity etc, but really think about my scenario at the beginning. Economic productivity, treating employees fairly, and paying taxes doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Plenty of companies are profitable while also paying taxes and fair wages, they just aren't AS profitable as Walmart and would be willing to give a few billion out of 50 billion to make sure their employees can eat and afford to live. Wouldn't you?
How to Think About Walmart - The Atlantic
Walmart on Tax Day - Americans for Tax Fairness
I Work for $8.25 at Walmart, What Would You Like to Know? - The Guardian
As Wal-Mart Blitzes Internet Retail, Debate Rages over Company's impact on US wages - CNBC
Greed is such a powerful force that I think strong legislation is required to get more than random compliance with your excellent principles.
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