Uplifting News

Walmart employs members of the community.

Seriously? Sure they hire workers but they pay them so poorly that huge numbers of them qualify for food benefits from the government and medicaid. When you shop at Walmart, you pay them twice. Once at the register, and once in your payroll taxes which go to their employees. Meanwhile, the family that owns the company have a net worth of $432.4 BILLION dollars! Fuck Walmart and the companies like them!

In 2020, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), at the behest of Senator Bernie Sanders, studied who was using federal assistance programs and where they worked. The GAO found millions of full-time workers were stuck relying on federal medical and food programs to make ends meet.

According to the office, 70 percent of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid users in their study were full-time workers, with 90 percent of them in the private sector. A significant number of them worked in restaurants and department or grocery stores.

Surprise, surprise — Walmart ranked among the top four employers whose workers relied on Medicaid and SNAP. As Eli Rosenberg broke down in the Washington Post, in nine states alone, Walmart had 14,500 employees on SNAP and 10,350 on Medicaid. Other top offenders included McDonalds, Dollar Tree, Amazon, Burger King, and FedEx.

Edit to add: Prosperous? When Walmart moves in locals suffer.

A study published in 2008 in the Journal of Urban Economics examined about 3,000 Walmart store openings nationally and found that each store caused a net decline of about 150 jobs (as competing retailers downsized and closed) and lowered total wages paid to retail workers.

The damage is long term too.

A 2012 analysis conducted by Puget Sound Sage, a nonprofit public policy organization that looks at regional economic issues, found that each new Walmart store decreases a local community’s economic output over 20 years by an estimated $13 million. The research also discovered that each Walmart store costs the community an additional $14 million in lost wages over the next 20 years. Although the Puget Sound Sage study was conducted years ago, research continues to reveal how Walmart affects the economy when it comes to town. For example, Walmart’s lower wage offerings have contributed to a decline in average retail wages in communities where the company is located. This exacerbates income inequality and economic disparity in those areas.