Here in the Megalopolis that parallels the I-95 corridor, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a mall, mini-mall or shopping center. But as you head west the stores thin out faster than good radio stations and they’re getting thinner every day.
An Iowa State University study said, in the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived in Iowa, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 161 variety stores, 158 women’s apparel stores, 153 shoe stores, 116 drugstores, and 111 men’s and boy’s apparel stores — all attributed to the Wal-Mart presence. It’s hardly confines to Iowa either, it’s everywhere. Ask Case how many retail jobs are available in her area.
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“you don't have to work there. Retail is pretty much an open field. There's always the KMart. Or Target. Or the local stupidmarket chain.”
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That is not really true in most areas.
In a 1994 report, the Congressional Research Service warned Congress that communities need to evaluate the significance of any job gains at big-box stores against any loss of jobs due to reduced business at competing retailers. For every two jobs created by Wal-Mart, a community loses three. And those two new jobs usually pay less than the three that were lost. According to government reports, the average pay at Wal-Mart is $8.23 an hour — $2 less than standard retail industry pay.
The result is a lot Wal-Mart workers not being able to afford the health insurance Wal-Mart offers. Even if you can pay, part-time workers, and it does its best to keep as many as possible, part time, must wait two years and cannot add a spouse or children to their coverage. A lot of their people rely on public assistance such as food stamps and health care.
Wal-Mart being the country’s biggest employer leads to bad news for states.
In Arkansas Wal-Mart has more children of employees on publicly funded state health care rolls than any other employer.
In Connecticut taxpayers annually provide $5 million in health care to Wal-Mart workers — more than to workers in any other company in the state.
A 2002 Georgia survey showed that 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by the state’s taxpayer-funded PeachCare for Kids insurance program had a parent working at Wal-Mart. That’s 14 times the number for the next highest employer.
In 2004 a University of California at Berkeley Labor Center study found that the reliance of Wal-Mart workers on California public assistance programs cost state taxpayers $86 million each year.
Nationally, taxpayers pay an average of $420,750 each year in social services for Wal-Mart associates for each store with about 200 employees.
A bill nearing approval in the Maryland General Assembly would require organizations with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits — or put the money directly into the state’s health program for the poor. The bill doesn’t name Wal-Mart, but with 15,000 employees in the state, it is the only company to which the law would apply.
Montana is tired of footing the bill for big-box stores, too. Its legislature is debating a tax on retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Costco. The tax — 1 percent for stores with more than $20 million in annual sales, 1.5 percent for more than $30 million and 2 percent for more than $40 million — is intended to offset welfare costs for the retailers’ low-paid employees.
What’s myth, what’s not
Myth: People without health insurance coverage don’t work.
Fact Seventy-five percent live in families where at least one person works full time. Twenty percent live in families that have two full-time workers.
Myth: Most people without health insurance are poor.
Fact Almost 29 million of the uninsured in 2002 had household earnings of at least $25,000. In 2002 the federal poverty guideline for a family of four was $18, 850.
Myth: It doesn’t really matter if a person doesn’t have health insurance.
Fact About 18,000 Americans die each year because they did not seek early medical attention for a treatable illness, due to lack of insurance.
Myth: Most uninsured children live in single-parent households.
Fact More than half live with both parents.
Myth: People who don’t have health insurance simply don’t want to pay for it.
Fact Seventy-five percent of uninsured adults say the main reason they are not insured is they cannot afford the premiums.
Source: CovertheUninsuredWeek.org
And the $20 Billion Wal-Mart brought in from China last year contributed more than a little to the lack of good jobs paying wages that people could raise a family on.
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If that's all you're qualified to do, go do it.
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Oh, I see. I've got mine, fuck you.
Well a few million of these people could be trained to be proficient in your, or anybody elses, field and then let the bidding begin for who will work for the least compensation. :p