Re: Walmart's at it again....
The premise that the extra cost of representation and or voluntary health benefits would be passed on to the customers is valid, if not oversimplified. Wal-Mart would not be able to pass on the entire cost of such as you are proposing. Not and remain competitive. We have Wal-Mart, Kmart, Target, and Meijer in Traverse City. Meijer is a regional state discount marketer. Wal-Mart is generally less expensive on the exact same item than the three competitors, however a lot of the time by just pennies. Kmart is generally the highest, sometimes by dollars. My point is, Wal-Mart is raking in massive profits and claiming that their low prices demand the poor treatment of their employees to remain profitable. Meijer has numerous (I can't count all of the people I know personally on both hands) employees that have been with the company in lower level jobs for more than 10 years. Most of these people ARE the head of household, so their income level is important and they need/have benefits. When I worked at Target in the early 90's they provided typical healthcare to ALL employees regardless of their status as full/part-time. The part-timers paid slightly more than the full-timers, but they still had benefits available. And if I remember right my portion of the cost was $13.00/wk for just me. Not bad for the coverage they provided.<br />So Wal-Mart could provide insurance to their employees and still have low prices, it's just greed that prevents them from doing so. Oh, and Meijer has various unions representing different groups of their employees too. And Meijer is closest in price to Wal-Mart of any of the competitor. Wal-Marts prices typically end in .88 or .98, and Meijer's typically end in .94 or .99, so you see it's just pennies. Facts guys, Wal-Marts actions is driven by greed. Profit is not a dirty word, but greed is.<br /><br />And Skinnywater, that propaganda spiel reeks of right-wing Republican canned rhetoric, and it's disgusting. 20/20 is sadly all true right when they said, "Money talks and the government will side with corporate way before they'll side with Joe Blow off the street." I thought you right-wing extremists thought government should get out of your lives and leave big business to run itself. Well when your employer says you can't smoke anymore, or next will be you can't enjoy libations, isnt that just like the government butting into your life? Forget about the premise that the insurance to cover the smoking related diseases or the cirrhosis of the liver costs too much. This is big brother dictating to you what you can and cant do, just big bro isnt the government anymore, its corporate America flexing the muscles the current administration gave them to walk all over the citizenry of the country. Government is supposed to exist for the well being of ALL[/] the citizens, not just the wealthy and privileged. I hope you all like living in the corporate utopia you support where you have no rights except those the benevolent corporations so graciously allow you to have, the ones that benefit them.
