Wal-Mart to Pull Out of D.C. After Minimum-Wage Vote

[Nobexliberty]

If I lived there I'd be really pissed off.

Say what you will about Wal Mart, at least they'd be able to do real grocery shopping for a reasonable price. Imagine trying to do your regular shopping at those crappy corner stores or gas stations--they probably have to do any regular shopping outside the city. They just shot themselves in the foot, big time.

More like in their own gut.

 

[invisible]

Damian let me explain this. Say a company allocates $50 of their resources to pay their workers. They employ 5 people at $10 a day (for simplicity's sake). The kindly benevolent town mayor declares that $10 is not a living wage (an illusory term in the first place) and makes a law that no man should make less than $15 a day. The only options the company has are raising prices on their goods, punishing everybody, or lay off 2 of the workers.

The only real way for workers to raise their wages is by increasing their production. Every other way of artificially raising wages is injurious to a large number of people in the long run.

Increasing their production? And how do you propose that to happen? Work more hours than the human body is capable of? Work faster than the human body is capable of? Employers already squeeze every last bit of speed and efficiency from their workers. There are really only 3 ways to raise your wages:
1) Change jobs, and do it often. This gets you an increase much faster than waiting around for the token raise that never keeps up with inflation and minimum wage increases (which go hand in hand, as Damian correctly noted).
2) Eliminate the middleman (boss / employer), and become self employed. Take all the profits for yourself, rather than working only to have someone else profit from your labor.
3) Lower your expenses by moving to an "undesirable" place that was relatively unaffected by the inflation of the housing bubble.

Damian isn't necessarily wrong, he's just looking at one part of a larger picture. He's not arguing against capitalism, he's pointing out the effects that distortion of the market (inflation, offshoring jobs, etc) has caused. The key here is to adjust your personal strategy accordingly, rather than look at things in a way that stopped being relevant in 1993 (nafta), or perhaps even the mid 1970's.

 

[Matt Collins]

I'm not a fan of walmart, although I do shop there frequently. My previous post however still stands in their defense.

 

[Superfly]

Increasing their production? And how do you propose that to happen? Work more hours than the human body is capable of? Work faster than the human body is capable of? Employers already squeeze every last bit of speed and efficiency from their workers. There are really only 3 ways to raise your wages:
1) Change jobs, and do it often. This gets you an increase much faster than waiting around for the token raise that never keeps up with inflation and minimum wage increases (which go hand in hand, as Damian correctly noted).
2) Eliminate the middleman (boss / employer), and become self employed. Take all the profits for yourself, rather than working only to have someone else profit from your labor.
3) Lower your expenses by moving to an "undesirable" place that was relatively unaffected by the inflation of the housing bubble.

Damian isn't necessarily wrong, he's just looking at one part of a larger picture. He's not arguing against capitalism, he's pointing out the effects that distortion of the market (inflation, offshoring jobs, etc) has caused. The key here is to adjust your personal strategy accordingly, rather than look at things in a way that stopped being relevant in 1993 (nafta), or perhaps even the mid 1970's.

Well sure, in a service industry job, where the skill requirements and ability to produce is limited...there's simply not much service employees can expect to do to raise wages...because the jobs just aren't all that valuable in terms of warranting a big salary.

So yes you're right, certain jobs are not worth minimum wage already.

 

[mad cow]

lol. When Walmart's bottom line is no longer inflated by my tax dollars going to support their customers, maybe we'll have "free market" capitalism.

Yep,along with every single other business in America without exception having their bottom line inflated by your tax dollars.
Now,is that a Walmart problem or a government problem?

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

Increasing their production? And how do you propose that to happen? Work more hours than the human body is capable of? Work faster than the human body is capable of? Employers already squeeze every last bit of speed and efficiency from their workers. There are really only 3 ways to raise your wages:
1) Change jobs, and do it often. This gets you an increase much faster than waiting around for the token raise that never keeps up with inflation and minimum wage increases (which go hand in hand, as Damian correctly noted).
2) Eliminate the middleman (boss / employer), and become self employed. Take all the profits for yourself, rather than working only to have someone else profit from your labor.
3) Lower your expenses by moving to an "undesirable" place that was relatively unaffected by the inflation of the housing bubble.

Damian isn't necessarily wrong, he's just looking at one part of a larger picture. He's not arguing against capitalism, he's pointing out the effects that distortion of the market (inflation, offshoring jobs, etc) has caused. The key here is to adjust your personal strategy accordingly, rather than look at things in a way that stopped being relevant in 1993 (nafta), or perhaps even the mid 1970's.

I agree with #1. When I got my first job I was getting paid more than people who were there for 3 years, then after 2 years new people were getting paid more than me, so I quit.

 

[nobody's_hero]

There are only two levels of income in D.C. anyway.

Damn-near-broke and Bureaucrat.

 

[Nobexliberty]

There are only two levels of income in D.C. anyway.

Damn-near-broke and Bureaucrat.

+1689

 

[UWDude]

Yes... now there will be no more low price stores in D.C., because before wla mart, everything was Neiman Marcus and Macy's.

and an 18 year old kid fresh out of high school might just believe that.

There are actually people here arguing wal mart is the only place for cheap groceries. Get a grip, people.

There was a time before wal mart, when many different stores carried many different items at many different price ranges.

 

[familydog]

Fuck Walmart.

Indeed.

Wal-Marx generally supports increasing the minimum wage when it hurts their competition. Washington D.C. is such an economic cesspool that increasing the minimum wage will only affect them. Like all corporations, Wal-Marx thrives on government protections.

 

[69360]

Good.

Employers should pay whatever wage employees are willing to work for.

Sellers should sell for whatever price customers are willing to pay.

The government should have no say in this whatsoever.

 

[UpperDecker]

Politicians: Good news guys, we are going to be making Wal-Mart pay you a whole lot more!

Citizens: Yay!!!

Politicians: Hey everybody, about that pay increase.....ummm, we, errrrr, kind of lost all of those jobs for you.

Citizens: :/

 

[DamianTV]

Politicians: Good news guys, we are going to be making Wal-Mart pay you a whole lot more!

Citizens: Yay!!!

Politicians: Hey everybody, about that pay increase.....ummm, we, errrrr, kind of lost all of those jobs for you.

Citizens: :/

Wouldnt matter anyway. If those jobs were still around and the people were paid more, they would go right back to square one as soon as prices of EVERYTHING go up due to raising Minimum Wage costing employers more and the higher cost being used to offset what they have to pay employees.

 

[otherone]

Yep,along with every single other business in America without exception having their bottom line inflated by your tax dollars.
Now,is that a Walmart problem or a government problem?

you wrote:

In the case of Walmart,most of those customers came from what you are referring to as the Bottom 50%.
This is known as free market capitalism.

The "Bottom 50%" as you put it, are the ones on the government dole. Not too many food stamp, welfare, disability, or social security recipents are shopping at Saks or Neiman Marcus. Now I ask you, who's bottom line is most supported by my tax dollars? Do you see the collusion of government and corporate interests? Hasn't the most recent Snowden revelations about Microsoft etal shown you who's actually running this country?

 

[Contumacious]

Think of it this way. You work for some company. And you are a valuable asset.

Fuck Walmart.

Yo Vern.

So you work for Walmart as a bathroom attendant/greeter.

You are also responsible for removing pubic hair from the toilet seats .

How much do you want to be paid per hour?

.

 

[mad cow]

The owners of Walmart shop at Saks and Neiman Marcus and as you yourself pointed out,their wealth is inflated by your tax dollars.

Name a business that does not sell goods or services to government employees or recipients of government benefits.
Go ahead,hate them all.

 

[Matt Collins]

The owners of Walmart shop at Saks and Neiman Marcus

Uhhh... if you have a pension plan or a 401k or stocks or an annuity or mutual fund or almost any type of investment, then you probably own part of Wal Mart.

 

[mad cow]

Uhhh... if you have a pension plan or a 401k or stocks or an annuity or mutual fund or almost any type of investment, then you probably own part of Wal Mart.

Yep,my bottom line is inflated on the worn-out backs of the American Taxpayer,and the overworked,underpaid workers of Walmart.

 

[VIDEODROME]

I'd rather have a Kroger. I think their prices for groceries are reasonable and yes they're even unionized.

 

[otherone]

Yep,my bottom line is inflated on the worn-out backs of the American Taxpayer,and the overworked,underpaid workers of Walmart.

I have no love for walmart or their employees. I don't think there should be a minimum wage. Just don't tell me what we have is free market capitalism.