Would you be willing to spend one penny more for a box of macaroni and cheese if it meant that Walmart workers would no longer need food stamps to survive? Because that's all it would cost, according to an analysis by American Public Media’s Marketplace.
While it's unclear how many of Walmart's workers are on food stamps, as many as 15 percent of the company's employees in Ohio are. Applying that same percentage to the rest of Walmart's workforce, Marketplace estimated the company would need an extra $4.8 billion to lift its average wages across the U.S. enough to get all of its workers off public assistance.
Walmart workers cost the government about $300 million a year in food-stamp costs, according to Marketplace. A single 300-employee Walmart store may cost taxpayers anywhere between $904,542 and nearly $1.75 million per year.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/walmart-workers-food-stamps_n_5092262.html
The one question first and foremost to careen across The Gadfly's consciousness about this story is -- why are taxpayers subsidizing the workforce and the profit margin of six of the wealthiest human beings on the face of the fucking planet?
The six Walton heirs own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans. For you fuzzy math people, that translates to six people owning more wealth than 130 million of their fellow Americans.
The second question that occurred to The Gadfly is, who in their right fucking mind would not be willing to pay 1¢ more for a box of macaroni and cheese, if that additional penny resulted in, not only the end of tax payer subsidizing of Walmart's wage-starved employees, but also a living wage for those workers? Who would be against that? These people - that's who:
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The intransigent dumbassery of the Tea Party is costing the taxpaying public hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars per year - costs which the ruling elites have cynically, and immorally, strapped to the backs of the American middle-class. Additionally, it is directly impacting the ability of the country to recover more quickly and effectively from the financial crisis, is contributing to increased poverty levels, and is creating a permanent underclass of full-time workers who are trapped in a system devoid of upward mobility and financial stability factors.
While Walmart is the biggest parasite when it comes to the corporate blood-suckers, there are many, many more (such as McDonald's, Yum Brands, Target, etc.) whose employee wage structures are just as destructively regressive.
A commanding majority (76%) of Americans, including 57% of self-described Republicans, support an increase in the minimum wage. So then - why are the conservative Republicans and the Tea Partiers in the Senate and Congress blocking any movement on the issue? Are they so blinded by their visceral hatred of the black guy in the White House that they happily and obtusely impede solutions which will ease the economic suffering of their fellow Americans? Why? What is their motive? The Gadfly will tell you why -- because those politicians are not beholden to their constituents as they claim to be - no - you see, dear readers, the truth is that they are pretty much devoted to looking out for the interests of these guys instead of the people who elected them:
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And until the rest of America comes to the long-awaited determination that it is time to send an unambiguous message to the conservative Republicans and the Tea Party that their and their family's interests are equally, if not more important than those of Charles and David Koch, their wealthy investors, and their billion dollar pollution conglomerates, then there really is no reason to believe that renewed prosperity and change for the better are anything more than a fantasies that are destined to never see the light of day in the reality-based world.
A good place to start the process of sending that message is to get your carcasses off the LaZy-Boy lounge chairs and drag it to your polling place come November. Do a bit of research, find out who the Koch/Tea Party candidates are and pull the lever for anyone other but them. It really is that simple dear readers.
----TFG
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