Cheap Thrills, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

June 8, 2013 Martha Thomases 0 Comments

 

As a New Yorker of a certain socio-economic class, I am lucky enough to live in a way that allows me to avoid Wal-Mart.  While a lot of this is because I’m an elitist snob, it’s also because I have plenty of other choices.

And this week, I feel like a Tea Party patriot as well.  See, there’s a new study out, from the Democratic staff of the U. S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce.  They conclude that Wal-Mart is a terrible welfare cheat, taking advantage of patriotic taxpayers against their will, without even a vote.

How can this happen?  It’s easy.  Wal-Mart pays its employees so little, and provides so few benefits, that  even workers who manage to get full-time schedules have to go on food stamps and other forms of government assistance.  Using data provided by Wisconsin’s Medicaid program, they concluded that a single Wal-Mart Superstore costs taxpayers anywhere from $900,000 a year to nearly $1,750,000 a year.

 

This outrages me, and for personal reasons.  My father was a shopping center developer, and one of his best tenants was the chain of HIlls Discount Department Stores.  I would go to visit stores with him before they opened, and I was always impressed wight he people who worked there.  They seemed happy and dedicated.  Maybe this was because the stores were new, and so were the jobs.

Before I started college, I spent a semester working full-time at one near our home.  I was paid minimum wage (then $1.60 an hour) and, like many new members of the workforce, I was flabbergasted to see how much money was taken out for taxes.  But I still lived with my parents, and the money mostly went for gas and movies.

Still, I was paid, and got over-time, and was happy to have the cash.  I worked with some people who had been with the store for a long time, and received regular raises.  They could support their families.  Some were promoted to management.

No one had to go on welfare.

Conservatives complain that welfare encourages people to be lazy, to not contribute to society.  Their argument might carry more weight if working full time didn’t require people to go on welfare.  No one who works full time should be unable to go to the doctor when she’s sick.  No one who works full time should have to go on food stamps.

This isn’t some little neighborhood store.  This is Wal-Mart, one of the largest corporations in the world.  There is no excuse for this.  Government subsidies to employees allow stockholders and management to reap extravagant profits.

I don’t see conservatives complaining about their tax dollars supporting this redistribution of wealth.

And I don’t expect to.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, wishes her pal, Len Fleisig, a happy birthday.