[Vision2020] Wal-Mart Supercenter Opposition

[Andreas Schou]

> Thank you, Ms. Gray.  I was unaware of these contributions made on behalf of
> Wal-Mart.  It is nice to know that such a large retail chain (as Wal-Mart)
> has the heart to become a contributing member of our community.

Wal-Mart's philanthropic branch is called the Wal-Mart Foundation.
>From the name, one would think it was set up by Sam Walton and funded
by donations by Wal-Mart, Inc. and the Walton family. You would be
wrong.

The Wal-Mart Foundation, the largest corporate philanthropic
foundation in America, disburses $190 million per year, but is not
largely funded by Wal-Mart, Inc. Instead, it is instead funded by the
people who can least afford to give: Wal-Mart associates themselves.
Each year, associates get the option to take a payroll deduction to
donate to the Wal-Mart foundation. Wal-Mart gets the PR boost. Its
employees continue to get the shaft.

Even if it were actualy Wal-Mart donating to the Wal-Mart Foundation,
$190 million doesn't even come close to the two billion dollars that
Wal-Mart costs American taxpayers every year. According to this study
by Arindrajit Dube of the UC Berkeley Institute of Industrial
Relations, each employee of Wal-Mart costs its state $1,952 every year
in public assistance. Multiply that by the over one million employees
that Wal-Mart has nationwide, and you come to a staggering public cost
of over two billion dollars per year. The cost to Sojourners' is just
a microcosm of the cost to everyone -- including you..

This, of course, doesn't include the direct tax subsidies to local
Wal-Marts as communities vie to have the Wal-Mart albatross hung
around their neck. Their employees' widows' mites do a lot of good --
but it's just a drop in the bucket compared to the irreparable harm
they're doing to communities across the United States.

-- ACS