[Vision2020] Wal-Mart Supercenter Opposition

[Donovan Arnold]

Andreas,

Your exaggerations and 1/2 truths hurt your creditability.

First, the source of information you are using  (Arindrajit Dube of the UC 
Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations, 
http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/08/02_walmart.shtmlcomes) 
is from a report that was done ONLY on California, not the whole US, to 
extrapolate that information to apply to every where in the country is 
flawed thinking.

Second, all of the information they used to calculate their data for this 
report was used not as factual unbiased verified data, but data from a 
lawyer in a law suit against Wal-Mart. 
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/lowwage/walmart.pdf

Third, this report makes many farfetched assumptions. The biggest assumption 
it makes is that all employees at Wal-Mart that do not get the Wal-Mart 
Health Insurance do not get health insurance from some place else. I am 
willing to bet that of the roughly 50% of Wal-Mart employees that do not 
have health insurance, most of them have health insurance from another 
source such as their spouse, Medicaid, Medicare, parents, military 
(Tri-Care), college or university, another job, or purchase other health 
insurance from somewhere else. To assume that they have none, or would have 
insurance if employed someplace else and thus use the Indigent Fund, and 
cost the state $2,000 a year is pretty arrogant assumption, and then apply 
that to every single employee is really showing flawed thinking.

Fourth, they assumed that every employee’s income at Wal-Mart was that 
person's sole source of income for the entire family. Using this data they 
extrapolated who would and who would not qualify for benefits from the state 
and federal government. Again, this is wrong headed. Most homes are two 
income homes. This would not qualify them for many state and federal 
benefits. A mother working part time to supplement the family income would 
not qualify for food stamps if her spouse is making $20,000 a year ($10 an 
hour) or more. This report assumes that she would qualify AND be collecting 
those benefits.

Fifth, even if Wal-Mart had the highest number of employees in the country 
pulling from the indigent fund that does not mean anything because they are 
one of the largest employers in the country. Wal-Mart is in the service 
industry, the lowest paying industry in the country unless you are a doctor 
or a prostitute. 50% of Wal-Mart employees are making $9 and hour or more 
plus medical. That is not bad for a part-time supplementary job or for a 
second income.  UI pays students at most $8.15 an hour and starts students 
at about $6 an hour. We have people with PhDs at UI making less than $30K a 
year, or $15 an hour. You think a high school stock boy should be making 
$12? What is greater injustice here? Where do you think your energies should 
be directed?

Finally, your understanding of the collection and distribution of the 
Wal-Mart Foundation is incorrect. Wal-Mart does use funds to support the 
foundation. It gave as much as the Canadian Government to the Tsunami relief 
effort, $38 million. Employees, or associates, are included in the decision 
making process of donating resources to the local community, and are given 
the option to contribute in either time and/or money to help those 
charitable efforts. Many companies do this. Tidymans did this to a great 
extent—and you can see how they benefited.

The world market is changing. The world population and US population have 
significantly increased driving down labor wages. Blaming Wal-Mart for 
adjusting to this reality does not change that situation. The solution to 
competing with China is not to do what China does best, cheap mass 
production, the solution is to do what Americans do best, invent the 
products they mass produce.

Take Care,

Donovan J Arnold


>From: Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com>
>Reply-To: Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com>
>To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
>CC: vision2020 at moscow.com, Debbie Gray <dgray at uidaho.edu>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Wal-Mart Supercenter Opposition
>Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2005 09:47:24 -0800
>
> > 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
>
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