Reply #60: I must respectively disagree LF [View All]

[MadHound]

WalMart is creating the working poor, along with the poor and unemployed. For every job that WalMart creates in a community, 1.5 jobs are lost due to other business having to fold. They do not pay their workers a living wage(and they are the largest private employer in the country). They come into a community, undercut everybody's prices, even if they have to take a loss, and once the competition is driven from the field, jack their prices through the roof. This pattern has been repeated time and again.

Their predatory pricing tactics also affects the workers who labor in industries that supply WalMart. Due to WalMart's corporate clout, their suppliers are also forced to pay bare bones wages. This ripple effect runs throughout the economy, just witness the grocery strikes out west. The management is in effect saying to the striking workers that WalMart's competition is forcing the stores to pay low wages.

And I don't know what ruling is preventing you from forming a co-op. I also live in Missouri, and we have co-ops up here. If the law is strictly a municipal one, have your mailing address out in the county and run your co-op from there. Having lived in SW Missouri for a number of years, I know there are also farmers markets and independent farmers that sell food at a much cheaper price than WalMart. In fact don't even buy the hype that WalMart has the lowest prices. I've compared grocery prices at various stores around here and with WalMart. Most stores meet or exceed the WalMart prices, especially if they have a card program or do coupon programs. You do have options, don't buy into the WalMart hype.

And before you jump down my throat, yes, I have and continue to do lots to help the poor, both collectively and individually. I've worked voluntarily for various charities and also donated money to them. I focus on political/corporate issues because I feel that one has to not just cure the symptoms, but also attack the cause. And WalMart is most definetly one the bigger causes. Having been homeless for a while myself, it is the least I feel I can do

I think that you are feeling poor and desparete and buying into the WalMart hype. I've spent a fair amount of time in Joplin and I KNOW you have other options down there besides WalMart. Find them, for every dollar you spend at WalMart is a dollar that supports a corporation that is in the business of creating poor folk. Do you want that kind of karma on your conscience?