Originally Posted by spazlabz

1) running mom and pops out of business... while this is a problem is it not a main one, that's competitive business. The point is they have eliminated jobs by the hundreds of thousands and it creates a void. The manufacturing that goes with the products they sell is not in the US, so they are killing both businesses and jobs at the same time

2)I have 2 family members currently employed at Wal Mart... understand they have not hired full time employees for a very long time. They would be required to provide benefits to those employees if they were full time. They pay just over minimum wage which is well below a living wage and no benefits. This is done systematically... as for promoting from within, just how many managers do you think a store has? My family members work at a wal mart that has gotten awards for Home Town Store of the Year for 2 years in a row. Hours have been cut dramatically, below 20 hours a week at times because they arbitrarily decided to cut payroll by $20K with sales in the store going up.

3) You miss the point, the fact that other companies have chosen to outsource all manufacturing in the US has damaged the middle class in this country almost beyond repair. Manufacturing companies used to create good paying jobs with benefits that allowed households to have one wage earner. This was particularly important if the wage earner was suddenly unable to work, there was a safety net of a second worker available to go out and find work to help with the finances until the primary was able to return to work.

It is inconceivable to Americans in this day and age to even fantasize about a single wage earner making enough to support a middle class family and it is a direct result of American corporations like Wal Mart pretending to be Patriotic as hell, red white and blue this and that while fucking over the American worker and economy. The standard of living for the average American worker has dropped substantially over the last 30 years