Watched "Walmart, The Cost of Low Prices"

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by RawAlex

Lenny, you might want to read this:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/ma...gmpr-m18.shtml

In the case of GM, $1800 out of every car sold goes to paying those costs.

Most people don't realize, but when GM or a Ford closes a plant, they are often stuck paying upwards to 80% of the salary costs anyway for years to come. There is very little flexibility in the process.

GM's sales and market share have dropped massively in the last 30 years, but they are still supporting the retirement benefits and (rapidly increasing) medical costs. Just last year, they have moved from 5.2 to 5.8 BILLION dollars. That change alone would cover 25% of the losses last year. Those costs continue to spiral and they are not going to go away until GM goes bankrupt, which is a solid possiblity.

Walmart would be non-functional with $15/hour stockboys and $20/hour fork lift drivers, especially if there were shop rules and legacy retirement costs to cover in the future. The impact at the cash register would kill (see K-mart).

Pindilly, I don't think anyone here is suggesting Walmart is a good career choice. Your experience with a tough work situation combined with (often over done) right to work laws means that it sucks ass. However, the truth is there, 10-12 new people come in every week to take a swing at it. That says enough.

Alex

Alex I'm a reasonable guy, and I agree there are extremes involved on both sides of the argument.
I never said Wal-Mart should have $15 an hour stockboys. Don't inflate my position to make yours look more reasonable.

GM's problems are mostly due to their loss of market share, and that can't be blamed on the guy working the assembly line, the buck has to stop with management on that one.
(Although I do agree that things like the UAW JOBS bank are absurd)
There's also the issue of rising health care costs, which is another subject altogether that would take too long to go into here.

There is a vast array of social policies that I disagree with that cause these sorts of problems. The problem isn't just "Wal-Mart"
However, the minimum wage in this country, if it had been indexed to inflation would be around 8.50 an hour today.
Someone working full time making minimum wage only makes 2/3 of what it takes to cross the "poverty line"
What's the point in having a minimum wage if it doesn't at least keep people out of poverty?
Whenever anyone in congress brings up raising the minimum wage Wal-Mart is one of the first people in line with campaign and PAC contributions for any congressman who will oppose raising the minimum wage.
These are the sort of things that bother me. I think if a person works full time (in the richest country in the history of the world) that they should be able to feed themselves and see a doctor if they're sick. That's not too much to ask (unless you're Wal-Mart)
Raising wages and providing health insurance wouldn't hurt Wal-Mart's profitability one iota, yet they act as if it would put them into bankruptcy.