Wal-Mart is Evil!

I watched this documentary last night and boy was it an eye opener. I knew that I hated Wal-Mart with a passion but I didn't quite know why. Here are some very good reasons below:

WAL-MART Drives Down Retail Wages $4.7 BILLION Every Year

• "A recent study by researchers at UC Berkeley's Labor Center has quantified what happened to retail wages when Wal-Mart set up shop, drawing on 15 years of data on actual store openings. The study found that Wal-Mart drives down wages in urban areas, with an annual loss of at least $4.7 billion dollars in earnings for retail workers."

$86 MILLION a Year to California Taxpayers

• In 2004, a study released the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that "reliance by Wal-Mart workers on public assistance programs in California comes at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $86 million annually; this is comprised of $32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance."

WAL-MART Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees

• "The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that one 200-person Wal-Mart store may result in a cost to federal taxpayers of $420,750 per year - about $2,103 per employee. Specifically, the low wages result in the following additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers:
  • $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
  • $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family.
  • $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children.
  • $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of 2 children.
  • $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an average of two children qualify.
  • $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance."

Federal Poverty Level Family of Four - $17,650

Average Wal-Mart Hourly Sales Employee Wages - $13,861

HELEN WALTON: $18.0 BILLION
ALICE WALTON: 18.0 BILLION
JOHN WALTON: 18.2 BILLION
ROB WALTON: $18.3 BILLION
JIM WALTON: $18.3 BILLION

A WAL-MART Worker may donate money from their paycheck to the CRITICAL NEED FUND, a program to aid other employees in times of crisis, like a fire or tornado.

In 2004, WAL-MART Employees gave OVER $5 MILLION to help fellow workers
The Walton Family gave $6,000

Cost for WAL-MART Factory Worker to Assemble: $0.18
Retail cost at Wal-Mart: $14.96

If these weren't enough to see this company's inhumanity than click here for some more fun facts and all the back up data. Happy reading!