Yes, and?
3 Likes
Right. That’s what I’m saying. Also, hes only one executive. And if Walmart can’t afford to pay people a living wage, then walmart’s business plan needs an upgrade. We should demand that corporations should exist only if they have the ability to pay a decent wage. So prices go up, wages go down and while some people claim that hiring will give down, they misunderstand the fact that poor people spend money on goods while rich people don’t.
6 Likes
Wait, what?
All I’m saying is if followed through, wages go up, followed by prices, which would be natural, but would balance out after time. At the same time, CEO pay needs to decrease, not only as a matter of completely justified fairness, but because there’s never been a CEO that has ever truly deserved pay at 150% of the workers’ rate. That’s just a-holes playing at manifest destiny/the divine right of kings. Collectivism is where it’s at, man.
@Jeff291 Ah, correction noted.
5 Likes
Oops I meant prices and wages go up
2 Likes
Low wages is Walmart’s business model. That’s been their strategy all along: drive local competitors out of business while hiring some of their employees at lower rates. And shutter any stores that vote to unionize.
13 Likes
Exactly. When your business model is to exploit the less fortunate, you shouldn’t be in business.
13 Likes
Why is that? That is exactly what lead to their initial creation. I agree that “Right to work” in some states have made things worse (mine just voted it down a few weeks ago).
If gov. assistance dried up tomorrow, what would the workers’ most direct recourse be?
1 Like
They would have no recourse. The reason that government assistance is necessary is because of corporations, in essence, have an oligopoly on labor.
8 Likes
And you’re right that unions should be strengthened. It doesn’t mean that Sanders’ plan is unrealistic. Also Bezos makes way more than Walmarts CEO’s salary, which is the 22 million that you cited earlier.
4 Likes
Because it is far easier for employers to retaliate against employees seeking to organize now than it was, say 2 generations ago. Large unions lack the political clout they used to have as well.
Starvation, creating public health hazards, and political unrest… As it is in developing countries, where working people don’t have living wages. A great time to invest in tumbrils!
12 Likes
What about those shareholder dividends?
3 Likes
So by eliminating the CEO’s salary entirely, we’ve now been able to double the pay of… 300 employees.
Or about 0.05% of Amazon’s workforce, to pick an obvious example.
Oh, sure, maybe Amazon’s low-wage staff are a mere 10% away from getting off welfare. We can stretch Bezos’ $1.7M salary to a whole 3,000 of them! (Well, 590 actually, seeing how Bezos’ salary is just x59 the average Amazon worker’s)
1 Like
part of what people are missing is how walmart got where they are now.
they targeted locally owned business with otherwise sustainable business models – shut them down by underpricing them – selling items at a loss, because they could, because scale – and then sightly edged their prices higher again.
all along the way hiring people part-time to avoid health care costs, using contractors to hire undocumented workers for below minimum wage, by lobbying for tax breaks.
and then they replicated that to their whole supply chain.
the us has wage stagnation, price inflation, and “somehow” an economic boom for the 1%.
creative efforts like this are needed, or things are only going to get worse.
11 Likes
This is a really interesting idea, too bad it’s already dead. Maybe after the midterms he can bring it up again so Trump can veto it.
1 Like
As with just about everything Bernie has done since the election, the idea here is not to actually get the bill passed.
They recognise that legislative progress is impossible with the current Congress; the only way to get anything passed would be to allow the establishment Dems and GOP to warp it into a sick parody of what it began as. Not worth the ticket.
Instead, the idea is to demonstrate to the public what an alternative government would look like. This isn’t that unusual; it’s pretty much standard procedure in most democracies.
20 Likes
I doubt there is any way he could make it Republican enough to make it through the current Congress. Half of the members won’t read past his name at the top of the bill.
Since you missed it the first time, I’ll spell it out:
I used Winco Foods as an example, because they BOTH pay a living wage AND have LOWER prices than the big chain groceries.
If you need another example, try Costco. There are a lot of examples from all industries. I would wager, in every market, there is at least one company that has recognized that they can hire great people, pay them well, and that’s their competitive advantage: employees who give a shit.
19 Likes
Never, EVER underestimate the improvement to the bottom line that results from treating the workers who actually do the work that brings in the money, as well as satisfies the customers on a daily, personal basis. Well-paid workers with benefits will always outperform impoverished ones.
Consider the Pullman strike during the early 20th century, especially in light of conditions in Pullman’s “capitalist utopia” company town.
5 Likes
So now the companies will be paying for the $10 throat lozenge. I have no idea if this measure is a good idea, but ISTM pretty clear that the real problem is several fathoms below this.
