Wal*Mart in DC

[Koolay]

Why not raise the minimum wage to 20$ an hour? or 30$ an hour? Don't you care about the workers?

[Silver]

Corporations are greedy. The less money employees make, the more money the corporation makes. Unfortunately, it really is that simple. As long as people are stupid enough to continue shopping there, the corporation will thrive. Unfortunately, we live in a society where the majority of people are too stupidly comfortable to stop supporting a corporation. Things in this country could change so much for the better if people stopped being lazy and decided to wake up to the corporate nightmare.

[Koolay]

Corporations are greedy. The less money employees make, the more money the corporation makes. Unfortunately, it really is that simple. As long as people are stupid enough to continue shopping there, the corporation will thrive. Unfortunately, we live in a society where the majority of people are too stupidly comfortable to stop supporting a corporation. Things in this country could change so much for the better if people stopped being lazy and decided to wake up to the corporate nightmare.

You claim to have a better business model than Wal Mart? Why don't you start the company?

[Rahul]

I met a guy once that owned a shop in Richmond VA. Walmart wanted the property where his store was located, along with the surrounding ones, so they could put in a store. They offered him twice as much money as what it was worth and allowed him a year to sell off his stock and move everything out.

He happily complied and then retired.

Don't get me wrong, I've heard of all the screwed up ways Wal-Mart fucks over their employees, but that guy was quite happy with the corporation.

[rexbeccarox]

Frankly, I'd rather see Walmart closing stores rather than opening them. I can't tell you the last time I walked into a Walmart.

[Something completely different]

There isn`t even a minimum wage in Germany. We have a contract system which requires all buisnesses to write contracts with labor representatives on how high the wages should be. It works for the economy, but we have the lowest wages in Europe.
Yet there are so many different stores and buisnesses here that competition is o high that wages are enought to live with. Most stores here are very concerned about their image regarding the treatment of employees, since people here avoid stores that are involved in unfair and dubious things to the point that some even make threatening losses.

[festive1]

I hate when I end up on the side of corporations like Walmart, but I don't agree with that super minimum wage. Obviously Walmart needs to change it's labor practices but I just don't think that is the way to do it. If you are going to advocate that businesses pay their workers a minimum wage that meets the standards of living that's fine, but it has to be completely across the board. Why should union businesses not have to pay their workers the same wage if what they currently pay is not meeting the minimum standard of living? That just sounds like government favoritism to me. Besides it might even have a negative impact on small businesses as well. If I've been working at a small mom and pop shop and getting paid $10.00 an hour there, and then Walmart comes in with its required $12.50 minimum wage, do you think I'm going to keep working at that mom and pop shop? Hell no! I'm gonna quit that shitty paying job for the better paying one. And considering you live in DC I'm assuming there are quite a few large businesses that fit the description given in the legislation. So you would have many big stores boxing out the small businesses because they can afford to pay their workers more, where as the small shops have to struggle to find workers and keep them.

I agree it's imperfect. The union shops are already paying their workers well, perhaps not $12.50, but they have good benefits and earn more than minimum wage. If this passes, I'm confident the unions will agitate for higher wages. As for the mom and pop stores, there's always going to be people who flat out refuse to work for a mega-corporation like Wal*Mart, especially in areas like DC. Wal*Mart will never willingly unionize. When their in-house meat packers unionized in, I believe it was Michigan, Wal*Mart did away with all of their in-house meat packing departments and outsourced. Corporations like Wal*Mart won't change, and will continue to exploit their workers, unless local governments start forcing them to.

[Something completely different]

Why not raise the minimum wage to 20$ an hour? or 30$ an hour? Don't you care about the workers?

Why not make your point clear without overused theatrics?

[Minimalist]

Why is it so awful to require large employers, who make billions every year, to pay their workers a living wage?

Because greedy corporate cocksuckers are, by definition, greedy. BTW, some people call this "the invisible hand of the market."

[Koolay]

We should not stop at 12.5$ an hour, but raise the minimum wage to 40$ an hour, that way workers can get the most amount of money and will solve the gap in wealth.