On Poverty
A little while ago, I saw a documentary called "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices". This show talked about the evils of Wal-Mart, their predatory business practices, etc etc. One of the points they made got me thinking:
A full-time entry-level Wal-Mart employee does not make enough money to support a family of four above the federally determined poverty line. According to the filmmakers, this is a bad thing.
This raises the question: How many people is an unskilled laborer SUPPOSED to be able to support? Retail sucks. I get it. It's hard, boring, aggravating work. It's not rewarding, but it also doesn't take much to do. If you're working floor retail it is because there's plenty of people who can do your job and you are eminently replaceable. It's also not a career. If you're making it a career, then you should be moving up into the managerial positions. If you can't do that, maybe you should think about working somewhere else. If you want to be able to support a bunch of people, or buy diamond-encrusted underwear, go out and get some more marketable skills. Learn to weld, or sell (I mean really sell, not just remembering where the toothpaste aisle is), or whatever.
Just sayin'.
A full-time entry-level Wal-Mart employee does not make enough money to support a family of four above the federally determined poverty line. According to the filmmakers, this is a bad thing.
This raises the question: How many people is an unskilled laborer SUPPOSED to be able to support? Retail sucks. I get it. It's hard, boring, aggravating work. It's not rewarding, but it also doesn't take much to do. If you're working floor retail it is because there's plenty of people who can do your job and you are eminently replaceable. It's also not a career. If you're making it a career, then you should be moving up into the managerial positions. If you can't do that, maybe you should think about working somewhere else. If you want to be able to support a bunch of people, or buy diamond-encrusted underwear, go out and get some more marketable skills. Learn to weld, or sell (I mean really sell, not just remembering where the toothpaste aisle is), or whatever.
Just sayin'.
posted by Ted @ 07:42
6 Comments:
At 10/12/11 14:14 ,
Richard Noggin said...
Well, that was certainly enlightening.
At 10/12/11 20:50 ,
KAISER ANDY I said...
It's a Canada goose chilliwack, patty black; give the frog a loan.
At 11/12/11 23:24 ,
Ted said...
...and here I thought I had engendered an intelligent discussion in the comments. Oh well.
At 12/12/11 15:24 ,
Ted said...
I heard a rumor that Kevin21 gives the worst head in the tri-state area.
At 12/12/11 22:02 ,
KAISER ANDY I said...
I have two things I would like to say about your comment:
1) These aren't the comments we're looking for- move along.
2)Fuck wal mart. They created a race to the bottom, and as long as they continue to under-pay manufacturers and suppliers, cut and pave high acreage portions of arable land, force other hard-working people out of a job by artificially out competing them, and paying their corporate bullies high salaries, the least they could do is pay their fucking employess a living god-damn wage.
Dr. Willinganz said in my Comm 201 class in 1990, "Some people are just born to be Kmart Cashiers."
At 14/12/11 07:36 ,
Ted said...
Absolutely. Fuck Wal-Mart, right in the ear. But that doesn't answer the question.
Wal-Mart, K-mart, McD's, and your local mom and pop grocery all pay their floor personnel minimum wage at (typically) somewhat less than "full time" 40 hours/week. My question is, how much money should this amount to? Should you be able to support a family of four on this kind of money? If not, how many?
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