But first here are a few Fun-Facts concerning how Walmart policies consistently increase their employees reliance on government assistance.
- 80% of Walmart employees receive SNAP (Food Stamps)
- Walmart employees rely on $2.66 billion in government assistance every year which averages out to about $420,00 per store.
- Walmart retail employees, in many states, are the top recipients for Medicaide
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"The six Walmart heirs have an income that is equal to the total income of the bottom 30% of the American people, yet they pay minimum wage and hold people to part-time 'less than 35 hours' with no benefits... "
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OK, so here it is.
The Top 10 Ways Walmart Destroys US Manufacturing Jobs!
1. Buying billions of goods that were NOT made in America.
-- The vast majority of merchandise Walmart sells in the U.S. is manufactured abroad.
2. Pushing US companies to move their factories overseas.
-- Companies that used to manufacture products in the United States, from Levi’s jeans lock maker Master Lock, were pressured to shut their U.S. factories and moved manufacturing abroad to meet Walmart’s demand for low prices.
3. Making it easier for other U.S. retailers to buy from foreign factories.
-- While researchers find that Walmart still imports disproportionately more goods than other apparel retailers, its innovations accelerated the use of offshore suppliers by its competitors, speeding the loss of American manufacturing jobs.
4. Forcing layoffs among its U.S. suppliers.
-- Even when Walmart products are made in the United States, manufacturing jobs still get eliminated as suppliers cut costs to meet Walmart’s demands for low prices.
5. Promoting domestic sweatshops.
-- Even as manufacturing costs increase, Walmart demands that suppliers’ prices go even lower, a dynamic that helped push Kraft Foods to plan the closure of 39 factories and lay off 13,500 workers.
6. Squeezing U.S. manufacturers out of business.
-- Walmart provided 30 percent of Vlasic Pickles’ overall business and insisted that if the company did not allow Walmart to sell a gallon jar of pickles for the ruinously low price of $2.97, they would stop buying Vlasic’s other products.
7. Discouraging American innovation.
-- By squeezing its suppliers, Walmart leaves companies without the resources to make new investments in research and development.
8. Driving competitors to squeeze manufacturing.
-- If discount retailers like Target and Kmart want to remain competitive with Walmart, they must demand similarly low prices from suppliers. As a result, the pressures pushing down costs and propelling the elimination of American manufacturing jobs are magnified.
9. Lobbying for policies that make it easier to move U.S. jobs overseas.
-- According to the non-profit Center for Responsive Politics, Walmart spent $7.8 million on lobbying in 2011 alone. In fact, Walmart has lobbied to make it easier to push American jobs out of the country for years, playing a key role in in lobbying for NAFTA in the early 1990s.
10. Making growing inequality the accepted norm.
-- Today the six members of the Walton family who inherited the Walmart fortune enjoy wealth equal to that of the least-wealthy 30 percent of Americans combined.
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Check out the full article here :
*(Reference list includes - CNN, Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Walmart Corporation itself)
**The Skook General Store, LLC makes no claim to the truth of any statements contained within this blog post. All information has been taken from the article linked within this blog post.
**The Skook General Store, LLC makes no claim to the truth of any statements contained within this blog post. All information has been taken from the article linked within this blog post.
