Well…was doing a little reading this morning and came on an interesting article in the WAPO that really opened my eyes to how much of Walmart’s profits are due to them offloading employee costs to you and me in the form of government subsidies to their workers. In the last year alone, driven by the low pay and benefits that Walmart workers get, you and I gave the company almost 2.6 billion dollars of our tax money since many of their workers make so little that they qualify for food stamps, medicaid, and other subsidies for the working poor…and this money that they don’t pay goes straight into the pockets of the owners, making Walmart one of the biggest corporate welfare queens in the US…no wonder they can out compete others in retail. When you break this subsidy down, Walmart gets almost 460,000 dollars in subsides per store, an amount that I’ll bet others will now start to look at and take out of their workers as well and will continue the downward spiral in wages that Walmart started. The big problem here is that not one of the people running companies like Walmart, Papa John’s, and others think there is anything wrong with offloading costs to the general public while railing against the “welfare state” and the dependency that they perceive people have…the only reason that these folks have their companies and their riches is the same workers that they seem to hate so much…and the only reason they have to take advantage of government subsidies is the slave wages that these companies pay…so, I salute the protesters at Walmarts across the country…keep up the good work!
All posts by James DeVol
November 24th
Well…it was just another day yesterday and I still feel like crap…don’t know what is going on but I do know I’m getting really tired of it…the rest of the day was okay with getting some work done and then some rest…and there are a few movie channels that are on for free for some reason and I got to watch “Moneyball” yesterday aft and that was a pleasant surprise. Slept okay, I think, but I didn’t get to bed until 1 and then back up at 6 so maybe I’m wrong about that…I do feel tired today but that may be the cocktails talking and not the bug…I prefer to blame it on the bug….not much to do today…Man U plays at 10 and then Michigan at noon so at least a few hours are taken…and I do have one that I am going to do right after this one on Walmart…you’ll like this one…
A good sign…
Well…I have been heartened with the small labor uprising that has been focused on the labor abuser Walmart…and the press is starting to take the whole meme of the abuse of workers that makes the owning class filthy rich seriously…I mean, how can Walmart justify constantly squeezing it’s workers when they made 9 billion dollars in profit last year? Even if they gave every one of their workers good health insurance, it would only cost them about a half a billion dollars of that profit….or maybe they could pay a living wage? I think the Occupy movement has done this country a favor by highlighting the income inequality that is getting worse…and, any time you can piss off the ole Rushbag…he went off on his show today that all those of us on the left do is take, take, take…basically saying that it just tough crap that his class has control of everything and winning the election should be enough for us and to quit complaining…I am still laughing at that one….so, keep it up protesters…maybe this time we can start to change the attitudes of Americans and make them understand that rebuilding the middle class will help everyone…even the rich, since if there is more money to spend in the middle class, the owner class will make more money…really easy to understand…
November 23rd
Well…not as late as normal today and I think it may be from boredom…it was an okay day yesterday…I think I overcooked the turkey since it was a little dry but it was still good…no one showed up for the meal but that was okay, too…I did get this place cleaned up and it looks pretty good so that was a plus…I think today is going to be a total veg day since it is so cold and I really don’t want to go full thermasuit on the bike today….and with the wind blowing about 30 just make it way too brutal….I do need to go over to Meijers so I should get going…more later…
It’s crap…
Well..the refs just took the game away from the Lions and I am so tired of this nonsense that I am going to stop watching the game…some frickin technicality and the other team gets a free touchdown? Oh, well…the turkey is cooking and it smells good in here so I guess I’ll find something else to watch…be back later for more..
November 22nd
Well…it was a day yesterday and I lost at pool but that really doesn’t bother me…didn’t do much else…should have cleaned but didn’t so I have to do that today but I am going to limit it somewhat…I do have the pumpkin pie in the oven and it smells good in here…it’s going to be a day of cooking in stages and that makes the meal much easier but I think I have a grand total of 10 minutes of actual labor into it with the gravy taking the most time…oh, need to take the butter out to soften…okay, I’m back…have to have softened butter to mix with rosemary to put under the breast skin and I am adding apple smoked bacon to the mix this year….it’s already 46 degrees out so I need to work out and get on the bike before I get to the rest of the cleaning and cooking…more later…maybe…
It’s been a day…
Well…it’s been a day and I am a little disappointed that the car is still losing coolant but that is a story for tomorrow morning…I did want to talk a little about the repubs who did not learn a thing from the election…when the American people spoke and told everyone in Washington (that is the repubs) to get with the program and stop the obstruction….and now we have Boehner coming out today saying he wants the ACA gutted since he still believes the repub talking points that Obamacare increases costs….and the operative word here is “believes”, not that he has any numbers backing him up. In fact, the CBO scored the ACA and found it will SAVE over 80 billion dollars a year…so the idiot Boehner is still pushing the right wing agenda even when it is not true…but that is the pattern we’ve seen from these idiots over the past two years…ideology always trumps math to them…and they are always wrong…why is anyone still listening to them? geez…
November 21st
Well…I am not sure why I’m always running late…but, if I don’t really have anything to do, am I late? I did have a nice day yesterday but did not accomplish anything that I wanted to so today will be all work and no play…slept okay but the damn bug is back and I don’t have a clue what is going on…I did get a chance to go out and have a couple with K last night and it was good to see her and hang out…might even go out for a couple this aft just to have something to do…I do have to get the turkey in the brine in a couple of minutes so I should get going…I will be back later for more if I get the kitchen cleaned…
Gonna repeat this one…
Well…I not sure why the repubs are being allowed to get away with the delusion that it was just a bad candidate, not bad ideas that lost them the election…so, I’m going to repeat this one at least once a month to remind people just how batshit crazy these folks are…just remember rape, rape, rape…and the fact that these idiots think that a woman’s rights end when she gets pregnant…that that little lump of cells growing in her, and that could possibly kill here has more rights than the woman and she can be held hostage to a fetus…then, we have the idea from the right that math is subjective and can mean different things to different people…no, folks, math is math and when the math says that tax cuts for the rich do nothing but make rich people richer it’s not a liberal conclusion….it is THE conclusion and you need to accept it…then, we have the clamor from the right that we must cut “entitlements” like social security to cut the deficit…geez…how can these folks be so stupid? SS is funded on it’s own and has absolutely no effect on the deficit…and the same goes for medicare…so, let’s stop letting the repubs bring these into the argument…and, let’s talk about the deficit…doesn’t mean a damn thing when there is slack in the economy and the entire world is willing to lend us money at NEGATIVE interest rates…they are paying us to take the money so we should! The idiot repubs ideas have been proven to be wrong…let’s stop taking them seriously….geez…
November 20th
Well…yeah,, I know, I didn’t come back for another one yesterday but I did have an excuse…when I got back here I had to search for a replacement plug for my radar detector…found one and soldered it on to the cord so the detector works again…saved me 39 bucks and it feels right again to drive the car…I did get out of here for a while yesterday and won at pool…and I really do think I’m almost over the bug finally since I had a couple of cocktails last night and I feel okay…my tooth has even stopped hurting…there are just bonuses all around today…not much to do today…got the final grocery trip in so I’m good to go for Thurs and I won’t have to brave the stores tomorrow…I am meeting up with K for drinks tonight for the first time since she got pregnant so that should be fun…more later…
Oh, one last thing for this one…just wanted to wish Joe Walsh happy birthday today…65 frickin years old…at least someone is older than I am…