Archive for November 22nd, 2008
The High Cost of Low Prices
My radio program has been referred to by many on the right and the left as a propaganda campaign against free trade and capitalism. I would prefer to call it a truth crusade, but I presume any good propagandist would say as much.
Admitting as much places my endorsement of the documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices” in the realm of predictability somewhere between the death and taxes. It is for this reason that I will restrict this post to a number of statistics and facts that I thought to be of special significance.
- Wal-Mart drives down retail wages by $3 billion per annum.
- Healthcare for Wal-Mart associates costs taxpayers $1,577,000,000 per annum.
- Average Wal-Mart associate makes $13,861 per annum. CEO Lee Scott makes over $28 million.
- Wal-Mart imports almost $20 billion from communist China per annum.
- The 200,000+ Indian women from Bangladesh working for Wal-Mart make $0.13-$0.17 hourly.
- 2004: Walton family received a federal tax cut equivalent to $91,5000 per hour.
Cutting to the chase: The film is most certainly worth your time. In fact, it should be mandatory for any and all local governments debating whether or not to bring Wal-Mart into their neck of the woods.
