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unplug
unplug magazine asks you to unplug from your current modes of thought and look at life in a new way, whether this means unplugging from our toxic consumer culture, mainstream society, the tv, or a limiting mindset. author megan prusynski explores life's alternatives and discusses activism, progressive thinking, and moving towards a "green" & sustainable life.
Monday, June 05, 2006
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price
I watched a very enlightening (and unsettling) documentary last night, WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price. In the movie, many Wal-Mart employees, customers, factory workers, and ex-executives were interviewed. The effects of the big box store moving in on small town America are disasterous: the closing of small family-owned businesses, urban sprawl, inhumane sweatshops, and workers on welfare who can't afford health insurance... Wal-Mart plays a large role in the wreaking of communities, pollution, and proliferation of poverty that seem to run rampant in corporate America today. I highly recommend renting this video, it's a great inside look at what one company can do to communities all over the world.
There were some interesting facts in this film as well:
- In 2004, a study released the UC Berkeley Labor Center found that "reliance by Wal-Mart workers on public assistance programs in California comes at a cost to taxpayers of an estimated $86 million annually; this is comprised of $32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance."
- Wal-Mart Costs Taxpayers $1,557,000,000,00 to Support its Employees
- Wal-Mart considers full-time 34 hours a week. The 34-hour per week full-time definition still is not the 40-hour definition employed by most businesses in America. Also, at Wal-Mart's stated average hourly wage of $9.68 per hour (source: WalmartFacts.com), a 34-hour week results in an annual wage of only $17,114—STILL below the poverty line for a family of four.
- Wal-Mart currently faces lawsuits in thirty-one different States for wage and hour abuses potentially involving hundreds of thousand workers.
- Federal Poverty Level Family of Four - $17,650
Average Wal-Mart Hourly Sales Employee Wages - $13,861 - Wal-Mart gets huge subsidies to open doors from local governments: WAL-MART SUBSIDY NATIONWIDE: $1.008 BILLION
...Yeah, depressing, huh. Good thing I don't support those pricks. In a small town it's hard to avoid the Wal-Mart, but I've managed to steer clear of them for quite some time. This movie really hit home for me because Moscow recently stopped a Super Wal-Mart from being built on the East edge of town. Granted, we already have a regular Wal-Mart on the West end of town (in a tiny college town of just over 20,000!), and one was approved to be built 8 miles away in neighboring Pullman, Washington. But it's a small victory in a long and hard-fought battle against the evil giant. Now, if we could only get them to close up shop permanently...
Join me in Boycotting Wal-Mart, and for more information, check out Wal-Mart Watch or the movie's site, The High Cost of Low Price.
Labels: art/culture, corpo-consumerism
