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What did I miss with the Wal-Mart thing?
Walmart is the largest employer in the US and gives its low prices due to Chinese labor and other south east Asia labor. Then opens up causing small family owned business all around to close. After that Walmart pays minimum wage and refuses full time so to not pay any benefits. So employees have to use food stamps and Medicaid. Yes we made our own bed and yes we are laying in it. Walmart makes 400+ billion in profit (2011) and every one else looses and complains about China. What did I miss?
2 Answers
- WW - BHNLv 79 years agoFavorite Answer
Walmart loves food stamps.
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However, with obesity rates rising among the poor -- and obesity a huge factor in rising health-care costs -- Nestle and other health experts wonder whether there should be restrictions on what kind of foods can be purchased with Food Stamps.
Currently, there are few restrictions on what can be purchased with Food Stamps, other than alcohol and prepared foods
"Here's where the profits come in," Nestle says. "A vast percentage of Food Stamps' money goes into the pockets of soda companies and snack food companies...and also the stores that sell these foods."
Wal-Mart "gets a large fraction of Food Stamp dollars," which contributes 25% to 40% of revenue at select stores, according to Nestle. "These companies, therefore, have a vested interest in making sure Food Stamps are allowed for any purchase at all."
Funding for Food Stamps comes from the Farm Bill, which is currently being debated in Congress. "You can bet the food companies like it just the way it is and they are lobbying" to prevent restrictions on how Food Stamp dollars are spent, Nestle says.
Citing a recent report by public health lawyer Michele Simon at EatDrinkPolitics.com, Nestle recently made the following observations on her blog about "some of the politics behind efforts to maintain the status quo":
•Food industry groups such as the American Beverage Association and the Snack Food Association teamed up with anti-hunger groups to oppose health-oriented improvements to SNAP.
•Companies such as Cargill, PepsiCo, and Kroger lobbied Congress on SNAP, while also donating money to America's top anti-hunger organizations (who fear any changes to the Food Stamps program will result in benefit cuts).
•At least 9 states have proposed bills to make health-oriented improvements to SNAP, but none have passed, in part due to opposition from the food industry.
•Coca-Cola, the Corn Refiners of America, and Kraft Foods all lobbied against a Florida bill that aimed to disallow SNAP purchases for soda and junk food.
•Banks and other private contractors are reaping significant windfalls from the economic downturn and increasing SNAP participation.
"The point here is that banks that administer SNAP have a vested interest in keeping SNAP enrollments high and makers of junk foods have a vested interest in making sure that there are no restrictions on use of benefits," she writes.
- Jay-Z's LipsLv 69 years ago
Don't blame Walmart. Blame the consumer for supporting such a company( Myself included).