WALMART IS A POVERTY MAKING MACHINE Published on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 by Common Dreams Walmart Admits: Our Profits Depend on Their Poverty Critics cite irony of annual report filing: This is a company that everywhere it goes it creates poverty - Lauren McCauley, staff writer A Penn State study found that in counties where Wal-Mart opens a store, poverty rates are negatively impacted. (Photo: Ian Turton/ Creative Commons/ Flickr) Although a notorious recipient of corporate welfare, Walmart has now admitted that their massive profits also depend on the funding of food stamps and other public assistance programs. In their annual report, filed with the Security and Exchange Commission last week, the retail giant lists factors that could potentially harm future profitability. Listed among items such as economic conditions and consumer confidence, the company writes that changes in taxpayer-funded public assistance programs are also a major threat to their bottom line. The company writes: Our business operations are subject to numerous risks, factors and uncertainties, domestically and internationally, which are outside our control ... These factors include ... changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement[al] Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans ... Walmart, the nations largest private employer, is notorious for paying poverty wages and coaching employees to take advantage of social programs. In many states, Walmart employees are the largest group of Medicaid recipients. However, this report is the first public acknowledgement of the chains reliance on the funding of these programs to sustain a profit. According to Stacy Mitchell, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the irony of their admission is that Walmart is the company that has done, perhaps, more than any other corporation to push people into poverty. Citing a Penn State study, Mitchell told Common Dreams that research has proven that when Walmart opens a store, poverty rates are negatively impacted and that the more stores that have opened in a particular county, the worse it is. This is a company that everywhere it goes it creates poverty.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 12:38:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015