This week’s edition of the series The Secret Life of a Food Stamp, a project of Slate magazine and Marketplace, takes on a familiar villain: Wal-mart.
While you watch this video, realize that it is a completely one-sided presentation of all the factors that go into making up the quality of life for workers in market economy.
The reason that Wal-mart workers tend to make $8.81 and are eligible for food stamps is not because of the price of Mac & Cheese at Wal-mart – 68 cents a box. Doesn’t it ever occur to the folks who make these videos that cheap food makes those food stamp dollars stretch further?
So how is it Wal-mart’s fault that there’s been a doubling of gas prices , soaring electricity rates , a housing market crash, and general increase in the cost of living in the United States on Obama’s watch? Ever hear of inflation – you know, the thing that would result from paying people wages they don’t command in a competitive labor market?
But the bottom line is this: At $8.81 an hour, that is roughly 13 boxes of Mac & Cheese. So, the question is: Is it really an unfair shake that Walmart pays a wage to its employees that allows them to feed their family for one hour’s work as a cashier or stocker?
Someone had to make that Mac & Cheese, ship it to the store, and sell it – and cheaply, at that. But the left boils everything down to one thing – wages – and ignores the value that companies add to the economy.
This isn’t to say that life isn’t hard when you’re working at Wal-mart, it’s a tough job. But the economy runs on a lot of things, and it’s not just wages. How much things cost makes a big difference, and at that game, Wal-mart has its competitors beat.http://www.ijreview.com/2014/04/128500-real-cost-living-wage/
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