...but I hardly think trying to compete with $1 a day Chinese wage earners is a fair competition....
I hear what you're saying Doe but lets be fair. Wal-Mart is far from the only store that stocks it's shelves with products made by cheap foreign labor. In fact you would be hard pressed to find one that doesn't, Even the mom and pop stores. I wish all of them would buy American but its hardly fair to single out one chain store for not stocking 100 percent American goods. Flip and read the label on a good cross sample of products from the small stores in your home town and I think you will see what I mean. They all do it!
Also...the average wage at Wal Mart is $8.23.
Yeah but at small stores that employ less than 13 people federal minimum wage laws don't even apply. Meaning they can pay less than minimum wage. Don't scoff, I've seen them do it. One poor old black man that worked at a local grocery store when I was a kid had to walk to work everyday because they didn't even pay him enough to buy a car. And he had worked there 15 years.
Only 38% of Wal Marts employees have health insurance. They must pay for it themselves.
Well most large companies give you the option to either purchase insurance or not. But I do know this, ALL Wal-Mart personnel are given the option to buy into the plan, from the people who sweep the floors up to the managers and supervisors. If only 38% choose to do so then thats their choice. The fact that they have to purchase it is pretty standard practice at all places as well. I'm a college graduate. I work as a charge nurse over a medical surgical unit at a hospital and I have to buy my own insurance through the company. BUT, being able to buy it through a group plan at work is a helluva lot cheaper than if I had to buy it on my own. Same goes for the Wal-Mart workers. I can't dispute your other facts about Wal-Mart insurance. I have no affiliation with the store and therefore I am not privy to such info. I do know people who work there however and I have never heard them complain about the insurance plan. On a side note however I will say that MOST company insurance plans suck so again we are back to that unfair to single out Wal-Mart deal. However ANY health insurance is better than none at all which is what the vast majority of mom and pop employees have.