New Study Shows Wal-Mart Doesn’t Pay Its Fair Share

Attention Alex Goldschmidt!

There’s no comment box on the Listen to your customers thread.

Lets make sure we all get this straight-public tax money is provided to give corporate tax benefits to Walmart -public tax money ,whether you shop Walmart or not .Federal,state,and local corporate tax welfare are “given"to Walmart,so by the time its said and done,very little outlay has been invested by Walmart except the purchase price of the land, in many cases, which is leased,not purchased AND THATS NOT ENOUGH??????? They will nail communities to the Wal to save a measly $3,000,000 annually when they make a billion a day??Save more.Live Better...than whom?

Another scheme to cheat states out of their rightful share of states’ taxes,Walmart pays rent to itself,billions of dollars of rent to itself-and then deducts that amount from state taxes.This is called REIT-Real Estate Investment Trust,and WAlmart gets to deduct the rent as a business expense,even though the money stays within the company. A single Wal Mart real estate official represented the company as both tenant and landlord in a lease with itself.And, for eight years,from 1996 to 2004,Lee Scott, now CEO, served as the REIT’S “managing trustee”.In 2005,a court ordered WalMart to pay back $33 million for back taxes and interest resulting from this sophisticated tax shelter,which was originally intended for small usiness owners.The Wall Street Journal,February 1,2007 did an article “WalMart cut Taxes by paying Rent to Itself,"by Jessie Drucker.(You can download it at Wakeup Walmart,as WSJ may require pay to play.)

ddrb,

“They will nail communities to the Wal to save a measly $3,000,000 annually when they make a billion a day??”

Aren’t you comparing apples and oranges here?  First, you compare 1 stores savings (from taxes benefits), to the daily sales of the whole company!!  Then you use sales for your example, instead of profits, sales is money before expenses, taxes are paid out of profits!!  So, with a profit of $11 million a year, $3 million isn’t so measly, it’s 37%!!

“whether you shop Walmart or not”

That is YOUR choice, it’s there should you choose to use it!!  There are many things that I pay taxes for, that I don’t use, welfare for one!!  Under your theory, I should be whining daily about how those welfare people are ripping me off?  Wal-Mart is one way some people can keep off welfare, so you decide, do you benefit people with a job, or give them welfare, you pay either way, but, you can save money at Wal-Mart, you save nothing supporting welfare people!!

RDS:Where do think a lot of those “welfare” people shop???And by the way ,i assume you arent referring to corporate welfare ,are you? I rarely hear you talk about that.I’m tired of corporate welfare “KingKong” ripping all of us off, time and time again. The"Walton Welfare “program ,so Alice can buy old masters art to be viewed from her crystal bridges.Do you think that it allows her to view more clearly the backs of the impoverished workers making her lucre possible?(Lead crystal,made in China.)

P.S.If $3,000,000 is just one stores savings,RDS, multiply that by number of the Walmarts and Sam’s stores that are benefitting from these schemes…

RDS

You have been posting long enough do know that Wal-Mart does not keep people off welfare they pay them a low salary so most of them still qualify for some Welfare Aid

Wallstreet:I was wondering what happened to you.Speaking of poverty and welfare brought to mind a study on county poverty rates and the presence of WalMart.The research document was conducted by two professors at Pennsylvanis State University ,Steven Goetz,and HemaSwaminathan,dated 2004. This is indeed a scholarly,economic report-complete with statical analyses and logarithms;(Cazar would probably understand much of the economic jargon).However,it is non biased,NON_UNION, and intriguing in its research data.The central finding in examining the effect of WalMart on county poverty rates reveal that counties without Walmarts had lower poverty rates,but poverty rates could rise because the chain pays its workers relatively low wages.When residents go on taxpayer funded welfare,in effect, public taxes are funding Walmart’s bottom line,offsetting any savings that consumers may realize on buying these cheaper goods.For the entire report,entitled” Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty”,go to sgoetz@psu.edu.(I read this some years ago and thought it might interest others here.

I love Walmart.  Walmart has done more good for our economy than bad.  Walmart has been responsible for keeping inflation in check by providing products and services at very low cost.  While everything else seems to be going up, i.e. the price of fuel, my state and federal taxes, my heating costs, the prices at Walmart have been going down.  How can this be a bad thing?  I think all of you people who are opposed to Walmart are idiots who have nothing better to do than to bitch and complain about a well run, well organized, professional company like Walmart.  Stop wasting your time with this nonsense.  Looser.

wallstreet,

“You have been posting long enough do know that Wal-Mart does not keep people off welfare they pay them a low salary so most of them still qualify for some Welfare Aid”

Assuming that you are a taxpayer, which would you prefer, paying 100% aid to welfare recipients or 25% and Wal-Mart picking up the other 75%?

ddrb,

“And by the way ,i assume you arent referring to corporate welfare ,are you? I rarely hear you talk about that.”

I don’t like ‘corporate welfare’ either, but most communities feel it necessary to attract businesses to their area!!  If you check it out, most of the existing programs, that are referred to as ‘corporate welfare’ on the Federal side, were put into place during the 40 years, the Democrats controled Congress and only started to ‘complain’ about it after the Republicans took control!!  Now, they are back in control, what have they done to eliminate it?

RDS:I suggest you go back and read my post re:county poverty rates and its correlation to WalMart.Much corporate tax breaks were originally intended for small business owners,forty years ago,BEFORE Walmart became the Bully it is today. The REIT tax shelters,Geoffrey Loopholes,Go Zones, dead janitor policies ,are all fairly recent tax shelters and benefits,to the best of my knowledge.Walmart benefits from poverty ,and I suppose you can say it creates poverty, and impoverishes its own consumers to a certain degree,according to the Penn State study.

RDS:"Most communities feel it is necessary.."WHOA!!! Since when does"FEELING" have anything to do with giving the candy store away to a corporate glutton like WalMart.Why give infrastructure, paid with public tax ,to build and maintain roads ingressing and egressing WalMarts and Sam’s-Hey,let them pay for all this -WalMart can afford it ,and they could write it off over time.Thank God,more communities are using “logic” instead of emotion these days when dancing withe this devil.AREN’T YOU ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT THE SUPERIORITY OF LOGIC OVER EMOTION?

ddrb,

I didn’t say that FEELING had anything to do with it, but most communities try to intice businesses to locate in their town over another, for the benefit of their citizens, they usually they do it with tax incentives and infrastructure ‘subsidies’, I never said it was RIGHT, I just said it was done that way!!

The problem is with singling out Wal-Mart, if the city was bidding with GM about putting a plant in your town over another, would you say, “Don’t give them anything, if they want to locate here, let them pay for it, let the other town have it”?

RDS: General Motors manufactures goods(Automobiles),and pays better(living )wages than Walmart.Depending upon the site selected and infrastructure required,surely this would benefit any community.Did you mention if they were union jobs? Seems like the recent auto workers strikes didnt last very long,yet both labor and management seem pleased with the results of the negotiations!I bet the workers are!

ddrb,

So, you are saying it is alright for the city council to use taxpayers money to subsidize a business, as long as it’s a business YOU approve of, right?

As for the two union contracts between the UAW and GM and Chrysler, do you know the results?  I’ll bet the people being bought off, might not like it, nor will the people let go in the future or any ‘new hires’, who will start at a ‘lower’ starting rate!!  And, we still have Ford, to look forward to!!  We also have to see how this new UAW ‘Healthcare Fund’ works out, hope it’s better than the Teamsters ‘Pension Fund’, I didn’t get mine, it disappeared with Jimmy Hoffa!!

thats why you hate unions? i didn’t get MINE WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT WHEN WALMART GETS A UNION IT IS GOING TO BE BAD. HOW MUCH MORE WOULD THE ASSOCIATES MAKE 200 300 400 a month, whats the dif if they pay dues $40 a month when makeing more. you say it goes to fat cats . Well now, not being paid more, the money goes to the outrageous pay and bonus to managers on up . the people at the bottom just keep getting screwed.
GO UNION GO UNION GO UNION GO UNION.

Joe in: I’ve considered making the following point many times,and have hesitated out of respect for their memories,and to avoid exploitation,which has unfortunately been done many times,and continues today.....BUT,may I point out that all the firefighters who perished in 911 were union members?

joe,

“thats why you hate unions?”

I don’t hate unions, i just don’t like unions that hang their members out to dry!!

“HOW MUCH MORE WOULD THE ASSOCIATES MAKE 200 300 400 a month, whats the dif if they pay dues $40 a month when makeing more.”

Keep on dreaming, if Wal-Mart paid all their upper management $0, they would not be able to afford to give their employees a $10.00 an hour raise, without raising their prices so much, it would destroy their competitive edge!!  It’s a nice dream, but the reality is, that if Wal-mart got a union, the employees would probably get a 25 cent an hour raise now (or $10.00 more a week pre-tax at 40 hours)and more raises later and maybe after about 10 years, they might get up to $15.00 an hour average or $200.00 more for a 40 hour week pre-tax!! A union can’t promise you anything, just ask the grocery workers in California, all they can do is tell you what they HOPE to get, it has to be nogotiated!!

so you agree that when they get their union they can afford the dues. THANK YOU FOR AGREEING . GO UNION GO UNION GO UNION

joe,

“so you agree that when they get their union they can afford the dues.”

Yep, but, they will probably get that without a union and dues, anyway!!  So, paying dues for something you will already get, is kind of stupid!!  Most workers there already get 25 cent an hour raises and will be making $15.00 an hour after 10 years, if they work at it!!

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty
By Tony Pugh McClatchy Newspapers
Excerpted-

Posted on Thu, February 22, 2007

WASHINGTON -

WASHINGTON-The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation’s “haves” and “have-nots” continues to widen.

The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26 percent from 2000 to 2005. That’s 56 percent faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period. McClatchy’s review also found statistically significant increases in the percentage of the population in severe poverty in 65 of 215 large U.S. counties, and similar increases in 28 states. The review also suggested that the rise in severely poor residents isn’t confined to large urban counties but extends to suburban and rural areas.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation’s 37 million poor people into deep poverty-the highest rate since at least 1975.

The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades. But since 2000, the number of severely poor has grown “more than any other segment of the population,” according to a recent study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began,” said Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, who co-authored the study. “We’re not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we’re seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty.”

The growth, which leveled off in 2005, in part reflects how hard it is for low-skilled workers to earn their way out of poverty in an unstable job market that favors skilled and educated workers. It also suggests that social programs aren’t as effective as they once were at catching those who fall into economic despair.

(c) 2007, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

“I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We’re going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.”
Sam Walton-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart#_note-
iswalmartgood “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” PBS. November 16, 2004. Retrieved on February 24, 2007.

“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.”
Abraham Lincoln

2007-06-07
Washington, D.C. Wal-Mart’s Corporate Welfare, Part II
Excerpts include-

Here is the press release sent to Sprawl-Busters this week by Good Jobs First: “Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is often accused of growing at the expense of smaller retailers, continues to benefit enormously from state and local government economic development subsidies, including 39 deals worth more than $200 million in just the past three years. This according to Good Jobs First, a non-profit research group which today issued an update of its landmark 2004 report Shopping for Subsidies, which found more than $1 billion in subsidies for Wal-Mart facilities. “What we said in 2004 still holds true today: Wal-Mart presents itself as an entrepreneurial success story, yet it routinely gets big tax breaks, free land, cash grants and other forms of taxpayer assistance,” said Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First. “That a company with a predatory business model and a poverty-wage labor policy can even qualify for job subsidies suggests many public officials still don’t get it,” said Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First.

http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=2745

WalMart/Edelman- Remember “Bill”, RDS, Mary and you other WalMart internet frauds and shills. When we say “Jump”, you sing “How High?”

SDV,

And yet, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people in poverty has been falling!!  How much impact did ‘illegal aliens’ have on this study by the ‘The McClatchy analysis’?  Problem is, your definition of poverty, to many, being ‘poor’, is NOT having everything ‘middle class’ people have!!

And, when you depend on ‘Spraw Busters’ and ‘Good Jobs First’ for your information, how reliable is it REALLY?  Aren’t those groups kind of BIAS?

“WalMart/Edelman- Remember “Bill”, RDS, Mary and you other WalMart internet frauds and shills. When we say “Jump”, you sing “How High?””

When will you get it through your thick head, I don’t have anything to do with Wal-Mart or Edelman, so they don’t tell me anything!!  Just another example of your twisting things and lying to pomote your agenda!!

SDX:Speaking of Sprawl-Busters,you’ve got to check out a story re:Sherwood,Arkansas-its a recent story,Walmart reps are telling this neighborhod that they havent heard of crime in Walmart parking lots for twenty years now!!!This story is so incredible ,it should insult anyone,with any bit of intelligence!

Sorry,That should have said SDV.

“It is also truly remarkable that Wal-Mart’s representative would tell residents with a straight face that he had never heard, “in his 20 years at Wal-Mart where someone opened fire in a Wal-Mart parking lot.” Aside from current war zones, Wal-Mart parking lots have one of the worst crime records in America.”

http://www.sprawl-busters.com/search.php?readstory=2861

This tends to illustrate WalMart’s effectiveness at brainwashing their own ‘associate’ representatives with the WalMart cult type propaganda to the extent that Bentonville cannot even recognize the embarrassment of their own such distortions. With the WalMart crime magnet/parking lot vomit gardens making the news so egregiously and Bentonville’s accompanying lies/denials to their desperate over building store expansion and other store abandonment efforts, this thought came to mind…

“Let’s pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.”
C. S. Lewis

WalMart- We could do the right thing for people and communities but we would make less money.

SDV:I was particularly intrigued with the fact of the 24% depreciation of homes abutting the WalMart....yet W/M says it apprecites,not depreciates the property values! Gee,wouldnt that make a good argument for Lee Scott ,the Walton family,politicians to WANT to live next door to the Go-LIE-eths????If the supercenters enhance property values,that is ?

WalMart- We will consider a 12’ high wall around our store because we really know about the crime magnet and poverty message that our stores bring. But paying for a wall to conceal and contain our blight in your community is your problem. How about we settle on another taxpayer suckers subsidy for the expense in question?

A man is trying a very unusual way to propose to his girlfriend. He wants people to forward an email to as many people as possible and he hopes that it will eventually get to his girlfriend. Details here: http://www.proposal-to-mary.com

Here is what he wants people to send by email:

You could help me a lot to spread my proposal to Mary – it is important that it is distributed as widely as possible so that it eventually reaches Mary. If you would like to support my proposal to Mary, please send the following text by email to a lot of people :-)

------------- SNIP (email text end) ---------------

WHEN YOU RECEIVE THIS, PLEASE HELP TO DISTRIBUTE IT TO OTHER PEOPLE!

For a long time I have tried to find a special way to propose marriage to my girlfriend Mary, whom I know for five years now. I wanted it very special, romantic and memorable, something our grandchildren would still remember.

And here is my idea: I will send out the proposal to Mary to 50 complete strangers, people I don’t know - hoping, that they will forward my proposal to as many people as possible, which in turn forward it etc. And some day, I hope, it will reach Mary, after it has travelled a very long way. I know, it will take a long time and I am quite nervous…

From the poem MY Mary will know immediately that the proposal is for her.

I have created a homepage ( http://www.proposal-to-mary.com ) where you can find the current status of my quest. You can use the homepage to check if the proposal has already reached Mary (in that case it is not necessary anymore to forward the mail).

Once the proposal has reached Mary, I will put a note on these pages. Also I will publish there how many people have read the proposal so that everybody can see how far it has spread and that it is getting closer to Mary.

And of course you will find there what I am waiting for most: Mary’s answer! I can’t tell you, how nervous I am… Will she accept my proposal? Will she like the unusual way how she got it, through the hands of thousands of messengers all over the world?

Please cross your fingers for me! And please - help me by sending the mail to as many people as possible, to help it spread, so that it eventually reaches Mary.

And here is my proposal:

Mary, please forgive me, as you know English is not my native language. And I am not a poet. But I mean it from my heart.

My angel,

Five years ago, I will always remember the day When fate made us meet, blissful Alaskan moments in May Earth spun around us and a journey began Love, warmth, happiness, enough the years to span.

The longer it lasts the more grows our bond And with 80 still - of you I will be fond Whatever happens, I will stay at your side Through good and bad, together let us stride

No second with you was ever wasted
You are the sweetest I have ever tasted
We have spent so many years - why not a life?
Mary, will you marry me - and become my wife?

Mary, if you have received that and have recognized me, then give me a sign so that I can continue with the romantic part of my proposal…

------------- SNIP (email text end) ---------------