Comments on: Building strong communities could be a team sport

By: Ben Leet

Ben Leet — Tue, 20 Sep 2022 21:55:49 +0000

I found this article at the weekly newsletter of Inequality.org, Sept. 12, 2022. Unfortunately workers and the general public can do little, except vote wisely and become aware, also organize into labor unions. In California the legislature recently passed a minimum wage for fast food employees, $22/hour. But there will be a ballot approval process before it can become law, and it may lose as did the ballot approval for Uber drivers lost. We need a national $22/hour minimum for all companies employing more than 500 workers, and that would cover half of working America. Becoming very aware of this social injustice of low wages is important. Billionaires should not exist, they should be taxed out of existence. Look at “RealTime Inequality” a production of University of California economists. The average income for all adults in the U.S. (even those not working) is just under $89,000. Dividing the national income by all workers is $118,000. Yet half earn less than $34,612, and 33% earn less than $20,000 (see the Social Security Administration report on wages — https://www.ssa.gov/cgi-bin/netcomp.cgi?year=2020). The average household income is $144,000, yet half have income below $69,000. I write a blog, Economics Without Greed, Part Two. Long and at times complicated essays about inequality. Some of the children I taught in Oakland elementary schools were dropped off at the day-care house at 6:30 in the morning and picked up later at 5 p.m. by their parents. What a world.

By: Andrew Seles

Andrew Seles — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 19:15:18 +0000

About 20 years ago, while visiting my sister in Northern California, my wife and I walked into a Walmart for the first time in our lives (it was basically the only store in that remote locale). A suburban New Yorker, my wife was shocked by the low price of a dress she found. “I can’t believe this dress is only ten dollars! she exclaimed. My response: “You have no idea how much that dress is costing us.” Keep up the good work, Matt!

By: Diana Roome

Diana Roome — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 15:49:15 +0000

Thanks to Matt Witt for drawing attention once again to the urgent matter of corporate greed and grossly unfair tax codes. The issue really hits home in the stark contrast between the boy whose only family companion (a grandfather too) works all hours and the Walton family, dripping in their money. I live in Talent and am sad that there are families in our community who are robbed of basic rights, like companionship and sleep, by a culture that allows relentless avarice to win out time after time.

By: Bonnie Ballantyne

Bonnie Ballantyne — Sun, 18 Sep 2022 03:37:44 +0000

I have never been a Walmart shopper but I have clearly seen the affects on local communities that you describe. I have also seen a very different situation occur in Playa del Carmen, MX. In 2006, my husband and I were in the process of furnishing a condo. We went to every place that had furniture for sale but there was no one selling the kind of furniture we were used to buying in the US. We ended up designing what we wanted and having it made in Cancun. A couple of years later Walmart opened in Playa and suddenly the city was the place for both Mexican and international companies to build a retail store, open a Bank, a restaurant, a hotel… Playa was touted as the fastest growing city in the Americas. It happened very rapidly. Where markets are extremely underserved, Walmart’s entry can trigger a cascading torrent of business creation and corporate expansion. But once, again Walmart profits at the expense of Walmart workers and overwhelmed small business owners.
Having Walton Family money associated with the Denver Broncos is not congruent with Colorado values.
I don’t see this proceeding smoothly.

By: Derek Volkart

Derek Volkart — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 19:57:17 +0000