The permitting of an expanded Walmart is a sad day for Aberdeen.
While the city is gleeful about the sales tax they say they will collect from Walmart, they ignore the math about what it actually will cost in low wages, lack of benefits, negative impact to other grocery stores and other stores in general.
While the entire world (literally) is protesting Walmart’s abuse of workers and local economies, Aberdeen thinks it’s just the best thing. In today’s economy, a full-time worker earning $13.13 per hour meets 100 percent of the federal poverty guidelines for a family of 5. Of course, most Walmart employees are part-time, so earn much less than that and receive no benefits.
One wonders if the sales tax recovered from Walmart will cover the costs of health care, let alone other social service costs that will be spent by the community.
Does anyone ever do the math?
Nevermind that workers deserve more. Nevermind that Walmart actually doesn’t have the lowest prices but does a very good propaganda job to make people believe they’re getting a good deal. Nevermind that Walmart controls the merchandising market and has contributed to forcing U.S. manufacturing to outsource jobs in order to reach the bottom. Nevermind that Walmart will perpetuate the low-wage, low-quality we seem to accept as the best we can do on Grays Harbor.
Mary Kaye Riley
Hoquiam
