I'm Sure This is Happening in NZ as Well

[Lilith7]

Walmart. A huge retailer.

Net income 2022 $13.6bn. 2023 down $2bn to $11.6bn.

2.1m employees. So each employee has earned the company $5500. Doesn't seem like much to me.

The net income divided by the 3bn shares comes to aout $3.50 each. Fine for the Walton* family who own 50% and have plenty, but not much for the smaller shareholders, especially considering the $60.68 share price at the moment.

* Ahh, the Walton family. The richest family in the world. The people who, like most of the richest people in the world, give away huge amounts of money to charitable causes that arguably do more good in the world than incompetent governments would if it had been swallowed as taxes instead. For example, $1bn over 5 years "to expand "educational opportunity" by partnering with charter school operators, researchers, and education reformers".

Then start looking at the flow-on business impacts - like the motor companies that would go bust if they weren't supplying trucks for carriage of goods. Etc.

The world we live in today needs people/companies like this "bunch of utter bastards" far more than they need to continue the business. Unless you choose to step aside from the life we have learned to enjoy and go back to subsistence farming with no technology, modern comforts or freedom of choice in life you need them to continue to succeed so that we can continue to live the lives we choose.

Using 'bunch of bastards', I was referring more to politicians.

However, it seems Walmart (& others) underpay employees to the extent that those employees require things such as food stamps to avoid starvation. Perhaps they could simply pay a living wage to their employees - that & continuing their benevolent donations to charities would surely improve their popularity.


The world we live in today also needs fair wages, decent housing, freely accessible healthcare & education, and considerably less greed.


https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/19/walmart-...aries.html

" Walmartand McDonald’s are among the top employers of beneficiaries of federal aid programs like Medicaid and food stamps, according to a study by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office.
The question of how much taxpayers contribute to maintaining basic living standards for employees at some of the nation’s largest low-wage companies has long been a flashpoint in the debate over minimum wage laws and the ongoing effort to unionize these sectors.

The GAO analyzed February data from Medicaid agencies in six states and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — known as SNAP, or food stamps — agencies in nine states.
Walmart was the top employer of Medicaid enrollees in three states and one of the top four employers in the remaining three states. The retailer was the top employer of SNAP recipients in five states and one of the top four employers in the remaining four states."



https://www.worldhunger.org/report-walma...ssistance/

"Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published by Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 national and state-level progressive groups."