Seems like this thread went off topic before I got a chance to address the issue! So, I'll just say that a lot of the comments underline my main frustration with conservative and libertarian drones - the complete reluctance to criticize corporations, billionaires because of adherence to the holy faith of free market fundamentalism! This reminds me of how, back during the banking meltdown a few years ago, when the bankers went to the Government for bailouts to cover their bets on derivatives markets, the tea baggers and tea party activists channeled all of their rage at Obama, the Obama Administration, and the unfortunate late entries into the overinflated real estate markets, many of whom bought liar loans that shouldn't have even been legal in the first place. But, you would have to look long and hard to find any conservative or any libertarian criticize AIG Insurance, Goldmann-Sachs, or the other investment banks. The Republicans claimed that bad banks should be allowed to fail, but they conveniently dropped the subject and approved Bush's bailout once Lehman Bros. went down! But, up and down right wing opinion, there is no one to be found who criticizes corporate power or who even advances the notion that...maybe these guys are too powerful and need to be reigned in a bit!
In the Walmart example, conservatives seem to think it's fine and dandy for the family that still has most of the shares to be sitting on a pile of cash greater in size than the net worth of the poorest half of the U.S. population! There's no criticism of Walmart for paying employees so poorly that they can qualify for relief benefits like food stamps...instead the answer is to cut off food stamps!
Instead of Walmart asking for donations for their poorly payed employees from other poorly payed employees, how about the State says to Walmart:' no need for your charitable efforts, we're raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour, so you're going to have to cut into the vast treasure of wealth you have amassed through your outsourcing and low wage policies over the years.' Of course no state, local or national government is going to do it right now, because the vast majority of Democratic and Republican politicians are on the take! And are either taking money now from their corporate sponsors, or are expecting generous rewards for their services on behalf of their corporate masters after they retire from political office...heck, some are in and out of government and private business, like banks and oil companies so they can keep changing laws and regulations on behalf of their real constituents: the bankers and oil company executives. And Walmart has a piece of that action as well, like almost every other corporation.
