The BBC reported today that each of the five members of Sam Walton's family (i.e. the same Sam Walton who founded Wal•Mart) are worth an estimated TWENTY BILLION dollars each. That's one family worth ONE HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS. Meanwhile, government welfare agencies and healthcare providers are complaining because Wal•Mart employees are disproportionally using medicaid to pay their doctor bills. It seems those price-conscious employees figured out that if they wanted to eat and pay rent too, that it was cheaper to go on welfare than to pay for Wal•Mart's health insurance - assuming they qualify for health insurance with all that "working off the clock " shenanigans I've heard reported.
In the '80s, the dimwitted political will was swayed by the idea that welfare is BAAAAAD, and those lazy welfare slobs had better get a damn job if they want government hand-outs like the pharmaceutical corporations get (free taxpayer-funded goveernment research) or the national sports franchises get (free public stadiums to perpetuate their muti-billion dollar pastimes). Well, after twenty years of "welfare reform" (i.e. reductions) the slobs have jobs now. Some have two full-time jobs (or nearly - 39.75 hours a week will keep those pesky benefits away) and no health insurance.
Welfare fraud by the poorest among us is not the problem here, folks. Greed by the wealthiest of those among us is the problem. Who do you know that needs twenty billion dollars? I mean, besides an entire country?
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Amen to that! Great rant you got here. My partner, he's always saying that no senior exec or ceo should ever get paid more than 5 times what the lowest person in the company gets paid. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. The disparity in North America right now just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Everyone wants more, bigger, and better. But at whose expense? Why? We are a continent of "more." Middle class slowly dissolving into oblivion. Everyone wants to live like a king. And developing countries like China or those in Eastern Europe want to follow suit. The world cannot sustain this pace - neither socioeconomically nor environmentally. What ever happened to just being happy having just what you need and not taking more eh?
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