But even with the hunger and poor housing, the lives of the the 19th century European urban poor would have been a dream for those held as slaves.

I’m not actually sure this is true.  It’s a complicated issue and I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the opposite is true, but I’d need to see a real argument rather than a naked assertion before I came to any kind of conclusion.

The point is that Walmart (and other employers) are beneficiaries of socialism.  There are other senses in which this is true; Walmart is successful because of the interstate system and other government-provided infrastructure which represents a direct subsidy to Walmart (and other businesses).

It’s easier to explain and to understand this using a specific example (Walmart) rather than discussing in the abstract.  Doing so does not imply that the same arguments wouldn’t also apply to other businesses.

“The price of consumed required goods and or staples (like food and gas) would go up accordingly since everyone has more than enough money to pay for it.  That’s the free market in effect.”

The argument that a higher minimum wage increases retail prices is also specious, however. The only reason prices would rise is if Walmart decides to maintain the same business model and profit margin.

Walmart spends a lot of money suppressing workers. If they want to make up for the additional cost of getting their employees off of welfare, they can just take it out of their present budget for high-priced unionbusting consultants, lawyers and lobbyists. This would not change their profits one bit.

Walmart’s labor costs are 10% of their expense budget, a tiny proportion of their profits. They could pay staff 30% more (raising average full-time pay to a whopping $1,832.50 per month before taxes) and insure them all without endangering profitability in the least.

Their margin is a direct consequence of government subsidies, among them food stamps, Medicaid and tax concessions. They are not a retailer, they are a welfare scam that happens to sell laundry soap and televisions on the side. Despite the entitlement exuded by executives, this is not free-market capitalism. Walmart is a failure by the standards of capitalism because they cannot pay their own way.

Using tax holidays is pretty common among corporations, as is promising jobs and then bringing in the majority of the professional-level workforce from outside the community. Both are fundamental to the budget crisis in communities and states around the country. The company pays no taxes. Outside employees keep their ties to their home communities rather than settle, buy houses and invest, depriving the local coffers of property taxes. The unemployed in town are still unemployed, paying no taxes and requiring services. The local competitors are driven out of business or forced to match prices and wages.

After a few years there is a great sucking sound and the town is left with a crumbling eyesore and nowhere to buy groceries. The few businesses that gained from the traffic – local restaurants frequented by call center employees, for instance, or owners of residential properties rented by them  – have to either go out of business or adapt to a community with little income beyond aid like food stamps and Section 8 that comes from outside.

If it were a former European colony in Africa being manipulated by Chinese companies we would recognize it as exploitation; instead we elevate it to the ideal American business model when we do it to ourselves.

And yes, outsiders from other unions, social service organizations, religious groups and the community supported them. Not quite as nice as being backed by expensive lawyers, lobbyists and pet journalists (and obviously not as effective), but at least they brought coffee to the picket line.

Or are you arguing that only corporate and government are legitimate actors, and that citizens trying to influence their policy is wrong?

Unfortunately they pull this crap in places where people are desperate for jobs. It’s sickening. It gives false hope to those desperate families, because no one will every get out of poverty working at a Walmart. Probably not even the store managers.

In fact, the biggest pressure on Australia’s cost of living hasn’t been as a result of increasing minimum wages, but rather a two speed economy where the mining industry is creating a huge growth in wage for Western Australia, whilst the rest of the country is unable to keep up with that level of growth, i.e. income equality is slipping. 

The rich getting richer, the poor get the picture, the bombs will never hit ya when you’re down so low.

As a newly hired Dell employee, an operations analyst, I was part of the team that opened the now closed call center in Roseburg, OR. I was from far away, and I was surprised about the visible signs of poverty in parts of the town that I had previously associated with Appalachia. 

Needless to say – the region was desperate for jobs and the officials gave Dell ridiculous concessions because Dell (Mr. Dell himself even via teleconference) assured them that they planned on having the call center there for at least ten or fifteen years. The told this to local, county, state and federal-level officials. 

However, we knew differently. The Roseburg and Twin Falls Idaho centers were slated by Dell to be open four years, five max, until the the centers in Panama and India were sufficiently ramped up. The HR person in the cube next to me gushed about how great the labour laws in Panama are because they can require pictures with resumes, quiz applicants on marital status or plans to get pregnant, fire people instead of granting various types of leave and similar things. 

Anyway, I left the company after about a year and was glad I did. The Twin Falls and Roseburg centers shut down after about five years — all according to Dell’s initial plan. 

(being in the same room with Mr. Dell was a trip. The contempt he had for his employees like a toxic fog of ammonia fumes, and he had a personality cult formed around him, enforced by the giving of beads and baubles, and the Fear of Dell Security)

http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0312626681/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1353765207&sr=1-1&keywords=nickeled+and+dimed

The biggest subsidy to the “job creators” is the immense drag on middle-class incomes provided by a huge pool of reserve unemployment and chronic poverty.