![\"Democratic](\"http:\/\/c.o0bg.com\/rf\/image_960w\/Boston\/2011-2020\/2016\/02\/06\/BostonGlobe.com\/EditorialOpinion\/Images\/bb49802a30744e3bb7807350c2832b44-bb49802a30744e3bb7807350c2832b44-0.jpg\")
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\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Here’s a story from the Boston Globe about Bernie Sanders attacking Walmart’s family, who apparently has more wealth than the bottom 40% of the U.S. population. \u00a0 While that is a scary statistic, the writer correctly points out that he shouldn’t be attacking Walmart per se, but rather the economic system we have that is more and more eliminating the middle class and pushing the money to the top and away from those at the bottom.<\/p>\n While Walmart is not exactly a saint, I do have to give them credit for recent efforts to increase employee wages, even though it has actually decreased their profits and hurt their stock price quite a bit. \u00a0Hopefully in the long term, it will turn out to be a good move and their profits and stock price will end up higher than before, because it will show other companies that taking care of your employees is generally good business. \u00a0 Most large retailers won’t take the chance and take the hit on their stock price that investing money in wages might cause, because they’re only concerned with the next quarter’s results and not the future of their company.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0Other than Wall Street, there\u2019s no easier target for Bernie Sanders than Walmart and the family that\u2019s profited most from it.<\/em><\/p>\n At an event in Manchester Friday, the Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate noted that the nation\u2019s single richest family \u2014 the heirs of Walmart founder Sam Walton \u2014 has more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of the population. (Politifact has deemed this assertion to be true<\/a>.) Sanders also said the wages Walmart offers are so meager that employees need to rely on taxpayer-funded social programs such as Medicaid and subsidized housing.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cA rigged economy,\u201d Sanders declared, \u201cis when the middle class pays to subsidize the wealthiest family in this country.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The power of Sanders\u2019 presidential bid lies in the stark diagnosis he offers of America\u2019s economic condition. We\u2019re in trouble, he\u2019s saying, because of the staggering level of income and wealth inequality in the country. But even if you agree with him about the seriousness of the problem \u2014 I do \u2014 it doesn\u2019t follow that the heartless plutocrats he singles out are the only ones responsible for it.<\/em><\/p>\n Walmart, of course, has made a decision to distribute money in a certain way. If it wanted to do so, the company could presumably steer more of its revenue toward its workers and less toward theWalton family and other shareholders<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n But shareholders\u2019 demands aren\u2019t the only reason Walmart behaves as it does. The company\u2019s business model involves relentless downward pressure on costs<\/a> \u2014 by limiting wage growth andfighting worker unionization<\/a>, yes, but also by cutting tough deals with suppliers, and developinghyper-efficient inventory and distribution systems<\/a>. This model attracts customers because they like the \u201ceveryday low prices\u201d that result.<\/em><\/p>\n Companies, in theory, can offer discount prices without putting the squeeze on employees. Indeed, the privately held grocery chain Market Basket has a reputation for being inexpensive while also paying well and treating workers decently<\/a>. Yet consumers don\u2019t appear to reward such virtue in and of itself. They regularly seek out bargains from retailers that minimize labor costs by keeping wages low \u2014 or by cutting out human workers to the greatest extent possible.<\/em><\/p>\n The world\u2019s mightiest retail chain itself faces competition from online stores; it\u2019s telling that last year\u00a0Amazon\u2019s market capitalization surpassed Walmart\u2019s<\/a>. Walmart, if nothing else, operates brick-and-mortar retail spaces that employ actual humans. Amazon moves lots of goods around with robots<\/a>; someday, it\u2019ll deliver them with drones. Not coincidentally, Amazon generates five times as much revenue per employee<\/a>as Walmart does<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Which hints at a quandary Sanders isn\u2019t addressing: Yes, chains like Walmart could and should pay employees more, but what happens when Internet companies cut out human workers altogether?<\/em><\/p>\n Ironically, there are socially conscious consumers who would never set foot in a Walmart but order from Amazon all the time. For Sanders to get the America he wants, it\u2019s not just the Waltons who\u2019ll need to have a change of heart.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Here’s a story from the Boston Globe about Bernie Sanders attacking Walmart’s family, who apparently has more wealth than the bottom 40% of the U.S. population. \u00a0 While that is a scary statistic, the writer correctly points out that he shouldn’t be attacking Walmart per se, but rather the economic system we have Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies","category-retail-trends"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1677"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1677\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}