Corporate giant Wal-Mart is pushing for a national minimum wage hike, under the guise that they want a boost for workers when they likely want to keep smaller competitors from seizing their market share.
“It’s clear by our actions and those of other companies that the federal minimum wage is lagging behind,” Wal-Mart Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said.
McMillon says that it is “time for Congress to put a thoughtful plan in place.” While Wal-Mart has pushed for a minimum wage hike in the past, this is the first time the multinational has ever urged Congress to pass legislation forcing businesses to issue higher wages.
Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders, the independent Senator from Vermont, has been pushing Wal-Mart to adopt these policies for years.
“All we are saying to Wal-Mart and the Walton family is to pay your workers a living wage,” he said, “and that living wage is $15 an hour.”
Sanders may feel like he has accomplished something with Wal-Mart endorsing a higher minimum wage, but Sanders – with his extreme economic ignorance – is little more than a useful idiot for the corporation keeping its position atop the market.
Lew Rockwell at the Mises Institute addressed Wal-Mart’s actual reasons for supporting a higher minimum wage over a decade ago.
There are many ways to compete with Wal-Mart. Not all shoppers like sprawling stores. Others like better service with more experts on the floor. Others just hate crowds. But a main way to compete is to hire lower-priced labor. This could mean that your employees are from a “lower” rung on the social ladder, but they too need opportunities. The savings can be reflected in other amenities that Wal-Mart does not offer. There can be non-standardized products otherwise not available. The location might be better. Even prices for goods can be lower.
Even similar stores such as K-Mart can pay lower wages, and that can make the margin of difference. K-Mart pays over a much wider range, as low as $6.75 an hour. A major competitor is mainstream grocery stores, where workers do indeed start at minimum wage…
Now, if Wal-Mart can successfully lobby the government to abolish lower-wage firms, it has taken a huge step toward running out its competition. The effect of requiring other firms to pay wages just as high as theirs is the same as if the company lobbied to force other companies to purchase only in high quantities, to open large stores only, or to stay open 24 hours. By making others do what Wal-Mart does, the company manages to put the squeeze on anyone who would dare vie for its customer base.
Rockwell concluded: “The minimum wage should not be raised but abolished. If free competition and a non-monopolized market are what you favor, you too should favor abolishing the minimum wage. In a purely free market, Wal-Mart would discover that there are indeed limits to growth, and that others are willing and able to learn from its successes.”
Modern leftists have become useful idiots for corporate dominance, as multinational giants like Wal-Mart grow richer and more powerful on the state’s behalf.
