* Wal*Mart received $1 billion in corporate welfare (taxpayers’ dollars), draining state budgets for education, transportation and social services.1
* 1 Wal*Mart store costs taxpayers $420,750 per year.2,3
* 85% of Wal*Mart products are made overseas, adding to the huge loss of American jobs and rising trade deficit.2
* 1.6 million workers are involved in a wage discrimination lawsuit.4
* Three jobs are lost for every two jobs created by a Wal*Mart store.5
* The average Wal*Mart employee earns $7.50 to $8.50/hour and works only 32 hours a week, making him/her ineligible for health benefits--lowering the standard of living and tax base for the community.6
* Wal*Mart has repeatedly denied its employees the right to organize which is a violation of U.S. law and the UN’s Fundamental Declaration of Human Rights.6
* Wal*Mart was the number one special interest corporate contributor to politicians in 2003 7
* If Wal*Mart were a nation, its GDP would exceed 84% of all other nations. Unlike the government of real nations, Wal*Mart does not answer to the people affected by its policies.8
HOW CAN YOU HELP?
* Join the Kansas City area chapter ReclaimDemocracy.org
* Learn more about Wal*Mart at ReclaimDemocracy.org
* Stop shopping at Wal*Mart and patronize local independent businesses.
1 http://www.alternet.org/story/18816
2 http://www.walmartwatch.org
3 The Progressive Magazine, January 2005 The True Costs of Low Prices
4 http://www.now.org
5 http://www.flagstaffactivist.org/fan/walmyths.phtml
6 http://www.iuoe545.com/issues/19-Wal-Mart.pdf
7 http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/articles_2004/walmart_largest_political_donor_investor.html
8 http://www.davelippman.com/walmart/whyihatewalmart.html
ReclaimDemocracy.org is a nonprofit (501c3), nonpartisan grassroots organization.
Our Mission: ReclaimDemocracy.org is dedicated to restoring democratic authority over corporations, reviving grassroots democracy, and revoking the power of money and corporations to control government and civic society.
The goal of this campaign, organized by the Kansas City area chapter of ReclaimDemocracy.org, is to raise awareness that Wal-Mart brings more than low prices. Wal-Mart hurts people. Wal-Mart hurts communities. And Wal-Mart hurts democracy.
Thomas Jefferson warned, “We must crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”