2007.02.17 by pauliecannoli
By way of Brad Spangler
Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance Its Never-Ending Growth
by Philip Mattera and Anna Purinton
- “The $1 billion figure we cite for total public assistance to Wal-Mart may very well be the tip of the iceberg.”
Link above is to the full study. Handy summary available here.
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This is good information to have at hand. I generally like Wal-Mart and I tend to be put off by all the leftist/populist bashing they receive because nearly all of the criticism is based on the fact that Wal-Mart is non-union and/or the critics haven’t a clue about the benefits of free market economics.
That said, the eminent domain and tax subsidy issues are very legitimate reasons to go after Wal-Mart, but it seems the Wal-Mart haters are either unaware of these facts or that making such criticisms would expose them as hypocrites on other examples where they support this type of aggression for causes they hold dear.
“This is good information to have at hand. I generally like Wal-Mart and I tend to be put off by all the leftist/populist bashing they receive because nearly all of the criticism is based on the fact that Wal-Mart is non-union and/or the critics haven’t a clue about the benefits of free market economics.”
I generally DESPISE Wal-Mart. In fact, I’ve boycotted shopping at Wal-Mart for 6 1/2 years. They are an excellent example of corporate fascism. Wal-Mart has NOTHING to do with the free market. While all of the left’s arguements against Wal-Mart are not valid, some of what they say IS valid, and some of the best arguements against Wal-Mart are for things for which the left is clueless.
Andy, I have pointed out the things for which Wal-Mart truly deserves criticism and contrasted those with the things for which they are typically criticized, but unfairly so. If you removed the ways in which Wal-Mart exploits the power of government for their own benefit, then they would be operating in a free market (to the extent that such a thing really does exist) and we would still reap the benefits of their economies of scale. And they would still be getting bashed by ignorant people for not paying union wages/benefits, shutting down the mom-and-pop stores, selling products manufactured in third-world countries, etc…
In any case, I contend that governments deserve most of the blame for this state of affairs because they are the ones who hold the power to grant such privileges. Lobbyists only exist because they know politicians are generally corrupt and are willing to sell their votes. You can hardly blame Wal-Mart for taking advantage of this reality. If they don’t, then somebody else surely will.
“If you removed the ways in which Wal-Mart exploits the power of government for their own benefit, then they would be operating in a free market (to the extent that such a thing really does exist)”
Wal-Mart would be nothing if it wasn’t for the government. In fact, much of Wal-Mart is actually OWNED by the government.
Don’t believe me? Do some research into government Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. These reports for local, state, and federal agencies show the TRUE net worth of government. Government employee pension funds, school districts, water districts, toll authorities, port authorities, etc… all have Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports. If you investigate these reports you will find that they OWN a large percentage of stock in all of the big corporations. Go to these websites for more details…
http://www.CAFR1.com
http://www.CAFRman.com
New York State and Local Employees Pension Fund Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
http://cafr1.com/NYSR.html
The 2005 New York State and Locol Employees Pension Fund CAFR was valued at an astronomical $133,849,583,427!
Here’s a direct link to the New York State and Local Employees Pension CAFR from 2006. Be sure and click the links that says assets. This link will show you all of the stocks and bonds that they own. You will find that they own hundreds of millions worth of Wal-Mart stocks and bonds.
http://www.osc.state.ny.us/retire/about_us/annual_report_2006/index.htm
Now do you wonder why the government is so willing to give corporations like Wal-Mart corporate welfare, and why they want to use eminent domain for their benifit?
The Illinois State Investment Board and New York City Pension Fund are major shareholders of Wal-Mart.
http://216.109.125.130/search/cache?p=illinois+state+investment+board+wal-mart&fr=yfp-t-447&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8&u=www.mindfully.org/Industry/2005/Wal-Mart-Urged-Review2jun05.htm&w=illinois+state+investment+investments+board+boards+wal+mart&d=ClhnXOxsOMfz&icp=1&.intl=us
Check out CALPERS. This is the California State Emplyoees Pension Fund. It is currently worth around $223.5 BILLION. I checked their CAFR a few months back and found that they owned over $1 BILLION worth of Wal-Mart stock.
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/index.jsp?bc=/investments/home.xml
For those of you who clicked the link, did you notice the picture of the government employees smiling? It pays to be a part of the government crime syndicate. Remember that everything that government has it gets through taxes, fines, and fees which are extorted from the public.
In addition to owning stocks, CALPERS is also invested in real estate. Here’s an article about CALPERS purchasing 28 shopping centers (in several states).
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=61626&p=IROL-SingleRelease&t=Regular&id=23237
I bet if you show up to gather petition signatures on any of these CALPERS owned shopping centers they will hassle you and tell you that it is private property and call the police (who almost always side with the stores unless they are in a state where a law suit was won in favor of petitioners rights, and even in those places the police will sometimes ignore the court rulings and Constitution). “Private property” which was purchased with stolen money (ie-from taxes) and managed in a state run program for the parasites who work in government. These shopping centers are filled with corporations which are also owned in large part by government investment funds, corporations like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Target, Safeway (which owns Vons & Pavillions), etc… These corporations recieve corporate welfare and benifit from eminent domain and they also participate in government welfare programs such as food stamps.
I’ve actually been in situations where I was standing in between a Post Office mail box (note that the Post Office is a federal government agency) and a sign that says, “We accept food stamps” and “WIC” (a government welfare program for Women, Infants, and Children) in front of a Wal-Mart or grocery store that is owned in large part by government investment funds, which is on land that was confiscated through eminent domain, where there were tax payer funded roads that were built specifically to benifit the stores, where the stores recieved all kinds of corporate welfare, and tried to collect petition signatures to put Libertarian candidates on the ballot or pro-liberty initiatives/referendums on the ballot, and been hassled by security guards and store management, who then called the police (and note that police often hang out in such places and in essense act as security gaurds/thugs for the corporations), who upon showing up threatened me to stop engaging in my 1st amendment rights to free speech and to petition or else I will be arrested, and of course if I resist arrest I will be met with violence. So you’ve got some PIG cops enforcing the will of the corporate fascist state by preventing a citizen from excersizing their 1st amendment rights which not only violates the rights of the person circulating the petition, but also the public in general because if enough signatures are not gathered on the petition the candidate or issue will not appear on the ballot, therefore depriving the voters of choices. You see, the petitions are a threat to the corporations and government. They don’t want the voters to have any more choices, especially if they are pro-liberty choices. They like the system just the way it is and in fact want it to continue to the point where government controls everything and we live in a total police state. The entire concept of the 1st amendment or individual rights is alien to these people, as they believe that corporations and government (and note that government creates corporations) are superior to individual rights, and they believe that individuals exsist merely to serve corporations and the state.
I was actually assulted by Wal-Mart managers (one of the grabbed me from behind and 3 more circled around me and shoved me) for collecting petition signatures, and this was in a place where the State Supreme Court had already deemed such activity legal! I reported the incident to the police and they did not even investigate it. Imagine if I had assulted the Wal-Mart managers, I would have gone to jail! I had a Wal-Mart manager threaten to tear up my petition sheets to put Libertarian candidates on the ballot, and this was also in a place where a court ruling had declared that such activity was legal, and the Wal-Mart manager was aware of the court ruling but claimed that it had “expired” even though it had come down just 4 months before this incident. When I informed the Wal-Mart manager that a large percentage of Wal-Mart stock was actually owned by the government he called me a “liar”. When I brought up the fact that Wal-Mart recieves corporate welfare and benifits from eminent domain and that much of what they sell comes from Communist China (where the US government is heavily invested) he told me to “shut up”.
Does anybody else out there see something wrong with this picture?
Uh…yeah…that’s why I posted this.
Did you read the report?
BTW I suggest making your paragraphs a little shorter, that would make them easier to read.
The shoe department is a great place to hide anti-WalMart pamphlets. I’ve never been caught, not even in the midst of the frenzy that marks a WalMart opening day.
Digg it…
http://digg.com/business_finance/Wal_Mart_the_Corporate_Welfare_Queen
[...] For example, research credit to Andy commenting at Last Free Voice: [...]