Reason magazine’s Peter Suderman destroys the Left’s irrational Walmart criticism
http://twitter.com/#!/SonnyBunch/status/272357761554190336
Peter Suderman, senior editor at Reason magazine, appeared on MSNBC this morning to discuss Black Friday’s failed walkout of Walmart employees. He followed up his hit on “Up with Chris Hayes” with a series of tweets that demolish the Left’s argument that increasing Walmart workers’ wages would be a boon to low-income employees.
In fact, Walmart’s business practices benefit the poor by increasing access to affordable goods and the jobs needed to afford those goods. Suderman’s explanation is an absolute must-read.
Really enjoyed talking Walmart and Black Friday on @upwithchris this morning. I’m going to add a few stray observations on twitter.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
1. Walmart’s customer base is heavily concentrated in the bottom income quintile, which spends heavily on food.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
2.The bottom income quintile spends about 25 percent of income on food compared to just 3.5 percent for the top quintile.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
3.So the benefits of Walmart’s substantially lower prices to the lowest earning cohort are huge, especially on food.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
4. Obama adviser Jason Furman has estimated the welfare boost of Walmart’s low food prices alone is about $50b a year.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
5.Walmart’s wages are about average for retail. Not amazing. But not the worst either.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
6. Paying Walmart’s workers more would mean the money has to come from somewhere. But where?
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
7. Erase the Walmart CEO’s entire salary, and you can raise average hourly wages by just a penny or so.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
8. Erase the entire Walton family fortune and you get an average $1/hour boost to Walmart workers.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
9. Raise prices to pay for increased wages and you cut into the store’s huge low-price benefits for the poor. It’s regressive.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
10. But what about Costco? They pay more, right? Yes, but it’s a different, smaller market.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
11. Walmart’s average customer earns roughly $35k. Costco’s average customer earns about $75k.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
12. Costco only has about half as many employees as Walmart. What would happen if Walmart adopted a Costco model and shrank to Costco size?
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
13. Not at all clear that the remaining half of Walmart workers would be better off. Many would almost certainly be worse off. Unemployed.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
14. Obama econ adviser Jason Furman did a lot of the work on Walmart’s progressive benefits. His case: slate.me/R3bkc2
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
15. Finally, as someone who’s actually been a regular, small-town Walmart shopper, I’d like to argue for its community benefits.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
16. Yes, some small stores close when Walmart opens. But in small towns, Walmart can become real community hubs – more so, because of size.
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
17. As for Walmart workers getting health benefits thru Medicaid, that’s due in part to a policy liberals argued for: wapo.st/axXXNE
— Peter Suderman (@petersuderman) November 24, 2012
Of course, as Slate’s Matt Yglesias demonstrates, the Left’s anti-Walmart crusade isn’t really about helping low-income workers. It’s all about class warfare and eating the rich.
Sounds pretty good! RT @petersuderman: 8. Erase the entire Walton family fortune and you get an average $1/hour boost to Walmart workers.
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) November 24, 2012
There are plenty of valid reasons to criticize Walmart, but the Left’s not interested in those.
Comments are closed.