A series of disconnected stories over the past week strike me, in one of my most jaded moments, as pieces of a single thread that demonstrates the economic troubles of America.
In one story, a college girl wrote about her experiences working as a cashier at a Maine Walmart, where she saw shameless welfare recipients spend their government funds on iPhones, earrings and beer. The sense of entitlement and lack of work ethic these customers demonstrated, she said, was infuriating.
In another story it was reported that China is slapping tariffs on U.S. imports of sedans and SUVs. Members of Congress who have repeatedly issued warnings about Chinese industries’ artificial prices, subsidies, below-market loans, lucrative tax breaks and free land say the brazen tariffs are an example of the Chinese government piling on. Essentially, they’re rubbing America’s nose in our inability to take responsive action and level the playing field.
In a third story, it was reported that six members of the Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune, have accumulated more wealth than the bottom 30 percent of all Americans combined. Their worth stands at $69.7 billion.
So, how do we connect the dots?
* It seems that we have cashiers working at Walmart who make minimal wages (and little or no benefits) servicing a certain portion of customers who are living off the dole – spending the tax dollars of people who work in menial jobs like those at Walmart.
* It appears that Walmart, which buys huge amounts of cheap goods from China (thanks to Chinese manufacturing workers who earn much less than Walmart cashiers) offers prices that attract “welfare queens” while contributing to the trade deficit and the loss of American jobs, even as China flaunts their cheating ways.
* And it looks like the end result of this cycle of welfare fraud, low wages, high profits, overseas competitors corrupting global trade, and America feeding the Chinese economic monster is this: The huge amount of cash generated in this process has not benefited welfare moms or Walmart cashiers or Chinese factory drones or unemployed American blue-collar workers. But it has made the Walton family incredibly, incredibly rich.
