Walmart

Over my lifetime I have witnessed different corporate entities be vilified because of their size and profits. When I was young it was Standard Oil then AT&T followed by Microsoft and today it is Walmart. Walmart tries many ways to improve its reputation and has led the way in areas like low cost drugs, improving the environment and hiring disabled people but they are constantly under the gun for their low wages. That is a problem that can be overcome with just a little help from the customers. Walmart sales in the United States last year were 279 billion and they 850,000 full time employees here in the states. These full time employees working 2,000 hours per means 1.7 billion hours and if each were paid ten dollars per hour more that would cost the company 17 billion dollars. If they raised their prices by that amount their total sales last year would have been 296 billion instead of 279 billion or a price increase of 6 percent. From my personal perspective that would be OK. We spend about $1,000 per month at Walmart and that would mean an extra $60 per month which I would be happy to pay to double the salaries of the employees there.