They never raise the minimum wage by $2.83. If they are lucky the raise in minimum wage would be at most $1 per hour. And that's extremely lucky. That's 1.7 million employees times 1920 hours of work in a year (assuming 40 hour work weeks) times that $1 raise and you get $3.26 billion. That is still $6.84 billion in profits. Added to that that most of the workers at Walmart probably make over the federal minimum wage + any proposed increases anyway, and that profit is even closer to $10 billion.

Yeah that's what these businesses like to advertise; that they treat their employees well and give them plenty of oppurtunity. But these retail jobs are designed under a system of labor control and management that discourages long term committment. ("Inequality in the Toy Store"; Williams 2004). They have little promotion oppurtunities, give increases in earnings that do not keep up with inflation, and do not confer technical skills that can transfer to other careers. Your using your own experiences as an example that these jobs provide oppurtunities when in actuality for most people they are just a dead end job with a concrete ceiling. If your parents or you live on minimum wages you don't have access to the same oppurtunities as the more well-to-do. Access to education and training for more higher paying jobs cannot be in reach when you aren't paid a living wage. These companies always like to portray themselves as "platforms" to the American Dream when they really just maintain job segregation among the classes and degrade the living conditions of the poor.

After law school, I did a little family law work and I was hired by many poor people. I would think that poor people also hire tax advisors, debt consolidation professionals, etc.

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"George W. Bush surrounds himself with smart people the way a hole surrounds itself with a donut." —Dennis Miller

They only create jobs when they do something innovative or that has room for expansion in the market or in an underdeveloped area. Otherwise they simply displace jobs or crumble and create nothing.

They only create prosperity if they do better for the people in the areas they build in.

So in Wal-Mart's case, it depends heavily on WHERE they build. For some areas they provide opportunity. For others they destroy competition and lower the quality of life for any unskilled workers in the area. It's all relative (I just added that sentence because I know you'll hate it).

And for the other point, to add to PJ's list, poor people often hire tutors in order to help their kids get ahead.

For some areas they provide opportunity. For others they destroy competition and lower the quality of life for any unskilled workers in the area.

If the quality of life is lowered in places where they exist, they would soon be out of business. I don't shop at Wal-Mart, but plenty of folks do. That's why they're successful.

And I still have not seen one example of a person being hired for a meaningful, economic job by a poor person.

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"Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival."
Winston Churchill

A tutor aids people, most notably those whose parents cannot, in education.
You think most of our economy is meaningful? If we got rid of half the jobs that are based around utter crap- luxury items, meaningless services, etc., the unemployment rate would skyrocket. Why should job based around aiding the poor be considered somehow less worthy? Would people give donations to your church if all it did was preach and it never did anything for the poor? Now true, we'd be better off if no one was poor, but that is a bit unrealistic. And contrary to what cynical cons like yourself may believe, the people who work for such causes would rather see poverty end as well (obviously if poverty was eliminated, they'd be able to apply their skills elsewhere). I'd rather see people use the existance of poverty as a creator for jobs (keeping less people unemployed) and a builder of character through doing good than as an excuse for people to look down on one another when they pretend poverty is a person's decision.

1. I saw the show.
2. I realize it's hard.
3. Increasing the minimum wage will not fix the problem.

You only have two options in increasing the minimum wage. You can increase to a level (like to $6.25) that will not have any real impact or you can increase it to level where it will have an impact on the poor's take home pay, but will ultimately result in a net negative for them anyway. Hundreds of studies have been done on this issue and they are in nearly complete agreement. Raising the minimum wage does not work. Now, do I think $6.25 is going to hurt anything? Not really. In most urbans areas like mine very, very, very few people make minimum wage, so the net effect will be nothing. In some areas it will help the poor and in some areas it will help some poor people, but not others. But regardless, an extra $44 a week will not solve much.

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Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?

You'd be surprised how much people need that extra $44.00 per week. That would be enough to help pay for the recent increase in gasoline hikes. It is about $175/mo. Or it could help them finally be able to save some money if by some off chance they were able to make ends meet. They would be able to save around $2000.00 a year!!! If they were just making it going paycheck to paycheck, these people would finally be able to start saving for retirement and/or their children's education. Don't tell me that $1.10 an hour won't have any affect. $44.00 may not seem like that much to you or me, but to someone who is stretching each cent to it's full capacity just so they can buy food for their kids, it can mean the world! We don't need to give them the life of a CEO of a large company...just enough to let them live a better life.

Minimum wage increases destroy jobs. Isn't it better to have a low-paying job than no job at all?

Minimum wage increases also raise inflation. What good is it to make a little more money, when everything costs a lot more?

Conclusion: Minimum wage laws hurt the very people they are designed to help - the poor.

building human capital: education, skill-building, technical proficiency, communication, aid to the disadvantaged...
These do more for economic growth and for prosperity and hopefully WalMart will encourage them. Of course to Barn these are meaningless and noneconomical.