Wal-Mart Fights Back

From Fox News: Walmart has unleashed a mocking online rebuttal to a New York Times column, providing red "copy editing" responses to columnist Timothy Egan's allegation the chain offered "humiliating" wages to employees and forced them into public assistance.
"(Walmart's) humiliating wages force thousands of employees to look to food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of welfare," Egan wrote. "Working at Walmart may not make you poor, but it certainly keeps you poor -- at the expense of the rest of us."
Because those employees must subsist on public assistance, Egan argued, Walmart is a net drain on the nation's economy. Citing a measure from House Democrats last year, he said the average Walmart store cost taxpayers $904,000 a year in various subsidies, or more than $5,000.
Not so fast, said David Tovar, the vice president of Walmart's corporate communications, who issued a mocking response late last week in the form of a red pen "edit" of the piece.
"Thanks for sharing your first draft," Tovar wrote. "Below are a few thoughts to ensure something inaccurate doesn't get published. Hope this helps."
In a blog posting, Tovar made numerous counter-arguments to Egan.
The "net drain on taxpayers" claim? Tovar said the company is the "largest taxpayer in America." Forcing employees into public assistance due to its wage structure? "We see more associates move off of public assistance as a result of their job at Walmart," Tovar wrote. What about the Democrats' study about Walmart's impact on Wisconsin? "Politifact.com concluded ... mostly false."
Tovar criticized Egan, saying the Times columnist is merely focusing on starting wages, rather than the company's overall economic efforts.
"Better idea for a piece: could focus on bringing back U.S. manufacturing (Walmart is buying $25 billion in U.S. products over 10 years) and expanding education, training and workforce development programs, i.e. things that will make a bigger difference, not just focusing on starting wages," he wrote.  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/23/walmart-blog-post-issues-scathing-response-to-new-york-times-columnist-timothy/?intcmp=latestnews
As a person who works for Wal-Mart but is not their spokesperson, I can honestly say the following:
I have worked at  Wal-Mart stores in Las Vegas and I have never seen 1 person go on welfare after they have been hired by Wal-Mart.
I have seen people who are hired by Wal-Mart who are on government assistance when the were hired.
Some have moved off of welfare.
Others have not.
Some have been on government assistance for 6 years after they have been hired.
Others have gone off of government assistance in less than  year.
Some people, who do not get enough hours, I have encouraged to go on government assistance and they refused.
The vast majority of Wal-Mart employees I have seen do not receive any government assistance at all.
Timothy Egan is a reporter is someone who is full of crap and knows nothing about Wal-Mart.  Clearly, this guy, whom I never heard of, is a dim witted POS is a very ignorant person and lacks any intellectual skills as a reporter.
But then he writes for the New York times, which employees some of the worst reporters in the history of journalism.