The Working Poor

By SABRINA CHAVEZ 

            In America were the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, conditions for the working poor deteriorate every year. These days a person cant survive on minimum wage without having to depend on the government, a spouse, or another job. Because of this people who work minimum wage jobs have difficult lives. And while they’re struggling to survive the companies they work for export their work so that they can earn more money because they can pay the workers overseas even less than they do in America. You can see these conditions in the documentaries, Wal-Mart:The High Cost of Low Price and Roger and Me.

            Both of these documentaries expose the conditions of employees of General Motors and Wal-Mart. Both companies also make millions are a year, and have very affluent owners. To make even more money than they do, they export their labor to other countries such as Mexico and China. In Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price you can even see the conditions of the those working in China, and you can see they are treated very poorly as well, with very low pay and no benefits. And overseas workers are payed only a fraction of what American workers are payed.

            Wal-Mart is a huge is a multimillion dollar corporation known for their low prices. Most people didn’t even know how unjustly their employees were being treated. Employees aren’t even payed enough to support themselves without government assistance or a spouse. The Wal-Mart healthcare plan isn’t affordable so many employees depend on Medicare or Medicaid to be able to take care of their children. Some also need the support of welfare or food stamps and these Wal-Mart employees who require government assistance because they aren’t payed enough cost tax payers$1,557,000,000,00 a year. Wal-Mart also cheats their employees out of overtime pay which amounts to millions of dollars. They have lawsuits from almost all 50 states for a multitude of charges. Wal-Marts have been detrimental to the small family owned businesses in many communities. Cheaper prices and convenience of Wal-Mart take business away from the small businesses and they must close; putting many people out of work. And some communities protest the placement of Wal-Marts in their communities.

            The documentary Roger and Me on the other hand doesn’t talk so much about the mistreatment of the employees but rather the town of Flint and how the closing of the General Motors plant effected the lives of the employees that were let off. While General Motors justified their closing on the recession, they opened new plants in Mexico, another example of exporting work. Micheal Moore who is a citizen of Flint and who’s father once worked for the GM plant in Flint investigates the effects of the shut downs. He finds that many let off employees were being evicted from their homes because they could not pay their rent. The town tries to get back on their feet by building an indoor amusement park, a hotel and a convention center but can’t find a way to persuade people to visit Flint, and many of their newly built attractions had to be closed because of the lack of business. Micheal Moore tries on many occasions tries to confront General Motors CEO Roger Smith about the closing of the plants in Flint but is removed from private buildings, and when finally he does confront him Roger asking to see the conditions of the families in Flint, Roger tells him its not GM evicting the x-employees and that he cannot to Flint to see the outcome of the closed plants.

            Wal-Mart and General Motors are both very powerful corporations that can’t seem to find the money to invest in their employees well-being. Instead of helping the American people they chose to further their greed by sending the work overseas and making more profit. The American working poor suffer for the greed of the corporations, either by losing their jobs completely or by not being able to survive on their salaries.