RE “IS Walmart’s offer good for veterans?” by Juliette Kayyem (Op-ed, Jan. 17): This month Walmart announced plans to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years. With praise from the first lady and impressive statistics that retail supports 1 in 4 jobs, it’s hard not to applaud the company. Walmart claims it will hire every military veteran who wants a job. But in fact, the offer applies only to veterans within 12 months off active duty. What about the thousands of other veterans who can’t find jobs?
What’s more, the veterans Walmart employs would receive low wages and negligible benefits. According to Kayyem, as many as 80 percent of Walmart employees could be on food stamps. The company’s offer seems like a hollow promise.
Comments
It's too bad the EBT Program/Food Stamp program has taken on so many negative connotions. Yes, it's abused by some folks, large safety net programs can often be abused. But these programs also create a valuable and important safety net for people. I know several people that receive EBT/Food Stamp Benefits. They are responsible and hard working, they just don't quite make enough to pay for all the things you need to pay for to live in and around the Boston area, as such the EBT/Food Stamp program really takes the preassure off them and their families and that's a good thing. They are technically defined as living at or near the Poverty level, you sure wouldn't know it, it doesn't seem to negatively effect their attitudes, they have loving families, strong friendships and full lives and are fortunate to be able to obtain much more affordable health insurance that is available in here Massachusetts. Unfortunately, globalization and industrial automation have, among other things, lowered a lot of wages and as result, we as a nation have an obligation to assist our fellow citizens and we can work through a lot of these issues by continuing to support anti-poverty programs, as well as pro-growth economic policies, despite what you here from many of the talking heads out there, anti-poverty programs and pro-growth economic policies are not mutually exclusive, we can run down both tracks and we should, towards a better union.
Our president has doubled the food stamp rolls since taking office 4 years ago. It is an accomplishment he would like enshrined in the Obama presidential museum, but actually Is a sign of failure.