Corporate Greed Is Bad For America Essay

During his campaign Bernie Sanders said something that resonated with me “Corporate greed is a scourge on this country”, and the biggest example of this is Walmart. The owners of Walmart are one of the wealthiest family in America, they make billions of dollars each year, yet, they ride on the backs of taxpayers by taking advantages of the benefits and tax breaks at their expense in order to subsidize their businesses. There are so many reasons why Walmart is bad for America; it has put so many small retailers out of business; they have filled our landfills with cheap garbage; they have destroyed countless millions of acres with their sprawling mega stores; they have forced the elimination of domestic manufacturing with its cheaply sourced goods AND most importantly, they have created a class of poorly paid workers who need public assistance to get by. No business operating in America should be allowed to pay less than a living wage for its employees. They're exploiting the system, yet they refuse to accept their responsibilities as Americans.

Kant states that “you should always act in such a way that you would not be being self-contradictory if you desired that everyone else acts by the maxim you act by.” Under this principle regarding wage determination, an employer must ask if he or she believes that paying a full-time employee a wage that is below the poverty level in effect uses that employee as a means to accomplish the employer’s own ends without honoring the employee’s dignity. It would be delusional for an employer to conclude that a worker would think working a full-time job for pay that keeps them in poverty is being treated with dignity and respect, clearly If a corporation can afford to pay its CEO millions and millions of dollars they can surely afford to pay their workers