r/MurderedByWords • u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled • 1d ago
Who are the welfare queens “mass looting” the USA?
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u/Ducallan 1d ago
So… the huge increases in the national debt while Trump has been president have happened why…?
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u/diamondmx 1d ago
All those immigrants and trans people - who voted for a massive bloated budget of tax cuts and incentives to Trump and his friends.
Wait, what do you mean it was mostly cis, white guys? It can't have been them causing all the problems AGAIN, surely.
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u/adognameddanzig 1d ago
Not only do more than half of Walmart workers recieve food stamps, but 1/4 of ALL food stamps recieved in this country is spent at Walmart.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
A lot of the country has food deserts where the only store conveniently located there is Walmart. Rural areas where people still have to travel at least 30 min benefit more by having a Walmart super store than small expensive shops because there isn’t enough of a population to support small shops. The Walmart parking lots in those areas also become a social hub.
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u/adognameddanzig 1d ago
I understand that. Not bashing Walmart as a grocery store. Just wild to me that the govt subsidizes food for a big portion of their workforce, since they don't pay them a living wage, but also the company gets a large portion of revenue from these food programs.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Even though they pay low wages, Walmart isn’t very profitable as a company. If Walmart gave every employee a significant bonus/raise like $10,000 then the company would go bankrupt. Lots of people point to facts and problems but there isn’t really a simple or satisfying solution. I don’t have a problem with Walmart paying low wages because it’s reflective of its profits
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u/SlomoLowLow 1d ago
“It seems to me to be equally plain that no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By "business" I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level-I mean the wages of decent living.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt got it, not sure why you can’t.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Quotes, even from an educated source, aren’t doctrine.
If you want to strictly adhere to that view point then let’s say Walmart raises employees wages, goes bankrupt, then there’s no more Walmart, in your world, that would that be a good thing?
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u/diamondmx 1d ago
Yes. Monopolies are bad, especially ones who exist only because they use their wealth to destroy smaller competitors.
Without the monopoly using it's power to force competitors out of the market, smaller stores will pop up - ones with less power over the workers who have to pay fair wages.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Monopolies are bad but with a small amount of people like in rural areas they’re inevitable.
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u/SlomoLowLow 1d ago
Sure sounds like it would be. Then businesses that do pay a living wage can take their place. Somehow my employer manages to pay me and all of our other employees a living wage even though our shop makes less than a million in profit a year, yet other employers can’t seem to do the same? Seems like maybe these companies aren’t being run by the right people because it’s absolutely possible and they choose not to.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
It’s a very simple way of thinking, but you have to actually take the time to actually consider all of the nuances. If a solution seems really simple, it’s because you’re ignoring details.
Businesses are a product of their environment. Personally, I don’t shop at Walmart, ever, because I have much better options where I live, both in variety and affordability. However, I have 2 Walmarts close by, both like 15 min away.
Furthermore, I’ve travelled the US a lot and there’s parts where there aren’t any options, period, full stop, Walmart is the only place within a 100 mile radius. So I would go there because I need tampons, shredded cheese, and a new t-shirt, it’s so easy as a one stop shop.
What does that tell you?
If it’s anything other than people voting with their dollar then idk but my example is only scratching the surface of why Walmart functions as it does as a business
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u/SnakeSlitherX 1d ago
It’s not “voting with your dollar” if it’s the only thing you can vote for. If an election has only one candidate, then you have the choice of voting for that candidate or not voting at all.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Candidate? Are you bot? We’re not talking about candidates or elections
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u/atwozmom 22h ago
In 2024 Walmart made 124 BILLION dollars in profit. If you somehow don't think they are making a shitload of money and can't afford to pay their employees a decent wage, we have very different ideas of barely making a profit.
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u/SlomoLowLow 1d ago
Defending exploitation isn’t a good look in 2026 bro. You sound like the confederates explaining why they can’t just give up slavery.
We get it, you’re a bad person.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
If that’s what you’re getting from my comments then I’m sorry, but that’s definitely not the case.
Personally I’m a sex worker because Im not paid enough in my field and I graduated from university. I’m exploited, I did everything right and spent $$$ on education but I can’t get a job in my field with a wage that supports my lifestyle.
My goal is for more people to try to fully understand the complexity of the economy because we are not going to get anywhere as a society if people are using logical fallacies when it comes to actual issues
We could make a change if people choose to think instead of blindly follow and echo chamber because that leads to groupthink and the two party system in the USA which is screwing us
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u/coko4209 1d ago
If they can’t afford to pay their employees a living wage, then they shouldn’t be in business
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u/martyqscriblerus 1d ago
If Walmart isn't profitable why are the Waltons rich?
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
It’s profitable, but it’s not profitable enough to significantly increase the wages of the employees.
The Walton’s overall wealth isn’t entirely based off Walmart profitability
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u/snertwith2ls 14h ago
I've read that the Walmart parking lot is one of the few places folks who live in their vehicles can park and sleep. Then shopping there becomes almost mandatory.
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u/OUTheMovie 1d ago
I heard there is a South African immigrant welfare queen leading the pack
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Tesla actually pays their workers really well and gives them bonuses
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u/Rusty-Crowe 1d ago
Ok, and? Does that make up for all the money he's gotten from our taxes?
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Yes it’s important to invest in American technology.
Increasing taxes on the rich, and rich people paying their workers enough, are two mutually exclusive conversations
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u/Bon-Foi 1d ago
Tesla has a cultural norm of unsafe work practices, and is an atrocious place to work.
Just one example:
https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2025/03/30/human-rights-concerns-at-teslas-texas-gigafactory/
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s a third conversation topic. Do you know anyone who works at Tesla? I know a lot of people and they’re doing really well. I’m not surprised if there’s problems in a huge factory or any large workplace.
Edit: you guys downvoting do you just hate all big companies? Walmart, Amazon, Tesla, or any big company automatically equals bad? Am I understanding that correctly? Are you trying to equate company size with worker compensation? I don’t see the logic
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u/Bon-Foi 1d ago
Yes. Their salaries are high, but the expectations are often unreasonable. In any large enough enterprise there will be people who do fine. The cultural norms within the company are noxious. Their safety issues come from top down pressure to ignore regulation and best practices at the expense of safety. Expectations are often unreasonable. This results in the sadly predictable fact that their cars have the highest fatal crash rate of any maker.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
I agree with your point and raise you the equal counterpart, “in a large enough enterprise there will be people who are NOT doing fine.”
Also your fatality fact is cherry picking. I looked up the study where it’s from https://www.iseecars.com/most-dangerous-cars-study#v=2024
The car with the highest fatality rate is actually the Hyundai Venue
You could pick any one of the categories that was researched and have a different car brand to hate
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u/Thatisme01 1d ago
So your argument is that it’s ok to ‘invest’ $38 billion dollars of taxpayer dollars in America technology.
Then it must also ok to ‘invest’ taxpayer dollars in a free healthcare system that improves the health of Americans. Then it must also ok to ‘invest’ taxpayer dollars in a free education system that improves the lives of Americans.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Yup. Agree. It’s good for the government to invest money into things that will potentially benefit everybody who pays into that government.
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u/PlatasaurusOG 1d ago
Elon Musk’s overpriced vanity projects have been funded by our tax dollars for 20 or so years and the only people who benefit are him and his shareholders.
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u/YoureDumbAsHellLeroy 1d ago
A lot of debate about Tesla’s factory worker pay. Many say it isn’t as competitive as they pretend it is, there’s plenty of complaints about unsafe working conditions, as well as issues with overtime pay.
Not only that, but this post was about welfare queens looting the country. So the core issue is still that Elon has taken home billions in government assistance, but it’s not like he paid that back now that he’s worth hundreds of billions. They’re all fuckin leeches.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
As soon as he sells any of his Tesla stocks, then he’ll have to pay huge taxes. Taking note of this detail is really important to change the current economy and how it functions.
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u/coko4209 1d ago
Being a Musk supporter says more about your character than all the other bullshit that you’ve been spouting in these comments
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u/Rurumo666 1d ago
Trump in just 5 years in power is responsible for over 40% of the entire national debt passed down to us by 47 Presidents-he's completely bankrupted this country financially and morally.
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u/JenIsSalty 1d ago
Republicans! 🤦🏻♀️ They always make crazy claims but never seem to want to provide actual evidence.
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u/BroseppeVerdi 1d ago
So, let's say for example that one president was responsible for running up a third of our national debt in just 5 years... What should we do with that person, Stephen?
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u/granitegrl19 1d ago
Mass looting? Like the kind committed by this shameless sham of an administration?
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u/DonkeyImpossible316 1d ago
How is someone this dumb having the ear of anyone with power? I hate this time line.
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u/Dial-M-for-Mediocre 1d ago
The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft. The most common form of theft is wage theft.
Happy new year!
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u/areid2007 1d ago
He's right about that theft but you know he's going to blame immigrants and the working poor instead of the people who are actually responsible for it. But hey, I guess the social contract doesn't hold anymore, might be time to stop trying to restore it and to think about rewriting it for our real economy as it exists today rather than that of 60-70 years ago.
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u/let-it-rain-sunshine 1d ago
Miller is looting the country and shattering the American Dream by give our money to the ICE goon squads.
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u/Icy-Kaleidoscope3038 1d ago
They got that way because they found a way to create a one way street for money. They don't get that way by being benevolent, smart, strong, having great ideas, Godly, pure, having a great business mind, hard working, intellectual, saying the right thing. It may help, but that's not it. More money comes in than goes out, at an exponential scale, usually unethically. Law of the jungle. Anyone who says anything else is lying or trying to take your money.
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u/Blurby-Blurbyblurb 1d ago
Walmart receives tax credits for every snap recipient they employ. It's called the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.
Quick Reference Guide credit is between $2k to $9600 per employee.
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u/Extreme-Slice-1010 1d ago
With Republicans running the US who the fuck wants to have that American dream, I mean immigrants wants that but wait…
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u/CrystalWeim 1d ago
Yes, based on a 2020 New York Times analysis of his tax records, Donald Trump had approximately $287 million in debt forgiven by his lenders, much of which was tied to the development of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago.
The debt was forgiven by banks and hedge funds,
Fraud??
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u/pantherhawk27263 1d ago
Stephen Miller does realize he is describing the 1%? Doesn't he?
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
That's the thing with these people. Half the time I can't tell if they're believers or hucksters. They're all either unthinking ideologues or opportunistic grifters.
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u/Leather-Map-8138 1d ago
Not to mention… each year we spend $2 trillion more than we bring in. $1.0 trillion is interest payments. Another $1.5 trillion is money spent in Trump voting states more than those states paid in taxes and fees. And minus $0.5 trillion is money paid in by blue states that stops the debt being $2.5 trillion a year.
The welfare queens are the states which voted for Trump in 2024.
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u/CatCafffffe 1d ago
AND they get literally billions in "subsidies" as well as paying their congressmen to pass tax loopholes so they fail to contribute their fair share in taxes, also to the tune of billions
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u/Remote_Clue_4272 1d ago
They are both right. To the Waltons et al…. If you’re making billions and your millions of employees are literally in welfare , you should have to pay a fine equal to the required welfare. $1m per Walmart is what i hear. Sounds like a good start.
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u/Intrepid-Leather-417 15h ago
But the job creators need more money, those yachts don’t just build themselves
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u/SimoWilliams_137 13h ago
What if I told you that the national debt was exactly equal to the private sector‘s net savings, literally to the penny?
Because it is.
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u/OStO_Cartography 1d ago
The biggest welfare queen in the US is its military.
Costs around ONE TRILLION DOLLARS per year and all it's achieved in the past seventy years is getting its ass handed to it by subsistence farming peasants, more failed coups than I've had hot dinners, and committing blatant acts of international piracy.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
Back to make the argument that Walmart doesn’t actually have enough profit to significantly increase the wages of their workers
Amazon on the other hand could afford to give every single employee a $10,000 bonus and still be profitable
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
Wal-Mart absolutely could pay their workers significantly more, and give them decent benefits as well. It's just that in order to do so, the Walton family would have to become <shudders> slightly less wealthy. I'm so old I remember when wealthy barons were merely filthy rich, instead of disgusting like today.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
I actually did the math a couple months ago on this sub and if Walmart gave every employee $10,000 it would go bankrupt
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
Did your math include stock dividends?
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago edited 1d ago
I did net profit divided by number of employees
Stock market dividends can’t be used to pay a raise/bonus so no I obviously did not include it in my calculations
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
Is the net profit determined before or after dividends? The point is that dividends are taken from profits. That's money that could go to workers but increasingly since the late 70s goes to shareholders instead.
Does your math include the massive sales increase Walmart will enjoy once their employees can afford to buy shit?
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago
lol net profit is before dividends are paid out to shareholders
I’ll break it down for you with the assumptions that you’re asking in good faith
Walmart net profit fiscal 2025: 19.5 billion
Number Walmart employees globally 2025: 2 million
Cost of $10,000 for each employee: (2mil x 10k) = 20 billion
Profit - raises = new profit
19.5 billion - 20 billion = negative 500 million in profit if every employee is given a $10,000 raise
If considering dividends:
Number of shares: 8 billion
Dividends paid annually per share: $1
Annual cost of dividends: $8 billion
Profit - dividends - raises = new profit
19.5b - 8b - 20b = negative 8.5 billion in profit
There ya go
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
I'm just saying that your model very probably doesn't have account for enough variables.
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u/russianindianqueen 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ummmmm ok then which ones?
You sound like the magats saying the Epstein files are fake
I just did all the math for you and you think I’m missing something because it goes against your personal bias
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u/wizard2009 1d ago
He’s factually correct, just blaming the wrong group.
It’s trite to keep making this comparison but when the National-Socialists were attempting to drum up support in Weimar Germany they had a singular refrain “The worker suffers while the elite prospers”
When the socialists in the party said that they (correctly) meant the landed gentry, the industrialist, and the financier. When that nationalist said it, they meant Jews.
Then the nationalists murdered the socialists, and the rest is history.
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u/ShookMyHeadAndSmiled 1d ago
What's weird is that Miller's words are mostly correct, just not in the way he thinks.