[MrOwen]

I didn't get "poorest" out of gp's mention of welfare recipients. I took it to mean corporations who rely on government subsidies to make a profit, a good example being the huge percentage of Walmart workers on gov food assistance. I think you also get tax breaks for hiring people on welfare programs so it's almost like double dipping welfare on Walmart's end.

[RecycledEle]

By "welfare recipients," I mean poor people on welfare who could work if they had a better attitude.

I mean the kind of people that were offended when I offered them each a cheap flashlight during a power outage. (We were all standing outside.) One of them said he would take what he wanted. He demanded the very best flashlights that money could buy. I declined, and I guess he thought I was tougher than him, so he eventually left after some more posturing. I never got his name.

I mean the kind of people who fake injury claims and collect disability for the rest of their lives, under 8 different identities. Their names were Tony and Theon.

[toofy]

do you also see, as the parent brought up with “… huge percentage of Walmart workers on gov food assistance.” and i’ll stick with walmart here for the sake of continuity, the other well know instance where walmart has a significant drain on local police departments. target brand stores, in the same neighborhoods don’t have this problem. target stores have significantly more people employed, which leads to a significant reduction in theft—would be thieves see an employee organizing, cleaning, stocking, etc… in just about every direction they look which discourages them from stealing. walmart just externalizes the cost onto the local police departments allowing walmart to bring in more profits.

do you consider what the parent pointed out, intentionally hiring below poverty wages, and the externalizing basic business costs onto local, often small town, police to be “welfare leeching?”

what about the companies who go out of their way to hire armies of accountants and lawyers to play games in order not to pay taxes?

what about the companies who engage in wage theft? there has been a number of reputable studies which show that wage theft may absolutely dwarf other forms of theft such as shoplifting.

if you consider these things leeching, then i think your point probably stands. but if one of those groups is not a leech, yet the other is, i don’t think your point stands at all.

if you do consider the instances i brought up to be leeches, which do you think “leeches” more? companies across the board who go out of their way to avoid taxes, wage theft, and externalizing costs? or poor people on welfare?

[pjc50]

> One of them said he would take what he wanted. He demanded the very best flashlights that money could buy

This is such a bizarre encounter that it's hard to take it as representative of anything other than one weirdo.