S.T.E.M. WORKERS, FARMING, WALMART AND OTHER SIGNS THAT CAPITALISM IS DYING ON THE VINE,

Karl Marx wrote that capitalism was ultimately doomed due to the greed of the richest classes. He may have been right which is terribly ironic as he failed to see the same fatal flaw in Communism which doomed that from the start as well (if everything is shared, he who does the dividing will inevitably keep more for himself and his friends). Greed is the worst trait in mankind followed closely by watching repeats of any show with a Kardashian in it. We are starting to see for the first time how bad capitalism has become as the people who pay salaries have decided they would rather watch the world burn than give people a raise.


Alabama and Georgia attempted to stop illegals from working in farms and when that happened, they discovered no one really wanted to work for three dollars an hour. So instead of increasing the amount of money they would pay people to attract workers (the very definition of free market factors) these douchebag owners let food rot on the plants rather than increase wages to pick the damned fruit. Nevermind the fact that the owners are all rich beyond words, they want slaves to work the fields meaning almost nothing has changed since the 1850's. We've just altered the definition of slavery. This has resulted in more and more food being imported from overseas whose quality standards are far lower than ours and becomes more expensive due to shipping costs. This is NOT capitalism but profiteering. This in turn lowers all salaries and is one of the major reasons this country is falling apart.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I keep hearing how this country doesn't have enough STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) workers and that there are thousands of jobs just waiting to be filled. What they don't tell you is that the reason a lot of these jobs are open is that they want to pay people far less than the going rate. Who is going to take a job requiring tons of experience for a measly $40,000 a year when there are plenty of others that pay $80,000+? These jobs are not being filled because they cannot find workers but because they are not offering the types of salaries that would attract said workers. It turn, because of this mythical shortage, companies are demanding more worker VISA's from other countries who are perfectly happy working for less, thus dropping salaries across the board again. If you want to know why there are tons of Indians working in IT jobs, that is why. They will work for far less money that an US worker. Now because of this, many in the US declined to pursue these fields as who wants to go hundreds of thousands in debt to compete against someone who is willing for half of what you will need just to pay back your mortgage sized loan?


It also doesn't help that many recent grads in STEM degrees have a unrealistic view of how much money they will paid upon looking for a job. Without experience of any sort, which few have, their chances of landing a high paying job is limited and again, that huge debt becomes crushing after a while. Because of this, many are unable to buy a house, a new car or even start a family which is leading to a rapid decline in middle class living and an immense amount of graduates living at home for some time.

Lastly, let's look at Wal-Mart, probably one of the worst companies on Earth for destroying mom and pop businesses and deflating salaries. Nevermind the fact that the Walton family is the richest on Earth, they are not giving up one red cent for their slaves, I mean workers. Unfortunately, just like Marx predicted, this level of greed of starting to have serious repercussions. Wal-Mart profits have started to drop by as much as 20% and, overseas, their stores are in free-fall. Austerity measures, which have NEVER worked ever, are having the same effect they always have had which is decreasing buying power of the middle class which leads to a further break down of society.


As everyone else has done, "bad weather" has been used to blame weak sales in the first quarter of this year, but this bucks a trend that has been going on for far longer. Wal-Mart has been declining in sales for some time now and weather is the least of their problems. The biggest problem is the same one Henry Ford faced when he realized that if he paid his workers enough money to buy his product, he would be far richer as his employees would be far more likely to afford his wares. Wal-Mart pays their slaves next to nothing, which means they can't even afford to shop at the same shitty store they work in and, because of that, profits are starting to plummet.

Wal-Mart stock is depreciating at an alarming rate because of this as seen in the graph below.




At this rate, they could be Sears, JC Penny or Kmart overnight.

Because the middle class is dead and even poor people have no money to shop, as recent data suggests, Wal-Mart's low wage growth is killing them. People are going elsewhere to shop that have better prices like Amazon and specialty stores like Williams-Sonoma ,Lululemon, and Michael  Kors, among others.

Because Wal-Mart has failed to move into online shopping (their site is terrible by the way), they are losing to those that are. Because they don't pay people enough, others are staying away in protest or because they have no money. Either way, Wal-Mart may be screwed.

The point of all of this is that capitalism is dying because all these assholes who supposedly worship at the altar of free market nonsense, do not follow any of those actual norms. They want to be oligarchs, not business leaders, which again, is what Marx would say would happen. It's too bad he couldn't come up with an alternate economic form that worked far better than communism. Someone better soon because time is running out for the rest of us.