Can Walmart remain profitable without taxpayers subsidizing the lives of their workers?

I remember the days when Sam Walton was alive. If you can find old-timers from those days who helped grow Walmart, whether they were janitors, cashiers, stockers, or managers, they got a fair share of the profits and a piece of the company. They had full time jobs with Walmart back then, and then, they all retired in dignity.

After Sam died, things started changing very quickly. First the “Made in the USA” products were gone. Full-time employment dwindled, and I even remember getting squeezed by the clock. Having to stand and wait for the hour to turn to punch in, and having to punch out, even if there were carts to pull in as I left, more work to do. And overtime was a big no-no.

Years since then, they started giving customers a hard time on returns, and then they did away with competitive pricing, no longer striving to bring the lowest prices to customers. Simultaneously, we've seen wages stagnate across the country, and Walmart and similar retailers employ vast numbers of people who rely on government assistance, that is taxpayers subsidize their lives, which means Walmart doesn't pay their workers enough to prosper. Yet, the Walton family seems to be doing quite well. I hear they are worth millions now.

So, COVID has spurred the people. People are demanding a fairer share of the wealth we all create. And recently, I think we're seeing some of the impact of that in the earnings reports for exploitive businesses. For example, Walmart has just posted the worst day since 1987. They enumerate a variety of reasons for this, but I imagine one strong reason is that it is beginning to cost more for them to hold onto workers. People simply don't want to live in poverty anymore while watching uber wealthy people prosper even more.

That begs the question, in today's climate, can an aging company, not progressively pushing the technology and efficiency forward, but instead relying on low wage employees… can they remain profitable or are worse times coming for this stock/company?

Should we invest in WMT or short the hell out of it?

Edit: Does a downvote mean short and an upvote mean buy? I should have made this a survey.

EditX2: Reference: https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/17/investing/walmart-earnings-inflation-stock/index.html