Who set the requirements of the contract in question?
The parties entering into the contract.
And what gave these unemployed people, about to enter into a contract with Walmart, any say in what they were about to sign? They're jobless, at the end of their rope, being offered a job by one of the largest corporations on Earth. What established not only their capability to demand
anything, but set down what they could expect to receive at minimum?
What changed from 1850 to the modern day that gave them such a cocky self-entitled attitude? Like you said, it's not like a thousand other uneducated, unemployed poor people wouldn't trip over themselves to work at Walmart even if they have to skip lunch. Why shouldn't Walmart just choose to hire those people?