Posted on 05/02/2006 11:56:46 PM PDT by Joe Bfstplk
Wal-Mart is the only corporation in the world that I know of or have ever heard of that is hated because it is successful. What do these critics want Wal-Mart to do? Fail? Start selling $300 shirts like Saks Fifth Avenue?
Of course, some of the hatred is coming from unions, which have tried but, so far as I know, failed to unionize Wal-Mart's work force. That one thing tells you that it must be a much better deal to work for Wal-Mart than its critics let on. Some of the disdain comes from leftist snobs who think they should run the lives of the peasants who work and shop there.
I am a small-town guy who has hated to see so many locally owned small businesses go under, but that's not Wal-Mart's fault. That trend started years ago with suburban sprawl (a major contributor to the energy crisis, by the way), suburban shopping malls, strip malls and all the other discounters that preceded Wal-Mart in prominence. It was caused by the American public's preference to buy based on price, rather than on service or quality. It was caused by local politicians converting the National Defense Highway System (the interstates) into suburban and urban commuter systems by routing them through instead of around the cities.
Wal-Mart is one of the best-run corporations in the world. The individual consumer has no clout with suppliers and manufacturers. Wal-Mart uses its enormous buying clout to get consumers the best price at the best quality possible. Being a supplier to Wal-Mart is no picnic, as the company is quite demanding.
It's not Wal-Mart's fault that much of its merchandise is manufactured in China. The late Sam Walton went to extraordinary lengths to help American manufacturers, but Wal-Mart doesn't control any corporation except itself. The move to China is not coming from Wal-Mart, but from greedy manufacturing corporations that love cheap and controlled labor. If your competitor is selling an American brand-name product made in China cheaper than you can buy one here, and if the customer says, "I don't care where it's made as long as I can afford it," what are you going to do?
More recently, Wal-Mart has been slammed for not providing what its critics think it should in the way of medical insurance. Well, why is General Motors flirting with bankruptcy? Why is Ford Motor Co. in financial trouble? Why, for that matter, is the federal government in financial trouble? The stinking hag in this room that everyone is ignoring is the high cost of medical service.
You can't provide low-cost health care or low-cost medical insurance for a system run by millionaire doctors and six-figure hospital administrators, and that has 1,200 percent profit margins for drugs and medical devices. The health-industry attitude is, we'll profiteer like crazy, and you people find a way to pay us. If Congress were not a bought-and-paid-for whore, America could join the rest of the industrialized world with a reasonable health-care system.
Health-care costs are one of the key factors in making American manufacturers uncompetitive. Now that the state of Maryland has presumed to dictate what kind of benefits Wal-Mart provides, if I ran the company, I'd close every store in the state and put the property up for sale. This is just one more ploy in the anti-Wal-Mart crusade.
We have reached a sick and perverted point in our culture when honesty and success bring attacks, mainly from people who either don't know what they are talking about or have a hidden agenda.
Millions of Americans who earn low wages from other employers rely on Wal-Mart to help them stretch their family budget. Wal-Mart has kept faith with those people. I've never found a dirty store, a rude employee or a defective product in a Wal-Mart store.
If you prefer to pay more than something's worth in exchange for some phony ambience or fancy label, go right ahead. In the meantime, get off Wal-Mart's back. It's one of the few entities in this country that is doing the right thing the right way for the right reasons.
Yes, they do. If they didn't want lower prices, they probably wouldn't be shopping at WalMart.
Maybe I missed where consumers were picketing stores demanding cheaper lawn sprinklers, but I doubt it.
If customers really don't care, you should be able to make a killing selling higher priced products made in the US, or at least not China. But customers by their actions indicate that they really do like cheaper lawn sprinklers.
And I don't demand higher profits where it leads to the evisceration of the American manufacturing base
US manufacturing output keeps rising, albeit with fewer workers due to large productivity increases.
This article is pure BS. It tries to state that Wal-Mart is an innocent victim who is sold Chinese goods against their will.
Wal-Mart seeks out Chinese goods. Period.
That's why I like Ace Hardware, makes it easy to get in and out of the place, they know where everything is and can help you figure out what you need. Much better than Home Depot where you have to lasso somebody to ask a question and the only answer they ever seem to have is "that not in this section, I think it's in (insert section on the other side of the store)".
Wal-Mart seeks out cheap goods. Because that's what their customers want.
Well, we can see that you've read the default response playbook on how to color the dialogue with nonsense. Go stand in the corner.
A depression.. you mean going back to the model that made us a wealthy nation prior to free trade will lead us to a depression. I think you'll need to establish that factually.
Your Smoot Hawley reference is sheer moronic nonsense. Nobody is recommending any such thing. Just another strawman from the treason playbook to color the argument with utter nonsense.
No, sorry. The market based economy in the USA has not always sold out America and Americans for profit. The leftists, maybe.. eg the Rosenburgs..
Damn Walmart for being successful.
Damn Walmart for being successful under capitalism.
Neither is the case. The case was stated plainly. You can't respond to the real issue - selling out America for profit.
Since you can't address that with a straight face and come out smelling of roses, you lie about what the argument is and argue a strawman. You get a time out for deciet. Bye.
How can any rational person hate a system that employs millions of people and then complain that they destroy lives.
Response: "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics"
Every company is in business to make money. Every gun is made to be fired. So by your logic, murder doesn't exist because, hey, that gun was made to be fired. You can't punish someone for putting that gun to it's proper use.. Oh, that's right, there's that thing called ethics.. of which patriotism is a part. I suppose that by your thinking, the Rosenburgs should have been acquited because, hey, they were in business to make money afterall. It doesn't matter by your logic how they do it so long as they make money..
You guys have no shame.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but wal-mart has no obligation to anyone but its shareholders.
I don't think America was destroyed by proper market pricing prior to free trade and Nafta. In fact, it boomed. Curious, that. Curious how companies prior to free trade and Nafta helped make this the wealthiest nation in the world without selling us out. Apparently, trade deals in the modern age are like an ethical circumcision license. Screw america for profit is the new moral highground in the RNC. Pretty sick.
It isn't nonsense. It's a legitimate and proper beef. It just isn't the one you would like to make this about because you can argue the strawman. But, you have to either circumcise your ethics and conscience or face the truth in the argument I offered. Imagine that, actually dealing with the truth on a public forum.. how quaint.
Right, Walmart sells out US companies for profit. Undermining the economy and scuttling the country, we are to believe, is ok if a profit motive is involved. So, lets get to it. We all need to announce to the World media that we're going to dig up all the spies we've put to death in this country for treason since it's inception and pardon them, move them and rebury them in a place of honor with full military honors because, hey, a profit motive was involved afterall...
I'll put a fine point on it, and it is this: This is America. WalMart is an American company. And they have an obligation to this country whether you can see past profit motive or not.
The only obligation a company has is to obey the laws and pay required taxes. Anything else is icing on the cake.
If you want wal-mart to change its ways, then lobby for different laws.
I was tickled by a story from Mexico City I read on FR last week, discussing the popularity of Wal-Mart there for the low prices.
I said it before and I'll say it again. Companies in this country have a responsibility not to sell out the country for profit. If you don't like that, tough, it's your problem. They do have that responsibility. The older generation and the ethical amongst the new still know that. Those of you that seem to have forgotten what ethics and patriotism are do get it. You just would rather make profit than be loyal.. Again, see the Rosenburgs.
Oh, give us a break. Walmart brings cheaply manufactured chinese junk into the country to undercut local pricing and drive Americans out of business with their means of making a profit.. slave labor rates vs. US labor rates. This all used to be a common sense discussion before Greed overtook the political machine full bore and the politiciams stopped listening to America and started pandering to business. What's next? Why don't you go sell your mother if profit motive is all that matters?
And btw, US wages were never unreasonable. Nor is your opinion on them worth anything. They were arrived out through supply and demand. Or are you arguing that supply and demand was unfair?
Okay, this is a small point, but it bugs me: it's The Rosenbergs and not Rosenburgs. With an "e."
I'd also remind you that they broke the law, were caught and punished. But there was a law on the books that they broke.
That said, companies are machines. Those who work for them are not going to risk their careers (i.e. house, cars, kids' education, etc.)by making a morally correct but unprofitable choice.
That is the harsh, grown-up reality. If you want a company to act counter to profit then pass a law. Otherwise the company will continue to pursue profit in any way it can.
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