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Maybe it’s time to drop the picket signs and pick up a copy of The Road to Serfdom
Flopping Aces ^ | 11-27-12 | Vince

Posted on 11/27/2012 9:44:30 AM PST by Starman417

It was with great interest that I watched Facebook catch fire with support of the calls for picketing and sick-outs at Wal-Mart stores across the country on Black Friday. From what I could tell, most of those supporting the calls were liberals who attacked the company with claims that it doesn’t pay “a living wage”, “exploits” its workers, or owes its workers health care. I even saw one fantastical claim that a majority of Wal-Mart employees are on food stamps. The suggestion was that Wal-Mart should be forced (via government itself or indirectly via unions) to change completely how it deals with its employees in terms of salary and benefits.

To set the record straight, according to Business Insider, Wal-Mart pays its workers an average of $11.75 per hour, just slightly below retail’s national average of $12.04 and well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The company itself states that the average non-manager employee earns between $10 & $12 per hour.

Those wages are at least sufficient to make Wal-Mart the largest employer in the country, with a current headcount of over 1.4 million employees. And no one forced those employees to take those jobs. One of the beauties of freedom is that employees are free to work at Wal-Mart or they can take their labor and sell it to someone else… or better yet, they could start their own businesses.

I couldn’t help but think back to the nonsensical Occupy Wall Street protests of a year ago. Many of the participants were carrying around signs decrying Wall Street for its profit mongering and the harm big businesses were inflicting on small businesses and the little guy. Of course their solution of choice was more regulation. Naturally.

Both of these instances reveal more about the protesters than it does about the companies being pilloried. The very regulations they seek are one of the reasons big businesses are so successful verses small businesses in the first place.

(excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; Politics
KEYWORDS: ows; unions; walmart

1 posted on 11/27/2012 9:44:37 AM PST by Starman417
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To: Starman417
One side effect of forced unionization is the fact that it creates opposition within their own ranks.

Michigan UAW Member Demands Right to Work Law

Forced solidarity is no solidarity at all. Even prisoners in a chain gang have “solidarity.”
2 posted on 11/27/2012 9:49:32 AM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Starman417

Walmart is the Holy Grail to union organizers. It would mark a 180 degree turning point from Reagan firing the air traffic controllers.

Sooner or later I do expect Walmart to unionize. The Obamaites will make their life a living hell until they do.


3 posted on 11/27/2012 9:59:45 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Starman417
For those who have not read F.A. Hayek's book The Road To Serfdom, I highly recommend that you do. You will be aghast at the similarities between the times he discuses and now.

Then read Atlas Shrugged

4 posted on 11/27/2012 10:21:20 AM PST by Aevery_Freeman (The trouble with the "masses" is that they never achieve the "m")
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To: Aevery_Freeman
The Reader's Digest Condensed version of The Road to Serfdom is available here, free.
5 posted on 11/27/2012 10:34:03 AM PST by AZLiberty (No tag today.)
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To: AZLiberty

*


6 posted on 11/27/2012 11:09:17 AM PST by PMAS (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing)
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To: Starman417
Wal-Mart pays its workers an average of $11.75 per hour, just slightly below retail’s national average of $12.04 and well above the federal minimum wage of $7.25. The company itself states that the average non-manager employee earns between $10 & $12 per hour.

I shop Walmart all the time and the employees seem happy enough. Many older folks supplementing insufficient retirement plans or the double loss of funds from the two crashes and a host of younger folks who are getting their foot in a door that has paths to higher-paying management jobs. The wife of a co-worker who was in the Navy worked at Walmart locally for a couple years and when they got orders to move, Walmart coordinated with Walmart in the new area to ensure she got picked up with accrued "tenure". My uncle (retired from KODAK) and my brother work at Walmart in NY State and the company will work with you as far as scheduling and working around personal issues, just so long as you follow the procedures that are in place. IOW, Walmart makes the best of both worlds - part time supplement or career path.

7 posted on 11/27/2012 11:27:59 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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To: Starman417

I'm not rich but this commie bitch can BITE ME!

8 posted on 11/27/2012 11:36:37 AM PST by The Sons of Liberty ( Fast and Furious , Benghazi - What's 0bama's current body count?)
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To: The Sons of Liberty

I think the young lady missed part of the food chain.

Shortly before they eat “the rich”, they’ll be eating a lot of lead.


9 posted on 11/27/2012 12:12:16 PM PST by chrisser (Starve the Monkeys!)
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To: AZLiberty
The Reader's Digest Condensed version of The Road to Serfdom is available here, free.
Good job, beat me to it.

10 posted on 11/27/2012 1:34:31 PM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion (The idea around which “liberalism" coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
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To: Aevery_Freeman; conservatism_IS_compassion; AZLiberty

Then read this:

http://www.supremelaw.org/fedzone11/index.htm


11 posted on 11/27/2012 2:02:43 PM PST by phockthis (http://www.supremelaw.org/fedzone11/index.htm ...)
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