[KOZ.]

fyi

[Thebaddog]

It's a union thang. I saw an interview in Crains where the black Alderwoman who's district one of the stores would be in wants the deal.

And does anybody have a leash for Fr. Phleger?

[Chi-townChief]

Always good to hear from flaky Father Mike. And then when no jobs at all come their way, he can preach about that as well.

[arjay]

Let's see... WalMart wants to move in to a neighborhood and sell stuff cheaper than its competitors. The folks there can buy more for less money.

Yet, they protest against it.

If they don't want it, let them pay higher prices.

[mvpel]

It was reported in CNN that Wal-Mart recieved $245 million in so-called "subsidies" by governments interested in having a store in their town.

And how much in income and sales tax did Wal-Mart pay, as compared to the $245 million in "subsidies," I wonder?

Let's see, they had $256,329,000,000 in sales in FY2003.

At a national average combined sales tax rate of 8%, that comes to $20,506,320,000 worth of sales tax paid to cities, towns, and states. Even if you assume half that amount, given that so many people in Massachusetts shop Wal-Mart in tax-free New Hampshire and other tax-avoidance situations, that's still over $10 billion dollars.

They had $9,054,000,000 in net income, a figure that has been increasing steadily for years, and they paid, as of Jan 04, $5,118,000,000 in state and federal income taxes.

The so-called "subsidies" provided by cities and towns nationwide looking to land a Wal-Mart store, adding up to $245 million, amount to nearly a 6,400% return on investment.

And that doesn't count the money collected from the purchasing and income of the store's employees.

I'd lay money on the "free" land they got being government-owned brownfields unmarketable to any other buyer.