Wal-Mart Good for America

wsj.com ^ | April 5, 2005 5:22 p.m. | Associated Press

[The Great Yazoo]

ROGERS, Ark. -- Wal-Mart is "good for America" and the barrage of criticism against the company is an effort to protect the status quo in retailing, President and CEO Lee Scott said Tuesday in a sharp attack on organized labor and retail rivals.

Addressing about 50 journalists gathered at the company's media conference -- it first ever media event – Mr. Scott defended its wages and health care plans, criticized by labor groups as inadequate, and said that the company is able to save customers big money as it drives costs out of its system.

"Innovation and competition tends to change the status quo," said Mr. Scott, speaking at a hotel in Rogers, a few miles from Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Bentonville headquarters.

[oldbrowser]

Not true by many of the military techies on this site. China bought 240 of th SU-30 fighter planes from Russia. One of the most advanced fighters in the world and is better than the F-15 or F-16.

I think they are very foolish if they are setting up for war. However, I agree, we can't take anything for granted. By the way, I thought The F/A 18 was considered an "aging" aircraft ? Don't we have any new technology in the works ?

[Eagles6]

It's not evolving for the better. The hope was that once the Chinese people saw freedom they would want it. China still has the slave labor camps, no freedoms, execution of political and religious prisoners. It has gotten worse since Tanammen Square.

[Eagles6]

Tanammen=Tianammen

[The Great Yazoo]

Cheap labor INHIBITS innovation -- look at ancient Egypt and slave based civilizations.

Re-take world history. You missed the pyramids, Greek philosophy, Roman organization and management, medieval Islamic mathematics and science, and the cotton gin, not to mention post-slavery but still cheap-labor-based Henry Ford's assembly line.

[Eagles6]

I have no problem with fair competition. Trade with china is not 'fair' competition.

[The Great Yazoo]

I have no problem with fair competition. Trade with china is not 'fair' competition.

Voluntary transactions are unfair only if one party is incompetently stupid. I, for one, don't think that describes America. Voluntary transactions among the competent, by definition, help both parties.

[kingu]

Remember when you are filling up your gas tank this summer at 3 bucks a gallon or more that the cheap commie junk you buy at Wal Mart is responsible.

There's just a tiny thing you can do; accept responsibility as a shopper. Look at the tag, figure out where it is made, and if you don't object to their government system, buy it. Otherwise, put it back down and walk away.

What is it with everyone who never wants to take responsibility for their own choices? Don't like Mexico; don't buy Mexican stuff. Don't like China? Don't buy stuff from China. It really isn't all that hard.

But to blame the retailer for giving you, god forbid, a choice.. So tell us, where is this magic place where you shop that has no Chinese junk in it?

[oldbrowser]

I have no problem with fair competition. Trade with china is not 'fair' competition.

I agree, but I don't know how to bring them in line.

[The Great Yazoo]

Remember when you are filling up your gas tank this summer at 3 bucks a gallon or more that the cheap commie junk you buy at Wal Mart is responsible.

I think I'll think to myself "How much of this is tax?"

[kingu]

I think I'll think to myself "How much of this is tax?"

Far too much, and what will anger me more is the fact that they'll charge sales tax on the increase caused by state and federal fuel taxes. Taxing a tax -- They do it for cigarettes, for fuel, for booze. Gotta love our system.

[The Great Yazoo]

Taxing a tax -- They do it for cigarettes, for fuel, for booze. Gotta love our system.

If the leftists were serious about the price of gasoline, they'd advocate tax cuts. Since Adam Smith, we've understood that taxes, whether on tobacco, booze, luxury boats, or fuel, distort price structures to the determent of the poor. Far more so than income tax cuts for the productive.

[kingu]

The leftists understand that consumer taxes are the quickest way to fund their pet programs. A quarter percent sounds really minor on a ballot question, and their favorite supports are usually firemen, police or the schools. All three are union bastions that will mostly use that new money for increases in wages, benefits and of course, union dues.

I really wonder some days if people understand the concept of public service anymore. It used to be a sacrifice for the betterment of all. Now it is the fast track to a quick retirement that you can enjoy in your next career.

[Iscool]

It was a big story about a month ago -- it happened at their store in Jonquiere, Quebec.

And that's great...Now the folks in Jonquiere are sending far less money to Communist Red China and keeping more of their Canadian dollars in Canada...That actually was a win/win situation for Canada...

[andy58-in-nh]

Cheap labor INHIBITS innovation - look at ancient Egypt and slave based civilizations

My candidate for the stupidest FR comment of the week.

Do you understand the difference between voluntary and involuntary? Between freedom and slavery? Cheap labor isn't coerced - it's the reason why tens of millions of formerly destitute people are now enjoying a standard of living that once unthinkable on such a scale. It was the engine that drove the Industrial Revolution - and as wealth was created, wages also rose, and workers were able to buy those things they first only helped to assemble - resulting in even more economic growth, better working conditions, and freer people. Read some basic Economics - Hayek, Friedman, von Mises, even Samuelson, for Pete's sake.

[Iscool]

"Free Trade" what a great idea! /sarcasm

You said
Yeah! Let's never trust freedom.

Yah, who's freedom??? China's???

Thanks to Wal-mart to a large degree, China has now acquired two new types of nuclear class submarines with nuclear missles with a range of 4600 miles that can strike anywhere within the U.S...

China has been buying (with U.S. dollars from Americans thru Wal-Mart) the latest Russian planes that have been proven to outfly our best F-15s and F-16s...

There is worry in our gov't that when Taiwan is attacked by China, we will be helpless to aid Taiwan...

China is supplying every country in the world that is perceived to be our enemy with advanced nuclear warheads and delivery systems as well as chemical and biological weapons...

You Me, Me, Me, types need to start thinking outside the little boxes you're in...You may not be concerned how you screw the country in your lifetime, but some of you have kids and grandkids that have to live in the mess you/we're creating...

[Walkin Man]

You are forgetting one little detail sir.

I don't have to buy any of the products you listed in your post. They can make the price of Diet Snapple one hundred dollars a bottle for all I care.

But...

I HAVE to buy gas, no matter how expensive it gets!

NO CHOICE! Get It? And that hurts!

All the dollars that I and millions of other Americans pump into the gas tank leave less money for the things you listed and the economy in turn will suffer if these prices continue to rise!

[Walkin Man]

Yeah! Let's never trust freedom.

Show me the "freedom" in communist China, will ya?

[A. Pole]

Cheap labor isn't coerced

Actually it can be and very often is, under the guise of "voluntary" contract. It can be done in number of ways.

Read some basic Economics - Hayek, Friedman, von Mises, even Samuelson, for Pete's sake.

Hayek, Friedman, von Mises represent a certain ideology. BTW, why this qualification "even" about Samuelson? Are his credentials in "basic Economics" suspect? Why?

[Paul Ross]

Remember when you are filling up your gas tank this summer at 3 bucks a gallon or more that the cheap commie junk you buy at Wal Mart is responsible. Cheap communist garbage in exchange for sky-high gas and diesel prices.

Bump!

[Xenalyte]

I have never been in a clean Wal-Mart. The stores are dirty, noisy, and smelly.

I figure that's why God invented Target.