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Welfare to Wal-Mart (It's Niman Time!)
ArtVoice via MediaStudy.com ^ | 5-12-05 | Michael I. Niman

Posted on 05/13/2005 8:24:27 AM PDT by Houmatt

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To: Houmatt
Wal-Mart pays its 1.3 million workers so little that they qualify for various forms of public assistance, mostly in the form of Medicaid, government provided children’s heath care programs, emergency home heating assistance, housing assistance, and so on.

I would argue that the threshold for receiving this kind of assistance is too low. Who's right?

61 posted on 05/13/2005 2:19:02 PM PDT by Hardastarboard
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To: Houmatt
Eighty percent of the more than 6,000 factories supplying Wal-Mart merchandise are located in China.

And what percentage of that number are AMERICAN companies that have moved overseas because of union thugs, over regulation, and onerous taxes?

Cry me a river.

This is what you get when you keep electing people beholden to unions and enviro-whackos.

62 posted on 05/13/2005 2:22:26 PM PDT by Gabz (My give-a-damn is busted.)
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To: sitetest; Toddsterpatriot

I think WM is playing looseytoosie with the numbers. They say they are buying 18 billion from china when in fact they probbaly are...directly from Chinese companies. However they are wanting you to believe that when they buy from B&D, an american company that those products are from America when in fact B&D makes them in China.

I've been on 4 WM missions and 65-75%(and I'm lowballing this) of the items on the shelf say made in china. i can only recall 10-15 items amde in the US and they were the cheap stuff like paper plates.

Why don't you go to WM yourself and check this out if you don't believe me. I betcha toddster already has and that's why he won't make the trip.


63 posted on 05/13/2005 2:29:25 PM PDT by superiorslots
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To: TheSpottedOwl
They're short tempered and miserable, for the most part. I can't blame them for wanting to unionize.

Maybe where you live - but definitely NOT where I live.

Broadbrush painting is not a good idea - and no, I neither work at or have any financial interest in Walmart

64 posted on 05/13/2005 2:30:58 PM PDT by Gabz (My give-a-damn is busted.)
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To: sitetest
I think that the cost of goods sold number you quote for Wal-Mart is actually the 2003 number (don't make me go pull out the annual reports again!!). I looked at the 2004 number this morning, and it was $219 billion and some change. As well, I think the 7.5% Chinese imports number may also be from 2003, but I'd have to go back and look at the data to verify that.

You're correct. This argument started before the Jan 05 financials were finished. All numbers were based on January 2004 financials, mostly 2003 sales.

65 posted on 05/13/2005 2:31:44 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Gabz

What is your antiunion fixation??

Do you really think the manufacturing jobs lost were all union?? I would venture to say that most were not. Most of th union jobs probaly fall under big ticket items like cars, bulldozers and airlines industries..and of course gov't jobs.

Unions only comprise what? 11-12% of all jobs. Probably most are gov't.


66 posted on 05/13/2005 2:33:24 PM PDT by superiorslots
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To: datura
Frigginidiot.

LOL! How intelligent. BTW, I won't stop shopping Wal-Mart because things are made in China. I will stop shopping Wal-Mart if they sell the abortion pill.

67 posted on 05/13/2005 2:34:50 PM PDT by The Ghost of FReepers Past (Legislatures are so outdated. If you want real political victory, take your issue to court.)
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To: sitetest; superiorslots
Sorry, but even this anti-Wal-Mart article says that Wal-Mart accounts for one-eighth of China's imports to the United States.

Who you gonna believe, the Congressional Committee on Education and the Workforce or Superiorslots? If you want some funny examples of Slots' previous problems with math, freepmail me.

68 posted on 05/13/2005 2:35:14 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: wideawake

here, here....I'm utterly shocked at anyone that could read that article and NOT see it as full of half-truths and a huge tool of propaganda. Wow. I'm stunned. And I'm not even a huge wal-mart consumer.


69 posted on 05/13/2005 2:35:24 PM PDT by Rushgrrl
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To: superiorslots
However they are wanting you to believe that when they buy from B&D, an american company that those products are from America when in fact B&D makes them in China.

WalMart said they bought $9 billion direct from China and $9 billion from suppliers, like B&D, in China.

70 posted on 05/13/2005 2:37:19 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Toddsterpatriot; superiorslots
WalMart's claim was off by a factor of 10, some of your union WalMart bashing buddies would have made a stink about it?

Since all the leftists would love to bury WalMart, which includes the MSM, there is no way they are fudging what they import from China. There's absolutely no upside for them to mislead the public here.

With 1.2 million employees in the U.S. alone, does anyone think there isn't significant management turnover? Does anyone doubt that some of these managers would be disgruntled? No way WalMart risks any of these ex-managers going to 60 Minutes with proof that they import more than they claim.

The only way Slots' numbers work is if you believe that WalMart is lying about how much they import and that the rest of the country combined only accounts for 25%-35% of all products imported. This is just as absurd and unbelievable as the information in the article.

71 posted on 05/13/2005 2:39:16 PM PDT by Mase
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To: TheSpottedOwl

but the employees at most of them don't want to unionize. You people talk about this article like it's truth - and like Wal-mart is paying people peanuts..IT'S RETAIL. Sorry but Target, just about anywhere in the mall is going to pay BARELY over min wage, if over it at all. I worked for min wage when I was a teenager but I guess THESE days working for min wage is beneath so many people. Some of the attitudes I see here disgust me.


72 posted on 05/13/2005 2:40:29 PM PDT by Rushgrrl
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To: carenot
Just as article stated.

Work off the clock and get advanced.

Don't and get fired.

I'll bet you never got overtime (except on Sunday and four Holidays/year) (which your state must have forced as they only give $1.00 elsewhere.

By the way no one at our local Wall-Marts ever get merit increases anymore, they unofficially did away with them. Male Dept. Managers get about $2.00 / hour more than the females but both turn over at a rate of more than 150% per year. Dept. Managers are not considered managers by Wall-Mart and get the same rotten insurance.
73 posted on 05/13/2005 2:46:30 PM PDT by ImphClinton (Four More Years Go Bush)
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To: superiorslots

why don't you try any other store in any enclosed mall, strip mall whatever shopping center you wanna try. Bet you won't find a whole lot different but Wal mart has a target on it's back because the owners are conservative and they are not backing down the being strong-armed by nosy union organizers. And you're helping. How humanitarian of you.


74 posted on 05/13/2005 2:49:22 PM PDT by Rushgrrl
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To: Houmatt
Unfortunately, our currency is becoming less and less attractive since there’s now very little commodity backing it up.

China, already burdened with a heavy surplus of U.S. dollars, still remains willing to buy more.

Who is this joker? Our currency is less attractive but China still buys more? Haha.

Simply put, what we are witnessing is the transfer of wealth from the U.S. to China.

China gets more and more of our "worthless currency" and this is a transfer of wealth?

How did the Chinese gain such a strategic advantage over the U.S. sixteen years after the Tiananmen Square massacre of Chinese democracy activists?

Strategic advantage? If we stopped buying from China our stuff at WalMart and Target would be a little more expensive but China would collapse.

The Congressional Committee on Education and Workforce estimates that this cost comes to an average of about $2,103 per Wal-Mart employee in federal money alone. Multiply $2,103 by 1.3 million Wal-Mart workers and the total hit to the federal government comes to over $2.7 billion dollars per year.

Who is this assclown? WalMart probably generates $18 billion in sales tax alone. They paid $5.589 billion in income tax. If their 1.3 million employees make $17,000 each that's $22 billion in salary and $1.37 billion in Social Security taxes. They paid $2.2 billion in dividends last year. If every "hit" to the federal government was as profitable as WalMart, there'd be no deficit.

75 posted on 05/13/2005 2:57:56 PM PDT by Toddsterpatriot (If you agree with Karl Marx, the AFL-CIO and E.P.I. please stop calling yourself a conservative!!)
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To: Gabz

Maybe because the WalMarts I have shopped in are all in So. California. A couple of people posted their positive experiences working for them. I don't think that they live in this state.

I was all for WalMart moving into this area, about 15 years ago. Their local ads said everything was made in America...at first. Then people started speaking up about where the stuff was really coming from. Remember Kathie Lee Gifford, and her clothing line fiasco? Central America child labor. Oooops. I had a neighbor whose daughter got a job at WalMart back in '99. She was going to community college, and needed certain hours free to attend school. Enter scheduling Russian Roulette. She was a very nice, hardworking girl. I think she ended up getting another part time job.

I get better service from Hispanic markets, Big Lots, and the 99 cent store, than I have at my local WalMart. 5 clerks to tell me where the twine apparently was not located.


76 posted on 05/13/2005 3:00:50 PM PDT by TheSpottedOwl (Free Mexico!)
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To: ImphClinton
Work off the clock and get advanced.

Get caught working off the clock or not taking breaks and you are fired.

77 posted on 05/13/2005 3:00:55 PM PDT by carenot (Proud member of The Flying Skillet Brigade)
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To: iconoclast
I judged the article on it content, didn't know the writer from a load of hay.

See that a lot here, but always on the doomer side.

78 posted on 05/13/2005 3:02:32 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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Comment #79 Removed by Moderator

To: ImphClinton

where in the post you replied to did it say work off the clock and get advanced. They stated that they worked every chance they had. Which, frankly, people in this country are spoiled, unwilling to do what we used to be willing to when it comes to work. The work ethics in this country now with the younger generations suck and posts like this don't make me wonder where it comes from.


80 posted on 05/13/2005 3:06:17 PM PDT by Rushgrrl
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