Posted on 05/26/2005 6:27:37 PM PDT by Clintonfatigued
Because of Wal-Mart's inadequate wages and benefits, Wal-Mart employees are eligible for $2.5 billion in Federal assistance, which comes from your tax dollars.
(Excerpt) Read more at wakeupwalmart.com ...
It's great, isn't it?!!!!!!!!
The other thing that I would mention is the drive behind the kids of new immigrants. I see these kids on the subway and in diners, etc. and listen to them. I read about the types of projects that are winning Intel competitions, etc.
Those who are home schooling, not paying attention to their kids' education or advocating cutting back on funding for schools in their area have no idea what's coming down the pike in five or ten years. These are extraordinarily motivated individuals.
I hear you.
But a conversation regarding education is totally out of the realm of the topic of this thread.
Not a roll on the floor and plan to keep my a**, but that is funny. The only thing . . . the soil is probably radioactive and will produce radioactive turnips. Lame, I know, but it's late.
I come from a long line on all sides of generations of American yeomen (farmers), and they were self-sufficient. Paid everything in cash. If they didn't have the cash, they improvised and used scraps for writing paper. They weren't poor, just thrifty. It wasn't quite all that neat and tidy for all of them, but that was a way of life. Still have the receipts for the farmhouse materials they bought and paid cash for in the first decade of the 1900's. If you owned your own land free and clear, that was your security. The house was built by a Swede with hand tools. Sister has those. The house still stands and is in good condition after three generations of renters.
My father paid cash for everything except half the house mortgage. We became citified. But the call of the land runs deep.
I finally broke down and got a credit card when I got on the internet; the isp I wanted wouldn't let you pay monthly by check (think they do now if you pay more) and aol still sucks.
I'll read that other link tomorrow. I have to confess I'm not into time travel; I think some people may have a gift of seeing glimpses of the future, and life has taught me to read invisible writing on walls because sometimes you just know given x and y odds are you will get z.
Wish I had a better handle on world economics which are very complicated. Government used to encourage us to save and buy bonds, now they love it when we spend and go into debt because it's good for the economy.
That won't go over very well with some. We aren't overrun with them, but they have a presence, and some of them are doing better than the natives, some of whom aren't very motivated.
Maybe you didn't see my photos, but one of the last times I ate at that cafeteria, I found myself seated near an hispanic family of five, father, mother and three children, all neatly dressed and children well-behaved. It was nice to see them enjoying eating out together, and it was strictly American cuisine. I confess to wondering how he supported a family that size and if the wife worked which I doubted.
My hispanic friend whose family came here legally in the 40's lived in a boxcar until their father could build them a home. It was a very large family, and they have all done fairly well. Some of the second generation got college degrees. One of them is doing cancer research.
One works at Wal Mart. She is feisty, and I think she kind of likes working there. She had a little rented home and had to move when the landlord died. Kept things up all herself. I convinced her to come down for coffee after church one morning after mass, and we got to talking to the church people, and she shocked them when she suddenly spat out that "that priest is evil." It turns out the reason was some highly venerated copy of Our Lady of Guadalupe came to town and had to be kept in the parish center, while St. Patrick got to be in the altar area on St. Patrick's Day.
I think we're getting ready for a cultural rumble.
Good for you! I guess I might as well settle down, too. I have a birthday coming up. I just still feel like a kid. ;)
Come to NYC, we rumble culturally every day. Thirty or forty different languages, a couple of dozen different religions, sixty or more nationalities -- all bound together by the expert use of the F-word and each with their own opinion of where to get the best pizza.
Yes.
Sorry, wrong answer.
No, they didn't.
"WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...
Your quote doesn't support your contention. The founding fathers did not say that all men have the right to a comfortable living. They did not say that all men have the right to an equal income. They did point out that "all men are created equal", meaning there is no inherent inequality born into man. However, inequality does and will enter a man's life after his creation, largely as the consequence of his choices. Are there other factors at work in life besides a man's choice? Of course, but no amount of legislation will change that.
The only thing the legislation of "equality" does -- and that's what minimum wage laws really try to do, isn't it? -- is attempt to disconnect the natural consequences from a man's decisions.
Didn't want to finish high school? That's OK. We'll make sure you earn as much as a college graduate. After all, it's only fair that you make enough to support your family. Don't know how to do anything harder than run a cash register? That's OK, we'll make sure you are paid as well as a skilled, experienced machinist. After all, it's not fair that he makes more than you.
The point is: It's within nearly every person's capability to economically succeed in America. There are opportunities for greater education and training literally at our fingertips. Public libraries are free to all. So many education loans and grants are available that nobody can truly claim they have no opportunity for higher education. The fact is, for various reasons, the great majority of those earning the lowest incomes do so because that's where their decisions have put them.
Again I say: If you want to be paid more, make yourself worth more.
A Walmart thread, is it Friday already?
No, it is you who is wrong. Apply some common sense.
And example: "Those labelled "poor" in America are quite well off compared to the rest of the world. Today's "poor" are better off than average Americans of 1955."
Just this title demonstrates the error of freetraders. The poverty is relative to the local standards, culture, climate etc ...
For example an Indian living in south of future USA a thousand years ago could be barefoot. It did not mean that he was poor. But the similiar Indian living in central Canada who did not have shoes was indeed poor. The life in USA requires different things that are needed in Tahiti.
The definitions of poverty
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
"The quality or state of being poor or indigent; want or scarcity of means of subsistence; indigence; need."
Scottish Poverty Information Unit:
"Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society."
The World Bank Organisation:
"The most commonly used way to measure poverty is based on incomes. A person is considered poor if his or her income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the "poverty line". What is necessary to satisfy basic needs varies across time and societies. Therefore, poverty lines vary in time and place, and each country uses lines which are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values."
The House of Commons Scottish Affairs Committee:
"There are basically three current definitions of poverty in common usage: absolute poverty, relative poverty and social exclusion.
Absolute poverty is defined as the lack of sufficient resources with which to keep body and soul together.
Relative poverty defines income or resources in relation to the average. It is concerned with the absence of the material needs to participate fully in accepted daily life.
Social exclusion is a new term used by the Government. The Prime Minister described social exclusion as "…a shorthand label for what can happen when individuals or areas suffer from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown"."
How do you figure? The lower prices at Wal-Mart benefit precisely the people this crap claims they hurt! With such low prices, every one of their customers effectively receives a raise. Their same money buys more than it would at other stores, and that's supposed to be a failure of capitalism? What would you consider success? ...higher prices?
All poverty is local....
It was only meant to address one short, cryptic statement. There's nothing much in there in the way of guidance for the conditions in which we find ourselves today. But it does say if the government gets too oppressive, with some caveats, we have the right to alter or abolish it. I know I would rather not make that call.
After all, it's only fair that you make enough to support your family
Yes it is; it most certainly was when I had to support my family. It isn't easy to sit in your work place day after day, struggling to make ends meet, while your boss and co-workers are making 3 times what you make and they talk about going on vacations, eating out, having fun, when we were lucky at times to have anything to eat. I haven't been on a vacation since I was a kid because I have a travel phobia which I'm still trying to overcome. That also affected my career because I had great difficulty handling out-of-town assignments, especially when some came up on nights and weekends and I got called in the middle of the night to come in an fix something. I put the kids to bed and left the phone on by the bed and kept checking. The stress was terrible. One Sunday I had to leave them with neighbors while I went 50 miles away to fix something. I wouldn't ask my ex-husband for any favors after what he did to me. He and his new wife said they would watch my kids when my uncle died and didn't show so I couldn't go. He didn't show up to take his daughter to Dad Daughter date night at the local cafeteria, and she was absolutely devastated. I took her. It was awkward, and it didn't make her feel much better, but at least she got to go.
I've lived long enough to see that those who made my life such hell are getting paid back in spades, while the people who were kind to me have been more blessed. One jerk who worked for the city who had me arrested on false charges ended up getting arrested himself for padding his travel expense account.
If you want to be paid more, make yourself worth more.
I never felt like I was worth anything, never asked for nor demanded a raise, never sued anybody for a whole host of things people are suing and winning for now, or complained to a superior about anybody. I made myself worth more in the labor market, but not much, and got an AA degree in computer programming. I had to take high doses of anti-depressant/anti-anxiety medication which only worked part of the time in order to do even that. I'm retired now.
Now that I get regular (minimal) social security, I feel I owe the working poor my support when it is being confiscated from their already meager wages, and social security is in trouble, but I ain't about to hand it back and live on the streets because I paid some into the system, too. People with more means who have a proportionately higher share confiscated would probably even take that away from me if they could away with it, political rhetoric aside. And as it goes along, those working poor are going to hate me and some of them are going to want my life terminated prematurely as I get even older and more of a burden to society. I get a feeling a lot of people here would. I should have applied for disability years and years ago, but managed to struggle along working for years. My father's attitude was, "No daughter of mine is going to be on welfare.", so I felt pressure to succeed that I could not live up to.
My one daughter is brain-damaged from an accident and has a Masters Degree and is working for $6.00 per hour with no benefits. She can't find and keep a good job because it has affected her ability to get along with people, and she has seizures. I don't fight for her because I don't know what to fight for. She's an excellent worker, always shows up on time, works hard, then gets so angry she either gets fired or quits. She needs therapy and doesn't like or trust them. She also doesn't like voc rehab because they just want her to take more $6.00/hr jobs. She is struggling to make payments on a very modest house and doesn't want to move into government housing.
My prayers for her are that she uses some latent talents and gets something going for herself. She once made beautiful pottery. I bought a potter's wheel which has sat in my garage for years. She doesn't want to do that. Ever since her accident, she lost touch with that part of herself. The creative part of her brain may be affected.
As if you care. I'm saving this thread so my children and grandchildren can read it. They can see what whiner their grandmother was.
Grandma's one lesson in life about people is that as long as it isn't happening to them, with occasional exceptions, it doesn't matter what happens to other people and they enjoy reading in the news about them when they screw up and gives them something to talk about at work and now on the net.
I can't, but I can certainly picture it in my mind. My sister experiences similar things in San Diego where they go for the winter months.
Before I went back to school after my divorce, my father sent me to Europe. I barely made it through the trip. Before divorce, went with husband to visit friends for about 5 days in Zanesville, Ohio. I went with a male friend to Charlotte, Michigan for a weekend. I went to my sister's twice. Can't remember any others.
I couldn't get much relaxation on any of them. It took me a week of sleeping 12 hours a night to recover from my 17-day trip to Europe. It took four different kinds of pills to get me through that and had to find a doctor in England. That was hell. Took me a whole day walking around London by myself before I finally found a clinic late in the afternoon. Later ended up in emergency at a night clinic as I was so torn between getting on a plane for the next leg of the trip to Amsterdam or catch a plane back home. It wore me out and I was about 33 at the time.
My fellow travellers thought I was nuts. They liked me better by the time we got to France when I was able to help them with translation enough to get what we needed for our group.
I was told by the medics there that they had other travellers who found travelling too stressful, one a lady from Spain who fell apart in England.
There are some who are trying to push us that way every day.
Actually I do care. I have family with equally devestating illnesses. I have been broke. I have worked for peanuts. I have four children of my own. My attitude is not one of ignorance, nor of crass disregard for the very real hardships life hands out.
However, these problems are not automatically your employer's to solve either! Do you think you were the only one at your company who had a difficult situation? You were not. Every person has some burden to bear; some more than others.
You see, the idea that forcing any employer to pay more than they have determined a particular job is worth only hurts everyone in the long run. When that business is not able to compete in the marketplace any longer, then nobody has any income from that business any more! It literally is that serious. Businesses of all sizes go under every day because their management are not able to keep costs under control. When that happens, every employee loses all the pay they were getting.
Never thought it was then and was glad to get anything they handed out until the ceo threatened to run me over with his car. Today, I would sue him for threatening me and try to get him fired. I would have to have my attorney who would probably take my case pro bono or contingency fee subpoena the other employees who were witnesses, and they might lie to save their jobs. Would it be for the money? Nope. It's about principle and justice. That company is long gone and the people I knew have disappeared from my life.
Do you think you were the only one at your company who had a difficult situation?
That company? No. There was one other girl kind of like me with two boys. Most of the rest were single or married with husbands who had good jobs. Her husband was a cocaine addict, but she was healthy.
You were not. Every person has some burden to bear; some more than others.
I know that. I just don't take abuse in any form any more. If I had to live those years over again, I would go on social security disability and work around the house and be able to supervise my children better and ask my father to help make up the difference even if he hated welfare which he did. I might have worked on finishing my college degree, but finally lost the incentive. And I would hide from everybody else who hated me for taking money from the government.
One neighbor irately accused me of being on welfare when I stopped to ask permission to take his daughter to a movie (expecting him to give her the money because he ran an appliance store). I wasn't on welfare. He abused his wife, so she claimed, and she came to me for help. I couldn't help her really. She was a meek type and stabbed herself in the chest so her husband told me. Today they would probably take her kids away from that because of Andrea Yates.
Nope. I wasn't the only one, but I couldn't even fight for myself then without risking losing my job, so I will fight for other people now, IF I think they are getting a raw deal. If I don't think they are getting a raw deal, I try to stay away from them as they bring me down.
Incidentally, the lady who I mentioned in the early history of this thread who almost lost her house stopped by to visit again. I asked her if she ever had a job. No, well she babysat and worked for a short time at a charity-type house. "I stayed home and took care of my kids." I asked her if she ever WANTED a job. The answer was, "no".
Today I am informed she is getting a whole house makeover. Whether or not that comes to fruition remains to be seen, but I wouldn't doubt she will get it. She lives in a "qualifying" neighborhood 1/2 mile from where I live and suggested I do the same. Nope. For one thing, I don't qualify, and for another thing, I will just live with what I have because I still have some pride left and don't want to take one penny more from the gubmint than I feel I absolutely need to.
Then she was hungry and asked if I had anything cooked. It so happened I did, although I eat a lot of tv dinners lately. So I heated up some sausage and cabbage/vegetable combo for her. Wasn't that nice of me? Not. Why do I let her in my life? I don't know. I can't find it in my heart to reject her.
Driving her home, she asked me to stop at the pharmacy so she could pick up her prescription. She handed me a dollar to pay. My medicine costs about $100 and just a little over a month, which is fortunate compared to others my age. The pharmacist handed me some papers to fill out for some kind of welfare, and they will be thrown away; I think they are still in the mess on my dining room table.
If I live a couple more years, maybe my prescriptions will cost only a dollar, too. I don't know and today I don't care and don't know if I will care then. I would rather not have anything serious enough to require any costly medication other than an occasional aspirin and don't always take all the medication the doctors shove at me. I take my psyche meds, but I've got stuff I missed when I went through all the old stuff out, pain med, expired antibiotics, etc., a few months ago. If it doesn't cross my pain threshold, I don't take it. All paid for by me btw.
Last week I called in a tip to America's Most Wanted that just fell in my lap about a missing girl. There is reward money. I told them I wouldn't take it even if it ended up solving the case. Why? I wouldn't "feel" right about it. There go those "feelings" again. All I had for them was a name.
Sounds a lot like FR.
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