Posted on 08/26/2005 8:34:52 AM PDT by Isara
Wal-Mart (WMT) is the favorite whipping boy of labor unions and leftists who blame the retail giant for everything from low wages to a lack of health insurance. But don't tell the people of Oakland, Calif.
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...Wal-Mart workers and customers see things differently. Take those at the new store in Oakland. Built on a once-empty field, it has brought 350 jobs averaging $10.82 an hour to a heavily minority area. It'll also bring in a half-million badly needed tax dollars.
And how many people applied for those 350 jobs? 11,000. No, we didn't accidentally add a zero. That's 31 applicants for each new position.
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.... The 25-year-old single mom with a 2-year old child at home landed one of the Oakland positions. "It's this job or no job," she said. "I make a lot more here than I do watching TV and soap operas and stuff."
...Wal-Mart Stores Inc. now employs more than one of every 100 American workers and accounts for about 2.4% of U.S. GDP. For those with little education or training, Wal-Mart throws a lifeline to the world's most dynamic economy.
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...Wal-Mart, which at the time had a 48% productivity advantage over its competitors, forced others to get better or go under. Most got better — a lot better — to keep up.
....A study by University of Missouri economist Emek Basker found Wal-Mart's entry into a market increases jobs by 100 immediately and by a net 50 jobs in the long run. A job-creator, in other words, not a job-killer.
Still other research shows how Wal-Mart passes the benefits of its extraordinary productivity onto consumers. Harvard business professor Pankaj Ghemawat reckons Wal-Mart helps push prices down 5% to 8% in markets it enters, saving customers $16 billion a year. But, because competitors have to match its prices, overall savings are even greater.
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(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
How strange that a company that's had such a beneficial impact would be so demonized. And how reminiscent of the disinformation campaigns in the old USSR.
The fact is, Wal-Mart by itself is responsible for much of the improvement in America's standard of living.
This is why such jobs are essential for the economy. No skills, undereducated, they are not going to get $50K a year. Opportunities that otherwise DO NOT EXIST for these people.
Ya think?
The left will DEMONIZE ANYTHING...just to be able to print crap in thier complicity MSM. They truly represent the low-lifes of our society.
Name me a time and place that leftists didn't demonize anyone who actually had a beneficial impact on society.
What's the figure? 1,000,000,000??? additional people living in freedom because of Ronald Reagan?
50,000,000 (so far) because of W.
The number of communist contries has dropped from over 100 to single digits since Reagan.
When Wal-Mart moves in, its like everybody getting a raise. The marginally efficient Mom and Pop stores may go out of business, but they are replaced by specialty stores that don't carry commodity-type goods that become viable because the local customers now have more discretionary income as opposed to money they spend on necessities.
Wal-Mart is very good at moving people up the ladder of success. They are very stingy at first, but long-term employees make out like bandits.
Labor = overhead. If union operations want to compete with Southwest and WM, they need to think about something other than price competition. The unions kill prices and eat up companies with benefit demands (see GM, a benefits company that also makes cars).
WM also got ahead of everyone with computer-based logistics. Fast moving and easily tracked supplies lower costs. All the complaints about WM could be said of Target and the others.
Think about that for a minute ...
Some are just plain ignorant. Others need to blame someone (mostly those who are successful) for their unhappy personal situation and still others do it to promote their political agenda (unions).
If the libs had their way, the unskilled, undereducated would make $50K per year via a unionized, gov't-owned Wal-Mart!
Let the unions boycott Walmart. It won't be very effective since their attempts at forced groupthink won't keep intelligent spouses from shopping there. And shopping in an environment with less thugs is always a plus.
I do not demonize nor idolize Wal-Mart. They have good and bad points. A lot of people here get very emotional about WM and I don't know why. They can pay some workers more but they also hire some people that I would not hire on a bet. It all evens out. If a person needs a job badly, WM will hire you and that's a good thing.
I agree.
WM is killing Safeway and other ordinary grocery stores in Phoenix. But Sprouts is doing well and expanding as a high end, health food conscious store. We got to WM for most basics and Sprouts for special items and supplements.
People prefer a large store with most of their items at reduced prices. WM is a late-comer. Too bad the others didn't see this developing.
"If union operations want to compete with Southwest and WM, they need to think about something other than price competition."
About ten years ago, there was a proposal in one of the trade unions in the Midwest to unionize employers by providing a one-stop shop for employee benefits, training and certification, and specialized skills on demand. Yes, employees would benefit from higher wages, but the idea was to also make the union attractive to the employer.
The idea died an ugly death because union leadership just could not change their mindset from "union vs. employer" to "unions providing valuable services to both employees and employers."
Too bad the Buchanan/Tancredo crowd doesn't share that attitude.
NOTE to all single women: Avoid any man who whines about illegal aliens stealing American jobs. He will just use it as an excuse not to keep a job.
Unions are increasingly irrelevant in America. We have President Reagan to thank for that. The Patco strike - a great moment in facing down obnoxious union bosses.
boy, you just have to work an illegal alien based "bash" in on every thread, don't you?
Note to all single women: Avoid any many who confuses opposition to ILLEGAL immigration with oppossing ALL immigration. Such a man can not hold a logical thought in his head.
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