This chasm?
Or this one?
If you aren't, then they have you where they want you.
Are these your people?
Posted on 06/29/2006 6:29:34 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Da comrade. We must kill the blood sucking kulaks.
Was I defending China? I don't think so. I was pointing out how the liberal shop owner had no problems with conditions in China, but is appalled by WalMart.
A visit to a typical old American manufacturing city will provide the visitor with an educational view of the relationship, then enjoyed, between the workers and the managers and owners of the mills. As one journeys from the factories towards the outskirts one passes first the homes of the workers themselves, then the more impressive homes of the managers, and finally the homes of the owners, usually found on streets with names like "Overlook", or "...heights". Yet, all lived in the same city and shared in its prosperity or decline. A manager or owner who treated his employees with respect and compassion was honored while those who didn't felt their ire, and lost their respect.
Today the owners are far removed from their employees and thus are not burdened by guilty consciences which they otherwise might be afflicted with upon seeing the conditions in which the latter must labor and live.
Systems like Walmart's help make that possible.
When I was a boy my mother took me along when she shopped in stores named Macy's, and Gertz. We were a middle class family with one bread winner, my father, a man who earned a good living despite having little formal education. The stores were kept after the fashion of those times, which is to say, they were very impressive displays of the art of marketing, and were quite beautiful in comparison to today's unadorned warehouses. At the Christmas season, they pulled out all the stops and made a visit a wonderful and memorable occasion. There were cheaper stores, like Woolworth's and more expensive ones, but the stores we visited were aimed at the middle class and they sold good quality merchandise, mostly made in America, by workers who were earning enough to live in much the same style that we lived. In that sense America itself was very much like the small mill towns from which its affluence had sprung.
Things have changed, today's stores cater to those who want nothing but the cheapest goods or to those who want nothing but that which is guaranteed to display wealth. The bridge between those two has vanished, a manifestation of the widening chasm of which I previously wrote.
This chasm?
Or this one?
If you aren't, then they have you where they want you.
Are these your people?
How does the ability to save money on purchases increase a supposed gulf between the rich, the middle and/or the poor?
How do you explain the increased living standard enjoyed today that was not as apparent 10, 20, 30 years ago?
If your personal standard of living is worse today, how exactly is Wal-Mart to blame? Do you shoulder any personal responsibility?
In the early 70's I worked at a job which payed fourteen dollars per hour and had very good additional benefits. I was able to buy a new American made pickup truck for $2800 and a house on several acres for $40,000.
Today the same job pays $36 per hour, the truck costs ten times as much as it did then, and the house and land about 12 to 15 times as much.
Not to mention the cost of fuel, insurance, taxes, etc.
You can quote all the government and private statistics you like to prove that things are getting better, but me and alot of other folks know that it just isn't so.
Yuppers.
Back to work, serf.
Don't want to be confused by facts, eh?
Wal-Mart -- Uh, NO!
Hard statistics vs. your feelings? Sorry, but I'll make my business and investment decisions based on stats over your anecdotes every time. Of course, most people don't need any stats at all. They can just look around to see all the proof they need that we're a lot better off today than we were 20, 30 or 50 years ago.
but me and alot of other folks know that it just isn't so.
Some folks will never get ahead in life and will remain bitter while blaming others for their position. I find, in most cases, they need to look no further than the mirror to discover the real problem.
"You said a lot, without seeming to say much at all."
Your words remind me of what Mark Twain wrote about his father. If you don't know what I'm talking about then you have missed some wonderful wisdom.
"How does the ability to save money on purchases increase a supposed gulf between the rich, the middle and/or the poor?"
The low prices are possible because the wages and standard of living of the workers who are making them is much lower than your own. But don't worry about that, as things are going you'll be at or below their level soon.
"How do you explain the increased living standard enjoyed today that was not as apparent 10, 20, 30 years ago?"
Are you speaking about the opportunity to hold two or three jobs instead of one? And for mothers to place their children in day care and enjoy careers instead of being homemakers?
"If your personal standard of living is worse today, how exactly is Wal-Mart to blame? Do you shoulder any personal responsibility?"
Does Walmart make an effort to obtain and promote American made goods? Goods which are made by workers who earn more than those in China, Vietnam, Cambodia etc...no.
I buy American made goods whenever I can find them, it is my guaranty that the workers who made them have atleast some protection, however minimal, from unscrupulous employers.
WOW! According to "http://eh.net/hmit/compare/" that's about $60 per hour today! You were a Dr.? Lawyer? Highly paid Consultant? That's $120k per year! Great money! Did you lose you license?
(based on $14 per hour, 1973)
You read all that in 56 seconds? Impressive.
This "ever-widening chasm," if it exists at all, did Wal-Mart cause it? Would shutting Wal-Mart down shrink it?
"Don't want to be confused by facts, eh?"
Whose facts? Those which I have experienced myself and have heard firsthand from others, or those which have been prepared by folks who are getting paid to please their employers?
The truck today has: Pretensioned seatbelt, airbags, antilock brakes, bigger tires, alloy wheels, power: windows, door locks, brakes, steering; automatic tranny, AM/FM/CD 4 speaker stereo, emissions systems, fuel injection. better MPG, Blah Blah Blah. Not to metion more cost in worker's insurance than steel!
Hardly a fair comparison.
Let's not talk about the non-air conditioned 3br-1ba 1100 sq ft house.
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