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Posted on 01/25/2013 9:37:55 AM PST by Kaslin
Once again I am here to sing the praises of Walmart. Over the years I have done so on many occasions.
Many misguided souls take the other side. They blame Walmart for ruining mom and pop grocery stores, mom and pop hardware stores, etc.
Not me, I praise cheaper prices. Moreover, it's what consumers voted for with there hard-earned dollars.
If anyone wants to pay more for stuff, all they have to do is shop at a mom and pop hardware store, grocery store, or pharmacy. Most don't because they want a bargain.
Today, I have good news. Walmart-style competition may be on the way in the healthcare business.
The Orlando Business Journal writes Wal-Mart exploring private health insurance exchange for small biz.
Wal-Mart is exploring the idea of building a private health insurance exchange tailored to offer cheaper health insurance to small businesses, a vice president told Orlando Business Journal Jan. 11.
Marcus Osborne, vice president of health and wellness payer relations for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), spoke to OBJ after his keynote speech at the Foundation of Associated Industries of Florida’s 2013 Health Care Affordability Summit. Osborne said Wal-Mart wants to work with insurers and managed care companies to find new, low-cost health insurance options tailored for small companies, which historically have limited options.
The idea is to offer those products through a health insurance exchange — or as Osborne said, simply a marketplace — that would leverage Wal-Mart’s buying and marketing power to make the exchanges widely available and used. “It would allow small employers to piggyback Wal-Mart,” Osborne said. “We haven’t got it all figured out, but it’s one of the things we’re looking at.”
“The biggest problem today small employers face from a health insurance perspective is they have no alternatives,” Osborne said. “If they find anything, they’ve got to take it. There’s something wrong with that.”
This post is about trade wars, tariffs, health care, and Wal-Mart. I will tie these themes together starting with a look at Wal-Mart and health care.
I have many disagreements with Jim Jubak, but he hits the nail on the head with Let Wal-Mart fix US health care.
I know who can fix our broken health care system -- and who can't:
I say, let Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) do it. Hold your guffaws. Stifle your impulse to scoff. Control those sputters of rage.
Wal-Mart has done more to expand coverage and lower costs in the past year than any government program to come out of Washington in the past 10 years. And I'd bet the new programs that this company -- known for stiffing its own part-time workers on health care benefits -- has announced in the past year will do more to expand coverage and cut costs than anything likely to come out of a McCain, Clinton or Obama first term.
Letting Wal-Mart run the health care system would fix many of those problems. It's a company that understands how low prices can build market share and thus increase profits. Furthermore, it's a company with a culture of cutting costs that has shown no compunction in pushing suppliers to the wall over price. The Wal-Mart motto ought to be, "Make it cheaper, or we'll find someone who can." I'd love to see that attitude brought to bear in health care.
Inquiring minds will want to read the rest of the article. It's surprisingly good.
Jubak makes a compelling case. He never said this explicitly but I will. "We do not need higher wages or higher prices. We need lower prices and a dollar that buys more".
Wal-Mart is not the reason that all the manufacturing has gone to China. The Unions are the ones. Also tell me what national store does not sell anything that is made in China. You can’t because they all do. Even AAFES does. At least at Wal-Mart you find items that are made in the US if you take the time to lookA recent truck lined the 40 X 48 pallet with brown cartons so heavy you'd think they were made of lead.
Upon closer examination, they were.
Wal-Mart. Always.
Whoa
Obviously, some stores have not gotten the message from the corporate offices. I spoke directly with a “Stephanie” who said that Walmart is reviewing their policies regarding sales of guns and ammo because of Sandy Hook.
Some stores, especially Delaware, have already stopped. Maryland restricts ammo to 2 boxes per day per person. I will check PA next. It would behoove us all to note what is happening in each area; but it seems like it is only a matter of time before ALL Walmart stores will stop selling guns and ammo.
You really thing walmart is the soul reason?
Buyers demanding lower prices? na can’t be it.
Unions driving up the cost of labor Na, can’t be it.
EPA regulating the hell out of you? Na, can’t be it.
Corp taxes highest in the world? Na, can’t be it.
I could go on.
Walmart is not the driving factor in jobs going over seas. They are just reacting to the market.
Change the laws and you get a market based health care system in which real competition occurs, prices drop and quality improves. Obamacare is trying to do that artificially by government fiat and it will fail.
Secondly, the problem isn't really a federal one, but occurs at the state and local levels where existing hospitals can use the levers of state power to stop competitors from moving in or building new medical facilities.
Add to that the inane and unConstitutional (it violated the Commerce Clause guaranteeing free trade between states) practice of blocking interstate commerce in health insurance. The first state to eliminate that useless and anti-consumer restriction wins the health care game and becomes a haven for labor as health costs plummet.
I don’t have any idea what you are replying to, as I agree with everything you just said about the problems in health care, and have been published extensively writing about this very same issue.
Your points are dead on, of course. I was literally lying in bed this morning wondering about the mind of a so called conservative who could some how reach the conclusion that free trade is a bad thing. It is the ultimate expression of liberty in action.
As your questions indicate, Walmart, and a million other businesses, are the result of billions of sometimes big, and sometimes small, decisions made by buyers, sellers, shippers, shoppers, workers, hirers, firers, developers, investors, vendors, etc....all in liberty. All of these billions of decisions were made by what was in the best interest of that particular person at that particular time. It could be a decison about low prices, or cost of labor, or to escape regulations, or to mitigate taxes, etc, but they were all free decisions.
This is the same with every single free market success in world history.
How can anyone think this: that instead of billions of decisons reached by billions of people over decades can be replaced by a few dozen rules and regulations, written by bureaucratic wizards, and this will work better?
It can’t. Free trade is a harsh master, but it is pure because it is the result of total liberty. Government restrictions are even harsher, and they are the result of pure power. I guess to a certain mindset, they can see particular job that trade has destroyed, because they are often obvious, while the ten jobs trade produced are spread out, diffuse, and not the obvious result of trade.
But anyone who is against this is spitting in the face of every great conservative economic thinker in world history....from Smith to Friedman to Sowell, not to mention politicians like Reagan. Amazing.
You referred to the Obamacare demographic and that Walmart will cater to them. I think the opposite is happening. While Obama is pandering to them, Walmart is working to really fix the problem.
I took your comment to be anti-Walmart. If I am wrong about that then I apologize.
My point is that I don’t trust Walmart to really be part of the solution, and my comment was somewhat anti Walmart, because I think that corporation’s culture has totally changed in the past few years. I hope to be wrong, and things do change, but I sense this within this company.
I think what was once a shining example of the free market working for people who needed low priced goods and entry level jobs, has morphed into a creature of cronyism with big government at every opportunity. I think there are several reasons for this, one being that this generation of Walton’s is a poor chip off the old block and operates out of fear of big government and out of pandering to their huge minority shopper base, which they know is 97% pro Obama.
....and let me add again, I really hope that your interpretation of this is correct.
The other big box store had no choice, it was either match the China price (which no USA manufacturer could do, since labor/regulations costs are much higher in the USA) or go out of business. I don't blame walmart, I blame Bush1/Clinton/92 Congress for giving China permanent MFN status. Once China got permanent MFN status there was no stopping US manufactures from moving there in mass.
You can blame Walmart all you want. Customers have a choice. They chose the “junk” Walmart sells. If there was no demand for it Walmart would change or fail.
You can blame Walmart all you want. Customers have a choice. They chose the “junk” Walmart sells. If there was no demand for it Walmart would change or fail.
Sorry. Double post and wrong person. Epic fail on my part.
lol, not a problem
I’d blame big government before I’d blame Walmart. Businesses are especially vulnerable to politics. You can’t profit unless you play ball. Shrink government and the corporate cronyism goes away as well.
[Sorry. Double post and wrong person. Epic fail on my part.]
Lolol, bad day all round huh?
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