Posted on 04/07/2005 5:45:29 AM PDT by TXBSAFH
Wal-Mart Denounces Health Bill Retailer Says Maryland Could Lose Future Jobs
By Michael Barbaro Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, April 7, 2005; Page E01
ROGERS, Ark., April 6 -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday said approval of a bill that would require it to boost health care spending in Maryland could endanger its plans for growth in the state, including a new distribution center that would employ as many as 1,000.
The company questioned the motivation behind the bill, which is backed by a top competitor and its labor union.
Wal-Mart "will have to rethink its future growth in a state that is willing to pass such a bad business bill," said Nate Hurst, a government relations manager for the company. "This type of legislation, where lawmakers single out one employer, does not create a favorable environment."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
So you want government to control the business then??
"I'm not sure I'd want to doctor Wal-mart employees at the rate Wal-mart would want to reimburse me."
The Doc would not be in a business relationship but rather an employee. Thus no negotiations of price per unit cost. The Mid level practitioners would be under the Doc in the local area. If this is placed in tandem with a traumatic event policy it would work in a far more cheaper manner.
The biggest problem in health care is all the little piggies that want part of the dollar. Five piggies wanting a dime each kills the purchasing power of the health care dollar. A doc would have a great job with a great retirement package and stock bennies. The midlevels would be correctly used and the local ER would have better cost recovery by not be burdened by the ones who wait too long or will never pay.
"I'm not sure I'd want to doctor Wal-mart employees at the rate Wal-mart would want to reimburse me."
The Doc would not be in a business relationship but rather an employee. Thus no negotiations of price per unit cost. The Mid level practitioners would be under the Doc in the local area. If this is placed in tandem with a traumatic event policy it would work in a far more cheaper manner.
The biggest problem in health care is all the little piggies that want part of the dollar. Five piggies wanting a dime each kills the purchasing power of the health care dollar. A doc would have a great job with a great retirement package and stock bennies. The midlevels would be correctly used and the local ER would have better cost recovery by not be burdened by the ones who wait too long or will never pay.
Free Market/Classical Liberalism is not conservative and so is not the present mixture of Latin American style oligarchism with Dickensian/Darwinian freemarketeerism, Enron/Khodorkovsky corporatism and neocon interventionism.
Maybe this would make it a little more clear: Wal-Mart is infamous for squeezing costs out of everything associated with their business. They squeeze suppliers for cost reductions as relentlessly as any business in America - that's my guess. Employees are relatively low paid, but perhaps make what they're worth. Etc., etc.
So I just think that, regardless of how exactly they went about hiring a doctor or contracting with an independent doctor, they would end up squeezing the doc for near subsistence pay (for a doctor). Whereby he might make several times as much money not being a direct employee of Wal-Mart.
Within some limits it is always so, with the exception of the very corrupt oligarchies where the government is the arm of the wealthy.
Rush just nailed this. He used my basic way to look at any issue, organization, institution, person in politics.
If the liberals make that issue, organization, institution, or person in politics a focus of their attacks, then that issue, organization, institution, or person in politics is probably good for America.
The Union thugs, socialists, communists, and economic cry babies hate Walmart and have banded with the rats to attack Walmart 24/7/365.
Ain't that the truth!
All of it. There is no such thing as a "just wage", no universal definition of the "common good", and, if you want to impose "the rights of labour over capital", you can say goodbye to capital.
Also, if you believe that "the purpose of government is the promotion of the common good", I have some Florida swampland you might want to invest in.
Most nurses on general med/surg wards in California are already Philipino. They seemed hard working and friendly to me when I visited my friend in hospital a few months ago.
As for myself, I would be considered a Classical Liberal, and view the American Right in all of its forms as being derived from said philosophy (the vast majority of the founders being within the Classical Liberal tradition). We have NO USE for monarchies or a domestic Pope in the U.S.
I also find myself at odds with both the Neos and the Paleos, although both have inherited much from the founding tradition of Classical Liberalism, whether you wish to admit it or not.
So you want a big government then??
"So I just think that, regardless of how exactly they went about hiring a doctor or contracting with an independent doctor, they would end up squeezing the doc for near subsistence pay (for a doctor). "
Good point. So Wal Mart could actually be part of the solution in helpng the employees get more affordable health care and keeping the government out of its business. But an obstacle is Wal Mart wanting to wring the dollar out of its supplier of product.
home depot and lowes offer health care benefits in order to get a better quality of employee. Walmart pays and offers benefits for exactly the quality of employees they want. (that is they pay exactly what the people are worth. No more, no less)
It is not governments or any elses business to interfere with the contractual arrangements of Walmart and their employees
Health care is not a right. It is a benefit.
Walmart employees are the bottom of the heap in unskilled retail labor. Places like Home Depot and Lowe's tend to hire staff with practical experience in plumbing, electrical, framing, gardening, HVAC and other disciplines. They have to pay more to keep that quality of employee. Selling home improvement products requires significantly more intelligence than what Walmart has on the shelf.
Do fast food places like MacDonald's, Carl's/Hardee's and Taco Bell cover health care? Why aren't they in the crosshairs? Under the covers, this amounts to Democrats attacking Walmart because they won't permit unions.
Do you not buy into the law of supply and demand either? What would happen if we made the minimum wage $20/hour?
Probably wouldn't be a bad idea;
Since the minimum wage has no real economic reason for existing I move that we either eliminate it entirely or raise it to $100 per hour. After all, we're just picking numbers out of the air anyway we may as well pick a good one.
That means that anyone now making between minimum wage and $100/hour will now be making minimum wage because why should the employers give everyone a raise based on the minimum wage increase.
Of course after the raise all the prices will be raised and these people will find themselves in exactly the same economic state they are in now. (joined of course by us who make between minimum and $100/hour) Then they'll start moaning for another minimum wage increase after which prices will raise again etc.
Eventually the increasing minimum wage will swallow all productive employees and we'll all be living at poverty level.
Just like any other tax the minimum wage steals from us all
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."
Are you sure that you wouldn't be happier in some Latin American oligarchy like El Salvador or Honduras?
What's wrong with a businessman paying his employees what they are worth and no more or no less?
What's wrong with the rest of us minding our own business and letting walmart and their employees worry about their work conditions/contract term?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.