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 ...
WalMart, like Microsoft, has become a popular whipping boy.
They are giving the customer what they want. If they are doing something illegal as an employer -- then the gov't should fine them or arrest them.
But the idea of laws designed to punish them for their success are just wrong.
Otherwise.... let the market prevail. I'm a happy stockholder and frequent customer of Wal-mart and Sam's.
-- Joe
but it is compatible with our constitution and that's the only thing that really matters. If we did not have our strong defense the third world weasels would already be at our gates trying to destroy us.
No. Jesus Christ is my God and He is a real God. The market is just the only real way to find the value of a commodity
My back yard is about 1/8 acre. I don't think they'd have the room. Now if they decided to buy the land behind me and build there I'd just have to put up with it or move. As long as they are obeying the laws how can I complain about them using their own property
How would you like to be woken up every morning with the sounds of "beeping" as the Wal-mart trucks backup into their loading dock.
I live about three blocks away from a foundry and a scrapyard. I also live two houses away from the railroad tracks. You get used to the noise after a short while and never hear it. It's no big deal
I have a right to keep my property value up, and not have it plummet if they would have succeeded in building.
You have a right to keep your property value up. You do not have a right to deny someone else the right to use their property in accordance with the laws in place when they bought that property.
If you didn't want neighbors you should have bought that neighboring property before they did.
"used to be against the national health care system. But seeing the HUGE cost and mess associated with the medical care, crippling disadvantage it imposes on American businesses and MEAGER results when compared with the other developed countries I came to the conclusion that well designed (using the most successful in LONG TERM designs abroad as examples) is better and INEVITABLE. "
It shall be called "Judge Greer care"!
Simple answer: No, you don't.
A minimun wage of $10/hour allows indviduals to live, based on your opinon, in an acceptable manner?
Have I got this right?
Something like that?
LOL!
You mean you actually worked yourself into a better position?
How shocking!
One of my primary care physicians is Thai. She, like the California Filipina nurses you know, is hard working, friendly, and best of all, extremely competent.
Come to remember, growing up on a moderately small island in the East China Sea, our family doctor was a Filipino. And, even more interesting, a friend who is married to a Foreign Service worker stationed in Shanghai takes her treatment in Bangkok with a Thai oncologist.
So, my joke about importing foreign health workers was a slam at Wal Mart's obsessive/compulsive, oligopolistic and Scrougelike misbehavior toward their workforce and the communities in which they live.
We have a Wal Wart just down the road which is being replaced by a Super Store. If I can buy a product anywhere else, even at a higher price, I avoid Wal Mart like the plague. It is weird to read the noise from many of the folks in these Wal-Mart threads who champion this bullying oligopoly as an example of free enterprise. I do my part by shopping elsewhere.
Precisely so. Even Adam Smith recognized the natural tendency of people to collude and conspire against their competitors to maximize profits. Labor, for these folks, is a cost like any other which is relatively easy to control, if they dominate the marketplace, including the physical real world places where they do business.
In these threads, it is rather easy to pick out those who believe a free market economy really does mean a laissez faire economy. :-)
If I were WalMart, I would move this Eastern Shore distribution center 5 miles east into Delaware.
Like you, I can only judge Wal-Mart by my experiences with them...which when taken as a whole have been pretty good.
Shortly after we bought this place my husband started getting really fed up with the small places selling lawn tractors - they were either used and over priced or new and REALLY over priced.
We happened to be in Wal-Mart and hubby decided to take a look at the tractors there. The gentleman in the garden center was not only pleasant, but extremely knowlegeable about the products. We left there not only purchasing all the other household needs, but a lawn tractor (American made).....but we had a problem - we had no way of getting that tractor home, and Wal-Mart doesn't deliver. The gentleman from the garden center happened to live in the next town over from us and offered to bring it to us when he got off work in about an hour.
When he showed up with the tractor, he refused to take any money from us. When I argued with him that he was doing it as a favor and on his own time he said, yes it was a favor but his manager felt it was a great thing to do and kept him on the clock and he was going to be paid until he got home.
To me, that was great customer service, public relations and employee relations.
OOPS.........I forgot to add - I live in Virginia, but the Wal-Mart I shop in happens to be in Maryland.
I'm not looking to argue. I'm simply hoping to understand.
Per you opinion (well thought out, I might add) is that a $10/hour minimum wage is where we should be from both a moral and business point of view.
Have I got this right?
"WalMart, like Microsoft, has become a popular whipping boy."
While both are biggies, at least Wally will pony up a refund if the product is shoddy. MS on the other hand will blame you if it doesn't work. LOL
That said, the state of modern computing would be no where close to where it is today without MS. :-)
Anyone who has a lifetime goal to work in a retail job needs to be in a MENTAL INSTITUTION in Maryland not simply "health care".
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