No - in my opinion, capitalism isn’t good – but it is the only system tried so far that works.
Right. That's why I said capitalism is outstanding.
Posted on 05/02/2006 11:56:46 PM PDT by Joe Bfstplk
Wal-Mart is the only corporation in the world that I know of or have ever heard of that is hated because it is successful. What do these critics want Wal-Mart to do? Fail? Start selling $300 shirts like Saks Fifth Avenue?
Of course, some of the hatred is coming from unions, which have tried but, so far as I know, failed to unionize Wal-Mart's work force. That one thing tells you that it must be a much better deal to work for Wal-Mart than its critics let on. Some of the disdain comes from leftist snobs who think they should run the lives of the peasants who work and shop there.
I am a small-town guy who has hated to see so many locally owned small businesses go under, but that's not Wal-Mart's fault. That trend started years ago with suburban sprawl (a major contributor to the energy crisis, by the way), suburban shopping malls, strip malls and all the other discounters that preceded Wal-Mart in prominence. It was caused by the American public's preference to buy based on price, rather than on service or quality. It was caused by local politicians converting the National Defense Highway System (the interstates) into suburban and urban commuter systems by routing them through instead of around the cities.
Wal-Mart is one of the best-run corporations in the world. The individual consumer has no clout with suppliers and manufacturers. Wal-Mart uses its enormous buying clout to get consumers the best price at the best quality possible. Being a supplier to Wal-Mart is no picnic, as the company is quite demanding.
It's not Wal-Mart's fault that much of its merchandise is manufactured in China. The late Sam Walton went to extraordinary lengths to help American manufacturers, but Wal-Mart doesn't control any corporation except itself. The move to China is not coming from Wal-Mart, but from greedy manufacturing corporations that love cheap and controlled labor. If your competitor is selling an American brand-name product made in China cheaper than you can buy one here, and if the customer says, "I don't care where it's made as long as I can afford it," what are you going to do?
More recently, Wal-Mart has been slammed for not providing what its critics think it should in the way of medical insurance. Well, why is General Motors flirting with bankruptcy? Why is Ford Motor Co. in financial trouble? Why, for that matter, is the federal government in financial trouble? The stinking hag in this room that everyone is ignoring is the high cost of medical service.
You can't provide low-cost health care or low-cost medical insurance for a system run by millionaire doctors and six-figure hospital administrators, and that has 1,200 percent profit margins for drugs and medical devices. The health-industry attitude is, we'll profiteer like crazy, and you people find a way to pay us. If Congress were not a bought-and-paid-for whore, America could join the rest of the industrialized world with a reasonable health-care system.
Health-care costs are one of the key factors in making American manufacturers uncompetitive. Now that the state of Maryland has presumed to dictate what kind of benefits Wal-Mart provides, if I ran the company, I'd close every store in the state and put the property up for sale. This is just one more ploy in the anti-Wal-Mart crusade.
We have reached a sick and perverted point in our culture when honesty and success bring attacks, mainly from people who either don't know what they are talking about or have a hidden agenda.
Millions of Americans who earn low wages from other employers rely on Wal-Mart to help them stretch their family budget. Wal-Mart has kept faith with those people. I've never found a dirty store, a rude employee or a defective product in a Wal-Mart store.
If you prefer to pay more than something's worth in exchange for some phony ambience or fancy label, go right ahead. In the meantime, get off Wal-Mart's back. It's one of the few entities in this country that is doing the right thing the right way for the right reasons.
The problem with your construction of this is that the customers oftentimes don't know how the prices got lowered when it comes to Walmart.
The other thing you fail to mention is money and choice. When you destroy local competition that was paying higher wages, you remove money from the local economy - deminishing the overall cash flow in that economy. You also lower the wage because Walmart replaces the higher wage local jobs with lower wage Walmart jobs.. the very thing they used in helping destroy the local competition. The lower wage rate and lowered available cash flow in the community then makes the lower price the only one which the average person can afford on the new lower wage. The reality is that in the current slash and burn climate that has prevailed, the operational approach has been to cut, cut, cut. Benefits, pay, hours, etc in the name of stock price. Business seems to have awakened to the fact that you can only cut so far before you have to look for other ways of making higher and higher profits and stock dividends. They turned their back on loyalty and cut the American worker to 0 in order to make a buck. And as another has so eloquently put it here, Walmart is forcing that to happen.
Walmart is actively forcing companies to move or close down. They destroyed Rubbermaid with their tactics - a Giant in american industry and a Fortune 500 company. And Walmart destroyed them. Interesting that after they did, Chinese businessmen came here and bought the remains to take back to China. IMHO, Walmart used to be a success story that was worth telling. Today, they are an enemy of America because in the corporate world, they have no moral grounding and no loyalty to anything but a dollar. The dollar has become their state and state religion.
Yes, people make decisions in corporations -- but they are not "free actors." The quality of their decisions, actions and general performance is based on how effective it is in meeting the goals of the corporation. They may be "good people," "bad people," or highly complex and conflicted people -- but they are judged solely on their utility to meeting corporate goals within their specialty.
This sentiment will lead to the death of the nation. Here in one sentice is the globalist merchantile mind. nothing matters but money. Good, evil, right, wrong, life, death all are subservant to making a profit.
Good, evil, right and wrong are the domain of the laws of a nation. If doing business with China is morally wrong, then a tax on imported merchandise is in order. No doubt wal-mart and others would pay the tax. But to expect a company to willingly surrender a competitive advantage is not reasonable.
Nope it just puts on full display the deriliction of duty on behalf of the Congress and Commander in Chief for not handling trade in such a fashion as to prevent the subversion of our economy. Walmart just becomes an immoral willing hand in doing it. And that tells us who Walmart is and why Walmart is dispised.. If business won't constrain themselves, the public will act to do so. Can you say "Backlash".
What do these critics want Wal-Mart to do? Fail? Start selling $300 shirts like Saks Fifth Avenue?
No - in my opinion, capitalism isn’t good – but it is the only system tried so far that works.
Your reply does exactly the same thing. Why is your "strawman" any better than his?
Look, I have no dog in the wal-mart fight. My local pols voted against allowing the store in. The company kind of shrugged, said, "fine" and went on about their business. No big deal. Nothing personal.
I have to assume that the instant enough people have enough of cheap Chinese stuff, then a law will be passed in congress. Until then...
The companies that make the $300 shirts or $800 pants can't sell to walmart. First off, they don't manufacture enough $300 shirts to meet wal-mart's needs. Secondly, it would be slitting their own throats since the kind of person who buys that stuff doesn't relish the thought of seeing it on the shelves of wal-mart...
Right. That's why I said capitalism is outstanding.
bump
Secondly, it would be slitting their own throats since the kind of person who buys that stuff doesn't relish the thought of seeing it on the shelves of wal-mart...
I doubt a better system will ever come to be – but I’m not an economist and don’t really have enough imagination to even think of a better system.
What is interesting in the story is that there is a kind of sneering quality about $300 shirts from Saks. In fact there is a relatively small market for such shirts, though such items are highly profitable. There is also a vast difference in quality between a $300 shirt from Saks and a $20 shirt from Wal Mart.
If? You start that sentience with an "If"? Tell me, if you could get a good deal for you business, on merchantise manurfactored by the government of Iran, knowing the profits where going to the government of Iran. Would you do it? No brother to answer I already know you would.
I am old enough to remember when it was considered unAmerican to buy foreign then you could buy domestic. Imagine that, once upon a time people knew, indistinctly knew that it was better for EVERYONE to buy American, even if it costs a little more or the quality was not quite as good. But then that was back when the usa was by far the wealthiest nation on earth, abortions were illegal, school prayer was legal, CEO's only made 20x what workers made, workers could raise a family on their pay, moms stayed at home, and most girls graduated High School virgins.
But hey you're the smart guy I'm just a known nothing "protectionist". But I do remember when know nothing "protectionists" were running the show and things were a hell of a lot better then they are with the free traders in charge.
Keep shopping at wal-mart folks the Chicom need the money, they are doing a massive military build up with it.
Do a little research to see just what companies are either doing business with Iran now or have done business with them until very recently. It's a Google search that should take about six seconds. Hint: there's alot of them.
And no, I wouldn't be one of them. Please don't make assumptions about me.
In regards to the world you can remember and how swell it was, well, that's swell. But the world has changed. That old world isn't coming back. Really, it isn't. It's over forever.
And, for the record, I don't shop at Wal Mart.
you might also want to google "U.S. companies cayman subsidiaries" for another eye opener
I seldom pay over $20 for a shirt – although many came from the DAV Thrift Store. A shirt will last me a dozen years or so.
Nice post. I'll never step foot in a Wal-Mart. Let them make their money off of the lemmings. I refuse to line their corporate pockets.
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