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.
Don't give Havoc more ammunition...
26 Feb 1974 A U.S. Senate report reveals Ford Motor's involvement in Nazi Germany's war efforts, for which CEO Henry Ford received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle from Adolf Hitler himself. After the war, the car company was paid nearly $1M reparation by the U.S. government to compensate for one of its plants that was bombed within the Reich.
Hey, what's a law when profit margin is involved. You're supposed to curse, spit and say something about "regulation" aren't you... Don't let's get religion now and try to explain it away. Where'd the profit at any cost mantra vanish to?
Companies are not machines. Companies are a collection of people with and without ethics. Those people work for a living - yes even make profits for the greater good of the whole. But that does not diminish their responsibility to act in the better interests of this nation instead of their raw greed. Law or no law. For people who complain endlessly about proliferation of laws and regulation, it's interesting that you find God on those subjects when hit with harsh reality.. and then only to handwring. It's pretty pathetic that one should have to argue legal/illegal vs right/wrong when it comes to the greater good of the nation. Especially when this rot is coming from the GOP who should know better. You should know better!
And if the public had known about it, Ford would have been finished. That's the part you neglected to mention.. Probably because you know it's true and doesn't help you.
As far as I know there are very few laws regarding profit margin.
Also, I don't believe "profit at any cost" on a personal level. I don't even believe in profit at any cost for corporations. I believe that some money should be poured back into R&D etc.
But you're dead wrong in your view of companies. They really are "machines." If you expect them to act in a moral fashion then you're in for a lot of disappointment.
Ford was a weird, weird guy. But that's pretty common for technologically oriented folks who are focused on their discipline.
Havoc Mind: Hire Me. It doesn't matter if I have no marketable skills. You must hire me. It is my birthright as an American.
If you don't like that, tough, it's your problem. They do have that responsibility.
Havoc Mind:Hire Me. It doesn't matter if I have no marketable skills. You must hire me. It is my birthright as an American.
The older generation and the ethical amongst the new still know that. Those of you that seem to have forgotten what ethics and patriotism are do get it.
Havoc Mind:Hire Me. It doesn't matter if I have no marketable skills. You must hire me. It is my birthright as an American.
You just would rather make profit than be loyal.. Again, see the Rosenburgs.
Havoc Mind:Hire Me. It doesn't matter if I have no marketable skills. You must hire me. It is my birthright as an American.
Gee, Dumb2003 jumping threads to pester me again. Who would have imagined that..
Companies don't have a will of their own, nor a conscience. The peeple running them do. And, yes, they are expected in America to operate in an ethical fashion. It just seems that many more nowdays resort to what they can get away with instead of doing right for right's sake. But, then, that is what we get when people abandon proper ethics for money.
Lets look at the Tale of the Tape, shall we? For starters:
Companies are a collection of people with and without ethics. Those people work for a living - yes even make profits for the greater good of the whole. But that does not diminish their responsibility to act in the better interests of this nation instead of their raw greed.
Who said this? Hint: It may sound like Karl Marx, but it is someone much closer to you.
Ford was generally an ok guy by all that I've read. The guy paid High wages knowing that people couldn't buy his product unless he paid enough that they could afford it. In today's world, that is truly rare.
Now you're talkin'. Stalin knew how to handle successful capitalists!
Send em off to Siberia for some re-education!
Then we'll see if these capitalist pigs still want to offer a quality product for a good price.
Let's not and just imagine you aren't here, jumping threads to pester me because that's what you do and is the only reason you're here as your initial post displays. And here we were talking about people with no ethics.. Gee.
> Capitalism is good.
> Sorry, but I have to disagree with you. Capitalism isn't good. No.
>Capitalism is OUTSTANDING!
I'd keep it as
"With people, Capitalism (Free Trade) is as good as it gets."
> Clothing quality is about the only beef I have with Wal-Mart. I think it's a great store, overall.
But at their prices, I could practically afford to wear the underwear once and throw it away.
What's the beef with capitalism, traitors in this country have always employed capitalism in selling us out. Lest yet another person scalping the treason-lobby playbook be allowed to muddy the debate with strawmen, we'll state that it is not capitalism on trial here.. but rather patriotism and ethics.
Capitalism is not being questioned.. To quote a true statesman, "It is their judgement that has been sorely lacking" (That's Zell Miller for those in RioLinda).
How is Wal Mart destroying American jobs and American companies? I submit to you American unions along with some bad management at companies are destroying more jobs than Wal-Mart. Look up the problems GM and Ford are having for a great example of this vs their non union, job producing Japanese counterparts that are BUILDING NEW FACTORIES in AMERICAN communities.
None the less these Wal-Mart bash threads are fun to read. The Protectionist/Buchann wing of FR is fun to spar with on this issue.
You really take posts that expose you personally, don't you?
You have yet to justify your socialist postings -- this time I made sure I kept the posts in the poliival arena.
There is no reason to attack me because I exposed you for the Socialist you are.
Maybe you could refer me to a specific example of this "sorely lacking judgment"?
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