BUSINESS: US Government Helps Wal-Mart

Originally posted by AlwaysLearning


Walmart-Your New Banker?


In its latest move, announced on Jan. 21, the retailing giant is introducing a no-fee Wal-Mart Discover credit card that offers 1% cash back, which it will launch with GE Consumer Finance (GE ) in March.

This relentless push into financial services is starting to send shivers through the banking industry.
..."It's not a question of if Wal-Mart is going to be a bank, it's a question of when," says D. Anthony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

BRILLIANT find Always (as always, pun my word).

Ohmigawd.

...This is why our Founding Fathers crafted anti-monopoly legislation - and why BushCo and friends dismantled same.

When these guys are done, what will ordinary people have left?



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Originally posted by soficrow

BRILLIANT find Always (as always, pun my word).
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...see, its catching...

What's left for ordinary people...not much...work us til we're 90...work us into the ground...saddle us with debt. Of course they are appealing to those who will be carrying monthly balances at 25% interest or something like that. Money makes money.

Any way you look at it...the winners are the banking cartels and the already insanely rich. The more I see, the more disgusted I get.

Originally posted by AlwaysLearning
What's left for ordinary people...not much...work us til we're 90...work us into the ground...saddle us with debt. Of course they are appealing to those who will be carrying monthly balances at 25% interest or something like that. Money makes money.

Any way you look at it...the winners are the banking cartels and the already insanely rich. The more I see, the more disgusted I get.

Granted, all these mergers lately are making me VERY nervous: telecoms, food companies, banks come to mind.

Can we talk about credit card debt for a moment:
I understand many people need to charge things from time to time. Unexpected expenses happen from time to time.
But many, many more charge things because they are impulsive people who cannot wait to have what they cannot afford. What kind of mentality is it to spend thousands of $$ every Christmas, not pay it off by the follwoing year, and then cahrge more?
Sure, the government likes us to be in debt but many of us go willingly. Fiscal responsiblity is something we and the government need to learn...FAST!

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe

Originally posted by AlwaysLearning
What's left for ordinary people...not much...work us til we're 90...work us into the ground...saddle us with debt.

Granted, all these mergers lately are making me VERY nervous: telecoms, food companies, banks come to mind.

Can we talk about credit card debt for a moment:

...Fiscal responsiblity is something we and the government need to learn...FAST!

They get us any way we turn.


U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 15 Feb 2005 at 03:58:23 AM GMT is:
$ 7 , 6 3 5 , 6 7 0 , 0 9 4 , 0 7 9 . 6 3

The estimated population of the United States is 295,592,075
so each citizen's share of this debt is $25,831.78.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.86 billion per day since September 30, 2004!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

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Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe
Can we talk about credit card debt for a moment:
I understand many people need to charge things from time to time. Unexpected expenses happen from time to time.
But many, many more charge things because they are impulsive people who cannot wait to have what they cannot afford. What kind of mentality is it to spend thousands of $$ every Christmas, not pay it off by the follwoing year, and then cahrge more?
Sure, the government likes us to be in debt but many of us go willingly. Fiscal responsiblity is something we and the government need to learn...FAST!

Credit is a wonderful thing...used properly. I use credit all the time, but they don't make any money off me because I pay everything when due. If I'm short of cash I'll transfer it to a is 4% on a low-interest LOC. The same can't be said of millions who are undisciplined (read stupid) or poor.

Another subject we could discuss is the commercialization of the holidays - holidays that never existed in centuries past: valentine's day, christmas, mother/father's days. They serve no purpose but to make people spend money unnecessarily and hopefully keep people in debt. I'll have no part of any of it...

Check this out for interest:

Valentine's Day Sales in Canada 2002

Imagine how high they are in the U.S.!

Its insanity if you ask me. Whatever happened to just saying I Love You?

Originally posted by soficrow

Originally posted by DontTreadOnMe

Originally posted by AlwaysLearning
What's left for ordinary people...not much...work us til we're 90...work us into the ground...saddle us with debt.

Granted, all these mergers lately are making me VERY nervous: telecoms, food companies, banks come to mind.

Can we talk about credit card debt for a moment:

...Fiscal responsiblity is something we and the government need to learn...FAST!

They get us any way we turn.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

The Outstanding Public Debt as of 15 Feb 2005 at 03:58:23 AM GMT is:
$ 7 , 6 3 5 , 6 7 0 , 0 9 4 , 0 7 9 . 6 3

The estimated population of the United States is 295,592,075
so each citizen's share of this debt is $25,831.78.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.86 billion per day since September 30, 2004!
Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House!

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK

.

BTW - If anyone doesn't know - the National Debt Clock shows how much money the US Government owes.

...It is NOT the total private debt of each citizen - that's more.



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Originally posted by soficrow
BTW - If anyone doesn't know - the National Debt Clock shows how much money the US Government owes.

...It is NOT the total private debt of each citizen - that's more.



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Actually, the average household debt in the U.S. is about $84500. I am in banking, so I see the ugly side of personal debt all the time. It's not uncommon to pull credit reports that show over $40k in credit card debt alone. And this is not including car notes, personal loans, student loans, and 1, 2, or sometimes 3 mortgages (on the same home). And yes, I'm talking about the same persons credit report.

Originally posted by mpeake

Originally posted by soficrow
BTW - If anyone doesn't know - the National Debt Clock shows how much money the US Government owes.

...It is NOT the total private debt of each citizen - that's more.



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Actually, the average household debt in the U.S. is about $84500. I am in banking, so I see the ugly side of personal debt all the time.

Jeeze. What are these people going to do when they have to work at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour, and no benefits?


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The Problem With Inherent Fallacies

Originally posted by soficrow
Jeeze. What are these people going to do when they have to work at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour, and no benefits?

If you're working at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour and have managed to rack up $84,500 in debt, you're an idiot.

If you are the people who extended that much credit to comeone making $5, then you're a freaking idiot.

I would love to know how many people working for $5 and hour actually carry that much debt.

More likely than not, they wouldn't even be able to pay the interest on it.

Thus the apparent absurdity of the suggestion.

the news on walmart just keeps coming.looks to me like walmart has alot of issues and seems to bend the rules to get by.from workers abuses to animal abuses.there is no end to the negative walmart.if walmart keeps up this wave there customers and workers will run them into the ground.

I work as an O/N Stocker at a Wal-Mart here in AZ, and while the pay is ok, the job, mainly the management is the sorriest group of people I have ever met, and considering how poorly the store is ran and how many angry employee's they have, I am shocked that it's still in business...

In the end Walmart will stand or fall on the loyalty of its customers. If people would just stop shopping there, the company would quickly cease to be an eyesore in small towns across America.

Walmart killed my main street, and took my job, so I'm a little biased.

I won't work at Walmart because they have discriminatory hiring practies. I don't shop there because the company continues to use their enormous corporate clout to isolate and demonize artists and writers who don't follow their corporate agenda for the dumbing down of America. People still shop there, all because of a few cents or a dollar off. I refuse to contribute to their corpulence. That was my decision, and everyone else is entitled to their own decision in the matter. The facts are swept beneath advertising dollars, and most people in America will shop at a Walmart this year.

That's the choice that this company hinges on. When people get offended enough about the abuse of power and lack of corporate responsibility, they will take their business elsewhere. I know many, many people who don't shop there. I'm not the only one. That number grows with every disgruntled employee, every abused customer, every shady exchange with the government.

I think it's only a matter of time before Walmart pisses off every person in America. Then who's going to shop there? Tourists? Not bloody likely. Let Walmart executives start buying their own crappy products using their rapidly diminishing salaries. Laugh at their outstretched hands when they beg for money on your streets and in your parks.

Walmart is just another enraged, obese, blind elephant trashing our pygmy village. We, the tiny pygmies, will fill that fu%&$@ full of darts until it collapses. Then we will have a feast and dance wildly 'round the fire.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
I think it's only a matter of time before Walmart pisses off every person in America. Then who's going to shop there? Tourists?
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I sure wish you were right, but I'm afraid that Wal Mart has started a snowball that can't be stopped any time soon. Wal Mart moves into smal rural areas. Usually under protest to a large percentage of people. But once they begin building and open up shop, it's the people that were protesting that start coming to the store.

It's not necessarily the protesters fault for shopping there though. The small grocery stores and small everyday stores in the area just can't compete with the "Rollback" prices. So, they are forced to shut down. Now, once that happens, where do you go to buy groceries, clothes, linens, electronics, toys for your children??? The answer is sitting on a hill with a brightly lit up "Wal Mart" sign for all to see.

Wal Mart says they don't move into any town or area that they are not welcome in. But that is BS! They buy the lot, start contruction, and begin building before the general public even knows what hit them. Have you ever seen how fast these things pop up nowadays? They got this down to a science. And there's a reason they build so fast. You drive by a vacant lot one day, then drive by it 2-3 weeks later and theres a parking lot full of cars and happy Wall Mart shoppers. They say that they help grow communities by offering employment, but they don't give you the names of the store owners that they ran out of business on thier way in.

Does Walmart have an agenda? I think so. Why aren't they settled with monoplizing the US? I foresee thier China stores blowing the US stores out of the water as far as net revenue. It's actually a brilliant move on thier part to move to China. As we see China become an even stronger nation economically, they will be able to exploit that with China's general interest in US lifestyles. What's more American that Wal Mart?

Originally posted by Majic
The Problem With Inherent Fallacies

Originally posted by soficrow
Jeeze. What are these people going to do when they have to work at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour, and no benefits?

If you're working at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour and have managed to rack up $84,500 in debt, you're an idiot.

If you are the people who extended that much credit to comeone making $5, then you're a freaking idiot.

Apparently you missed the part about how the economy is being restructured. ...Many professional positions are outsourced - sent to other countries where wages are lower. ...Many Americans with degrees and professional experience can't find jobs in their fields. Sometimes, they just have to take what they get. .....Often, they go bankrupt.

There is nothing to suggest the situation is going to improve. All indications are it will get worse. Hence my question, "What are these people going to do when they have to work at Wal-Mart for $5 an hour, and no benefits?"



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