Why America is Severely Broken - Meet Alice Walton

Originally posted by IsawWHATtheyDID
after watching the black friday videos , there is no chance for a boycott of these major retailers to work. these sheeple think they are getting more bang for their buck. another down fall of these major import retailers is the antiques trade. i cant think of anything created in the last 50 years that will be worth anything in the future. goodbye antiques road show. how much will a chinese piece of crap that was bought for 99 cents be worth in 50 years? its pretty amazing how the effects of a worthless piece of paper with an artificial value placed on it can ruin a country.

it's quite ridiculous when actual numbers are shown wal-mart black friday prices were in fact a penny off some items, I mean how dumb can a person be?Now it's probably half price (after holidays). I know this to be done in many retailers, like Radio shack who carried one mp3 player during the holidays "ON SALE" for 39.99 now it's selling for $29.99!!! People are just dumb as bricks.

Originally posted by Xtrozero

Originally posted by DZAG Wright

America is ####ed!!!!!

We have two options to save us:

1. Raise the standard of living in Third World countries so their labor expects the same wages as us. This will make companies cease fleeing our country for cheaper labor.

Or

2. Levy some protectionism taxes.

With my job a small mistake could cost a few million, so if my company wanted to risk it I guess they could undercut and gamble...don't think it would happen.

I have no problem with taxes levied to prevent the practice of bringing in cheap workers and the 3rd world will progress, China will be in a world of # in the next 10 years or less. Nothing like 800 million wanting to make more than 30 bucks per month.

edit on 7-1-2013 by Xtrozero because: (no reason given)

I hope it doesn't happen...

We either have to bring everyone up to our level or lower ours. Eventually there will be a worldwide Union so corporations will not have anywhere to run and gain slave labor. The workers in India, Mexico, China will want the same $30 per hour jobs we do. The playing field will then be level.

America needs to lower standards. We could compete if we lower wages to Chinese standards.

Then there will be the freedoms!

Trouble with the world is intelligent people are full of doubt while the foolish ones are full of confidence......


Your confident your info is correct. It's garbage. People 'choose' to buy at Walmart. The are a retailer.

You are foolish and YOU said it!

Originally posted by The Old American



To your first point, no I'm not kidding. If they buy their merchandise from China, it's because that merchandise is what American consumers want to buy. If consumers didn't want any of it, WalMart would be out of business.

I disagree. People buy whats cheap. When budget consious, most people go for value over quality.

Originally posted by DZAG Wright

You're still not getting what is happening...you continue talking of getting more skills.

Lets dissect this: So you get more skills at the cost of going to school. In return you expect to be rewarded with a job that pays pretty well. In the past that was how it worked. Now, you go to school, incur that debt, enter the job market and employers are telling you they only want to pay you $10 per hour for your skills. Your skills which 10 years ago assured you $50 per hour.

I already gave up on your last post...That is why I said you win... You sound very young... I have no reason to win or loose...

To dissect first you must understand that school does not equate to skill. You go to school to get an education you work to get skills. You must start with one or the other, or get one or the other sometime early in your life. By the time you are mid 30s you better have both....AND NOW YOU ARE JUST STARTING!!!!

That is the first step to success....SHHhhh don't tell anyone....especially the 99%ers who got all that skill in college.

Day one out of college into a 100k per year job? Even for a engineer, lawyer, doctor etc ..that is funny. The problem is EVERYONE now has a degree in bla bla bla that is worth zero well ok worth a little more than a high school degree. You drink the cool aid and get 50k in debt with the promise from YOUR SCHOOL there will be a great job waiting for you with the crappy degree they give you...there is no great job, so once again who is at fault the employer or the school, or you since you believed their crap without actually looking to see if there are jobs waiting?

The funny part is if you went the other route and worked as a plumber's apprentice making low wages for two years AND did a good job you would have that nice job...see that skill education thing again? So now you're a plumber for 10 years and you want your own company and so you work on a business degree and you get it and your own plumbing company.....see how the education/skill thing works down the road? As I said you just started and the rest is all on your shoulders to succeed.

You tell them screw them, and they say SCREW you! They CAN find someone who will do that job you qualify for and only pay them $10 per hour! So here you are unemployed AND with additional debt!

I can't imagine what job skills you have that can't be outsourced. Give it time and it will....

Why hire you for 50 when I can get a high schooler for 10 AND DO JUST AS GOOD OF A JOB AS YOU CAN!

I do understand your point, I really do....but we must give companies an incentive to pay you more...why should they pay you more? Why are you worth more...is also the question? What do you provide to the company for 50 per hour that they do not get from the 10 per hour person?

At some point it is on you to make yourself valuable to the market.

I have about 25 years of training along with my education and you walk in with just education...how are you going to do my job for less?

Originally posted by nunya13

I disagree. People buy whats cheap. When budget consious, most people go for value over quality.

Young people buy cheap...older people with no money buy cheap...older people with money buy quality....we learn at some point that quality in the long run is better...hard lesson to learn though.

Originally posted by DZAG Wright

The playing field will then be level.

Doesn't take a world Union...look at Japan and Korea....all it takes is the populace to want more in life and it will happen all over.

reply to post by DZAG Wright


Let's dissect this. Dad had a lot of debt, but doesn't now. He socks away a lot of money for his kid in a 529 plan so said kid doesn't have a lot of debt upon graduation. Many of the problems with the kids these days is they put the cart before the horse.

reply to post by newcovenant

this is one the stupidest threads I have ever came across.
Might as well blame her for global warming too.

She is trapped in her own life as it is, you should leave her alone.
Dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

This woman looks so evil


Walmart has been good to Alice Walton, and she’s giving back to Bentonville and to America by building a fine museum in a part of the country which is relatively starved for cultural goodness. Her impulses and her museum are admirable, whatever you think of Walmart.

Originally posted by OOOOOO
reply to post by newcovenant

 

this is one the stupidest threads I have ever came across.
Might as well blame her for global warming too.

She is trapped in her own life as it is, you should leave her alone.
Dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

This woman looks so evil


Walmart has been good to Alice Walton, and she’s giving back to Bentonville and to America by building a fine museum in a part of the country which is relatively starved for cultural goodness. Her impulses and her museum are admirable, whatever you think of Walmart.

Schitzo much?
Thanks for the reply.

Originally posted by OOOOOO
reply to post by newcovenant

 

this is one the stupidest threads I have ever came across.
Might as well blame her for global warming too.

She is trapped in her own life as it is, you should leave her alone.
Dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

This woman looks so evil


Walmart has been good to Alice Walton, and she’s giving back to Bentonville and to America by building a fine museum in a part of the country which is relatively starved for cultural goodness. Her impulses and her museum are admirable, whatever you think of Walmart.

Schitzo much?
Thanks for the reply.

Originally posted by The Old American

You might say people are not forced to work for Walmart but since they put American Manufacturing out of business - jobs are gone ans yes they are forced to work in the only place in town.

WalMart is a retail store, not a manufacturer. They didn't put anyone out of business in the manufacturing sector. They also didn't put anyone out of business in retail. The consumers did by choosing WalMart over Retailer X.

Other than that, it's her money and she can do with it what she pleases with it.

/TOA

I agree that the consumer is responsible for choosing walmart over the local mom and pop shop.

As for manufacturing, walmart buys in such huge bulk that it can demand to lower US labor costs to unsustainable levels.

Why didn't US stores compete with Walmart in p/r and kill the cheap quality store with bad karma? That's a good question.

On the other hand, look at how miserable poor Alice must be. $ does not buy you happiness and here's the classic example.

Just look at these people as examples to avoid and ignore them in your lives - it's toxic to dwell.

reply to post by newcovenant


I like to try to put myself in the owner's seat. Not every employer takes care of their people the same. I'd like to think I'd take very good care of my employees for a job well done but its also human nature to never be satisfied with something for long. When you hire on to a job you know the expectations up front as well as the salary. If you don't like it move to the next job on down the road. The only thing an employee is expected to do is what they were hired to do and the only thing an employer is expected to do is what he/she said when they hired you. Even if you think you're doing a great job (and you should) you should not expect the employer to do anymore than was agreed on in the beginning. Back to putting myself in the owner's seat; I could not imagine having this great idea, become successful and someone else tell me suddenly how to run my business. If you have such great ideas start your own business. I agree I'd love to see manufacturing brought back but to do that Americans are going to have to commit to buying American only and that sends a message to the WalMart people of the world but sadly everyone wants to stretch the paycheck as far as possible and if buying from China will do that then thats what they will do. We don't seem to be able to think ahead to the future we may be leaving our children and our children see us at WalMart and never consider the consequences because thats what we taught them to do. Mom and Pop stores are so much better, so much more personal but they can't stay around if we aren't loyal to them. Face it, we are all loyal to the almighty dollar that is about to leave us all high and dry.

Originally posted by Juggernog

Originally posted by The Old American

You might say people are not forced to work for Walmart but since they put American Manufacturing out of business - jobs are gone ans yes they are forced to work in the only place in town.

WalMart is a retail store, not a manufacturer. They didn't put anyone out of business in the manufacturing sector. They also didn't put anyone out of business in retail. The consumers did by choosing WalMart over Retailer X.

Other than that, it's her money and she can do with it what she pleases with it.

/TOA

Walmart was a key player in shutting down American Manufacturing because they stopped buying goods made in America because they wanted to buy the cheaper made in China goods to increase their profit.
Thats how it works

Edit: Ah, covenant beat me to it

edit on 1/6/2013 by Juggernog because: (no reason given)

Actually Americans wanted cheaper prices, partly as a result of a falling dollar brought on by a government which loves to spend money...often on wasteful programs aimed at the very same people. Couple that with expensive and non competitive unionized labor and this is the result. Walmart provides a service for providing low price goods that Americans want. This is what America as a whole wants. Not fair to blame those who have profited off of serving the demands of u.s. consumers.

You might say people are not forced to work for Walmart but since they put American Manufacturing out of business - jobs are gone ans yes they are forced to work in the only place in town. That IS what this world is coming to, a very bad science fiction reality along the lines of.

In other words; they work at Wal-Mart for free, because that is most likely where they spend their money at also, I got that wrong, they use food stamps at Wal-Mart for food, and use what little cash they have to drive to work every day... then hope they have enough left over to pay the heating, water & light bill. That sounds like a co-op between government social service and private enterprise to me, working together so the average working person has nothing but away to survive.

That is just one form of government control...

reply to post by newcovenant


This is a total strawman thanks for the garbage thread OP.

I guess to address this , no , food - stamps are not the reason America is floundering, and if you think America is broken you had better think again. We are currently at the height of our prosperity even though some clowns like yourself wouldn't have us think so. Yes, many American people are suffering and being exploited, but production is at an all time high, there would be more than enough for everyone if some people weren't so greedy.

And that includes people desiring to cut unemployment benefits or food-stamps for their own tiny personal tax cut.

How appalling. OP you make me sick.

reply to post by The Old American


Right on! I can't believe so many people replied to this straw man thread!

Wall mart might represent some injustices we have in our economy but it definitely isn't even close to the root of any of our problems, most especially as individuals.

reply to post by Masterjaden


Jebus this thread is like straw man bait, the root of our economic woes are essentially how our taxes, regulations and gov't spending are implemented. Fixing all this BS like shutting down wall-mart etc. won't do anything to solve our problems, fixing the tax code and regulatory system actually would!

Threads like this really get me irritated I'm going to have to ignore these from now on.

reply to post by newcovenant


So let me get this straight.

It's Wal-Marts fault that Government takes tax dollars, and gives it to people who work at Wal-Mart to buy food from Wal-Mart to feed their families?

You really need to get out in the world. The real world. Get out of your ultra safe, gated, white community and go to an average neighborhood and see how food stamps are REALLY used.

People driving by in nice cars with fancy rims on expensive cell phones. OH but they got their EBT! I'm not saying I support Wal-Mart, I just support the idea of individual responsibility.

Welfare & Food Stamps should be a last resort. Not a program to feed you so you can buy your toys.