Why Do Liberals Hate Wal Mart?

[CockySOB]

Wal Mart does not force anyone to shop in one of their stores. People go their by chiooice. I thiought libs supported choice - or does that apply only to the murder of unborn babies?

100 million people walk into a Wal Mart to buy what they need. Wal Mart is a blessing to the working class. I thought libs wanted to help the working people of America - or by helping do you mean taking 30% of their income in taxes?

Welfare, the art of taking a large part of a person's earnings quietly, then giving a little of it back flamboyantly.... (paraphrased from Thomas Sowell)

Sounds like librull mentality to me....

 

[acludem]

Wal-Mart may look like a blessing to the working class but it actually hurts the working class by eliminating good paying manufacturing and retail jobs with low-paying Wal-Mart jobs.

As for choice, absolutely, choose not to shop at Wal-Mart if you have a choice, in some areas, Wal-Mart is the only store in town.

acludem

 

[rtwngAvngr]

If you want socialism, government running all the corporations, and government deciding what your standard of living shall be; it exists

It is big, cold, east of here, and alot of people named Ivan telling you what to do

There is a role for regulation. Read grapes of wrath. Corporations are not as perfect as neocons present.

 

[Mariner]

tears to my eyes with your admission that capitalism does need some limit-setting. Maybe you owned some Enron stock and learned this lesson the hard way? (I hope not.)

Here's another reason to distrust Walmart: in an excellent (and terrifying) piece in this week's New Yorker magazine concerning port security against terrorism, it is noted that Walmart is the main force in the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group of massive importers who openly OPPOSE increased port security because it would raise their importing costs.

As it is, the article points out, the entire shipping cost of a $50 pair of shoes from China is now just 75 cents.

Of course, importers should oppose measures that increase their costs, but it just shows one more way in which capitalism needs limits--our communal desire to avoid a dirty bomb being shipped in through the "green lane" (uninspected cargo) needs to outweigh the corporate desire to make that shipping as fast as possible.

Mariner.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

tears to my eyes with your admission that capitalism does need some limit-setting. Maybe you owned some Enron stock and learned this lesson the hard way? (I hope not.)

Here's another reason to distrust Walmart: in an excellent (and terrifying) piece in this week's New Yorker magazine concerning port security against terrorism, it is noted that Walmart is the main force in the Retail Industry Leaders Association, a trade group of massive importers who openly OPPOSE increased port security because it would raise their importing costs.

As it is, the article points out, the entire shipping cost of a $50 pair of shoes from China is now just 75 cents.

Of course, importers should oppose measures that increase their costs, but it just shows one more way in which capitalism needs limits--our communal desire to avoid a dirty bomb being shipped in through the "green lane" (uninspected cargo) needs to outweigh the corporate desire to make that shipping as fast as possible.

Mariner.

Yes. The port deal and the immigration insanity is what woke me up to the irresponsibility of the "business at all costs" crowd.

Even unions had a valid place in our society when there were 20 hr work days and no safety standards. How many braindead neocons will admit that?

 

[Mr.Conley]

rtwng,
I never thought I'd say this, but you've given me hope.

 

[Huckleburry]

Fuck Me! Rightwing and I actually agree on somthing. Carefull Rightwing hippyism is contagious.

I will say that the port deal should have gone through.

Thoughts anyone or should we begin a new thread?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Fuck Me! Rightwing and I actually agree on somthing. Carefull Rightwing hippyism is contagious.

I will say that the port deal should have gone through.

Thoughts anyone or should we begin a new thread?

Do you think I enjoy this?!?!?!

 

[T-Bor]

Name one company that would offer Wal-Mart stock in a 401k ? Thought so. Thanks for playing. Next

I wonder how many libs have Wal Mart stock in their 401K?

 

[red states rule]

Name one company that would offer Wal-Mart stock in a 401k ? Thought so. Thanks for playing. Next

Ever heard of mutual funds?

 

[Mr.Conley]

I don't like WalMart because I think they're really starting to get into some very anticompetitive and sometimes inhuman practices.

 

[red states rule]

They are a wonderful company and I get nearly everything I need there

I stand by my statement libs hate Wal Mart because they will not let unions come into their stores. Libs want the unions in Wal Mart because then they will a windfall in political contributions.

 

[Mr.Conley]

They are a wonderful company and I get nearly everything I need there

I stand by my statement libs hate Wal Mart because they will not let unions come into their stores. Libs want the unions in Wal Mart because then they will a windfall in political contributions.

You've said that a lot, but do you have any proof?

 

[red states rule]

http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=21465&catcode=13

Tell Me, Why Do Liberals Hate Wal-Mart?
Written by Jim Sparkman
Monday, May 29, 2006


What if you had to name the liberal’s Number One cause, their defining issue? Wouldn’t you guess it would be concern for those who struggle to survive on a very low wage.

Generally, liberals are like wild animals in making remarkably consistent noises. What is difficult, however, is to understand the reasoning and the logic behind those noises. Take, for example, the current liberal attack on Wal-Mart.

If “the poor” among us are the main focus of liberal policies one would assume that any group producing low priced goods targeted to the poorer segment would be a liberal hero. The lower income group of our society shop at Wal-Mart for just that reason. But, if you get your information from the liberal media, you would believe the reverse. You would see Wal-Mart as a giant evil preying on the poor.

A recent Sunday Book Review in the San Francisco Chronicle covers an anti-Wal-Mart book by Charles Fishman which draws the headline, “The store that ate the world,” and these comments from the Chron reviewer:

……….the key factors in a new kind, and extent, of destruction.

These factors cause the various manifestations of the Wal-Mart effect, which is the subject of Fishman's book. The first factor is the company's single operating principle, administered absolutely, without exception: always low prices. It is not only Wal-Mart's slogan but also its one commandment, its ultimate morality, trumping all other considerations.

The second factor is Wal-Mart's unprecedented size. "For most of this decade, Wal-Mart has been both the largest company in the world, and the largest company in the history of the world," Fishman writes. Wal-Mart is America's largest private employer -- as well as the world's. And its stated goal is to be twice its current size by 2010.

But what of the future? Fishman defines a few of Wal-Mart's vulnerabilities: It can't compete on quality or service, or on presentation and the shopping experience (even Target beats it there), or on employee retention and long-term community relations (Costco is far superior on those). Essentially, when it's not competing on price, it can't compete. Still, impoverishing Americans isn't exactly a blueprint for a thriving consumer economy. Perhaps that's why Wal-Mart is increasingly looking to markets overseas.

Mr. Fishman is either a socialist of the highest order, or he has less business knowledge than the Chron’s David Lazarus. Let’s examine the crimes that Mr. Fishman’s blames on Wal-Mart: (a) always striving for low prices to the consumer, and (b) of being too successful in their business. Yes, Mr. Fishman wants us to be indignant at Wal-Mart over the crime of being successful?

Surely there must be a smidgeon of logic somewhere behind all this liberal bluster. The first place to look is at the liberal’s dominance by their union base. Unable to convince the employees of Wal-Mart that they need to unionize, union leaders have turned to their political slaves on the left for help. The result is that the liberals, and the liberal media, dutifully attack the poor man’s shopping friend, Wal-Mart. The unions cannot defeat Wal-Mart within the NLRB rules, so they call in their political cards and send their liberal lackeys out to attack the company.

Secondly, a big part of the liberal base hates corporate America. So, they attack Wal-Mart because they are such a successful American corporation. The libs see Wal-Mart as spreading its business tentacles around the world buying products and selling goods. To the leftist liberals, this is just more American imperialism done in the name of business.

Inspired by the union attack, we read that Wal-Mart pays such low wages that society has to make up the gap by providing basic services at tax-payer expense.

Who is the ultimate judge of the adequacy of the Wal-Mart package? Wouldn’t it be the employees themselves? If the existing employees were unhappy wouldn’t they quickly join a union? Apparently that group is happy with the Wal-mart package. As for new employees, more than 11,000 people applied for the 400 positions available at the new Wal-Mart store in Oakland. Presumably, this massive number of applications means that these jobs would represent an improvement over what they now enjoy. These people want these jobs because they see it as a chance to better themselves. Switching to employment by Wal-Mart would obviously reduce any need they have for additional help from the taxpayer, not increase it as the liberals charge.

Now do you see what I mean by “fuzzy liberal logic”? They care about “poor people,” but do not want them to be able to work at Wal-Mart for better wages than they now enjoy, not do they want them to be able to buy low priced goods at the stores.

The development of liberal logic does not include the use of the human thought process. For proof of that, just check out what the San Francisco Chron’s Mark Morford concludes about Wal-Mart in his closing paragraph:

I do not shop at Wal-Mart. I may never, ever shop at Wal-Mart, given their notoriously horrible labor practices and their brutal business tactics and their effortless murder of all love and hope and joy from the retail experience. They are the George Bushes of the retail world -- drunk with power, cheaply made and full of crap. Not to mention that vaguely nauseating feeling, when you walk through their (or almost any) big-box store, that your soul is being slowly coated in rat saliva.

Morford is Chron journalism at its best of the very worst. Or, is it the worst of the worst. Whichever, he is so typical of the vacuity of the liberal thought process.

If one does not like the policies of Wal-Mart, he is perfectly free not to work there, not to shop there, or not to sell them goods for resale. If Wal-Mart is so bad, stay away! Who wants to feel like they are being covered in rat saliva? Besides, one real advantage of shopping at Wal-Mart is that you won’t run into Mark Morford.

Like I said the noises made by liberals are remarkably consistent. It’s the lack of logic behind those noises that makes it all so hard to figure.

 

[Bullypulpit]

I will never understand the left in this country. For some reason, the left hates Wal Mart. I really would like to know why.
Wal Mart makes huge sums of money for itself and the local, state, and federal government. It employs hundreds of thousands of people, and donates millions to charity.
Wal Mart provides working people what they need and a very affordable price.
Here are some possible reason why libs hate Wal Mart

Their non-union members are happy
Customer base probably voted for Bush
Their parking lot is full of SUVs
Customers watch Fox and NASCAR
They hate American corporate success

Anyone have any other possible reason?

Perhaps the non-union employees of Walmart are happy just to have a job. As for their benefits...What benefits? Paying an average of $2.00 an hour less than competeing chains, when Walmart moves in, wages drop. Health benefits are largely unaffordable for the rank-and-file employees and these employees are also forced to wait longer for benefits. As it has forced more healthcare costs onto its employees, Walmart has even encouraged its employees to seek charitable and public assistance to cover healthcare costs.

If their customer base got most of their news from FOX, it's no wonder they voted for Bush...FOX is, after all, the propaganda wing of the Bush Administration.

I have nothing against corporate success, so long as the corporation respects the community it's in, treats its employees with respect, and is a good corporate citizen.

 

[red states rule]

Wal Mart has good benefits and good pay.

http://www.walmartfacts.com/walmart-benefits.aspx
Wal-Mart works diligently to provide substantial, solid health coverage and benefits for our associates. Those who have chosen a career as a Wal Mart associate will find that, unlike other corporations, Wal-Mart does not decrease the contributions the company provides toward company medical packages or Walmart benefits as a whole. Rather, the percentage of total contributions made by Wal-Mart to their employee medical plans has remained consistent and in some cases, the contributions have risen.

As of today, 620,000 associates have signed up for health insurance coverage in a Wal-Mart sponsored plan. In January, Wal-Mart will provide insurance to more than 1 million people and offer up to 18 different plans. Coverage will be available for as little as $11 per month for individuals and 30 cents per day for children - no mattter how many children an associate has. This package, unlike many medical plans, has no lifetime maximum for most expenses after the first year of employment. As such, the Walmart benefits plan protects their associates against cataclysmic loss and financial devastation.

Furthermore, through the Walmart benefits plan, associates can be provided outstanding healthcare at such organizations as the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University Hospital, Johns Hopkins University Hospital, and several other outstanding, groundbreaking medical facilities without prior insurance approval.

However, Walmart benefits are not confined to the realm of excellent medical coverage. In recent history, Wal-Mart has contributed to the combined Profit Sharing and 401(k) plan at a rate of four percent of an associate’s eligible pay. Through the Walmart benefits plan, hourly associates are on par with management and executive associates, in that they receive bonuses and other incentives for aiding the company in achieving its goals.

The families of our associates are not left out in the Walmart benefits package. Wal-Mart participates with three national childcare providers in our Corporate Child Care Program which offers associates discounts for child care tuition. Also, every associate who wishes to improve himself or herself personally will find that Wal Mart provides personal and professional development services. We were honored in 2002 by Training Magazine as one of the fifty best US companies for employment training.


Competitive Wages
Our associates are the people who make Wal-Mart possible. Without their efforts each day we could not be the success we are. So we work hard to make certain they receive competitive wages.

Competitive pay and benefits. The majority of Wal-Mart's hourly store associates in the United States work full-time. That's well above the 20 - 40 percent typically found in the retail industry. Wal-Mart’s average full-time hourly wage for store associates nationally is $10.11 an hour, and even higher in urban areas. For example: $11.58 in Denver, $11.49 in Boston, $11.11 in Atlanta, $11.05 in San Francisco, $10.78 in New York, $10.98 in San Diego, and $10.29 in Los Angeles.

When we open a store, we often receive thousands of applications for just a few hundred jobs. That’s because working men and women know that our jobs pay competitive wages, and offer quality benefits, including affordable health insurance, and career growth opportunities.

Wal-Mart benefits - available to full and part-time associates - include health care insurance with no lifetime maximum. Associate premiums begin at less than $40 per month for an individual and less than $155 per month for a family, no matter how large.

Other benefits include a profit-sharing and 401(k) plan, merchandise discounts, company-paid life insurance and vacation pay.

We proudly offer continuation of many benefits, including health benefits, for the duration of an Associate’s military leave. We also offer supplemental pay, for the duration of military leave, to Associates called to active duty in an area that is subject to “hostile fire” or “imminent danger,” as defined by Presidential Executive Order.

More than half of our associates own company stock through our associate purchase plan.

 

[BaronVonBigmeat]

Whatever you may fault Walmart for, low wages shouldn't be one of them. No, they aren't super high. Neither are the wages paid by competing businesses.

 

[red states rule]

Wal Mart is a blessing for the middle class.

It provides alot of jobs, and helps people get what they need at a fair price

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Wal Mart is a blessing for the middle class.

It provides alot of jobs, and helps people get what they need at a fair price

You're assuming access to cheap goods is all that matters in life.

 

[red states rule]

You're assuming access to cheap goods is all that matters in life.

For the working middle class (whom the libs claim they care so much about) it is