Schuylaar's Easter Weekend Sesh - Wal-Mart Workers Costs Taxpayers $2B

killemsoftly

Well-Known Member
That only proves market capitalism isn't the solution.
Why do americans think in such a binary matter?
Markets work but govt is needed as a referee and a moderator of the process (otherwise there are shocks and chaos). We all need govt; without it there is chaos. Balance is very important. When unions suck up to much gravy the balance is disturbed. When corps have too much control the system is brutal and nasty and impugns capitalism. Why is this so difficult to understand?
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
Why do americans think in such a binary matter?
Markets work but govt is needed as a referee and a moderator of the process (otherwise there are shocks and chaos). We all need govt; without it there is chaos. Balance is very important. When unions suck up to much gravy the balance is disturbed. When corps have too much control the system is brutal and nasty and impugns capitalism. Why is this so difficult to understand?
Why is it so difficult to understand there might be another answer other than capitalism and markets?

Newsworthy events, involving people, usually do not happen by accident. They are planned deliberately to accomplish a purpose, to influence our ideas and actions.
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
do tell. btw, I have not failed. you have yet to say anything to elucidate. I am all ears.
Gift Economy said:
A gift economy, gift culture or gift exchange is a mode of exchange where valuables are not sold, but rather given without an explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards.[1] In contrast to a barter economy or a market economy, social norms and custom govern gift exchange, rather than an explicit exchange of goods or services for money or some other commodity.[2]
 

killemsoftly

Well-Known Member
Impractical or the system hasn't been figured out? Maybe it takes a binary solution?
to elaborate. Successful societies found mechanism to re-distribute wealth. ex. pacific northwest indians had excess wealth above subsistence needs. The wealthier clans and ind'ls used to give away 'gifts' (read: they taxed themselves). this prevented social problems: anger, resentment and the behaviour that goes with these emotions.

The modern world has a new group: socially isolated elites, who feel entitled and hate taxes. They bully their respective gov'ts or, failing that, they re-locate. We have arrived at a place that David Ricardo and Adam Smith both speculated about (and badly at that): capital is highly mobile, as are high net worth persons, and 'national' loyalties have been tossed aside.

Welcome brave new world!
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
to elaborate. Successful societies found mechanism to re-distribute wealth. ex. pacific northwest indians had excess wealth above subsistence needs. The wealthier clans and ind'ls used to give away 'gifts' (read: they taxed themselves). this prevented social problems: anger, resentment and the behaviour that goes with these emotions.

The modern world has a new group: socially isolated elites, who feel entitled and hate taxes. They bully their respective gov'ts or, failing that, they re-locate. We have arrived at a place that David Ricardo and Adam Smith both speculated about (and badly at that): capital is highly mobile, as are high net worth persons, and 'national' loyalties have been tossed aside.

Welcome brave new world!
How about a Through The Looking Glass version of A Brave New World?
 

killemsoftly

Well-Known Member
How about a Through The Looking Glass version of A Brave New World?
Not sure how that would play out. IMVHO these things evolve organically. The pace of some things is often beyond our lifespan. If one trully disliked the society one was born into one would be better off leaving. wysiwyg
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
Not sure how that would play out. IMVHO these things evolve organically. The pace of some things is often beyond our lifespan. If one trully disliked the society one was born into one would be better off leaving. wysiwyg
There is the path you take and the path which set events into action. Unless both paths are the same, intersections which happen to be the same by accident are meaningless.

One time I told this guy maybe his mother should use another medication, because she was out of it. Because what doctors say and what you want aren't necessarily the same. I went on to tell him how doctors thought I was bipolar, when my problems were only nutritional and causing perceptual incongruities. There's things like naturopaths, or at the very least get a second opinion. If I hadn't, most likely I'd be dead from going nuts and getting myself killed or killing someone else. He didn't listen, and got belligerent. Later on in the parking lot he came up to me and pulled out a gun telling me to mind my own fucking business, cracker.

Should we then go on a path of minding my own fucking cracker's business?

Another time I talked with a mother and son, where the son was a drug addict and could only feel when on street drugs. I showed them how to do simple visualization and breathing. They told me it made them feel better and they'd research more.

Obviously that other guy who pulled the gun wasn't on the right path. And was getting fucked by the system just like the ones I also tried to help. But in both cases there path was the same which was controlling their lives. It takes us to figure out we can follow another.

The Brave New World isn't necessarily a bad thing. The path is the problem.
 

Nutes and Nugs

Well-Known Member
Americans need to support Americans again.
I buy a few things at walmart that are all made in the USA.
The economy has gone to hell and people try to save pennies if they can, they have to.
I like watching Shark Tank where some people admit to outsourcing to China to build their products.
They often get shot down.
 

Dr Kynes

Well-Known Member
know what my uncle got in Vietnam? A raging heroin addiction which ultimately took his life..thank god he had family who loved him so he didn't end up homeless, under a bridge.

Whoops.
all my uncle took home from 'Nam was a crippling marijuana dependency...

... and an M2 machine gun he mailed home piece by piece.
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
Stand down soldier..our defense budget keeps going up while pell grants, SNAP keep getting cut..soldiers have their benefits including retirement at a much earlier age than I will ever see..35 or maybe 40...Also low cost VA loans and college..I on the other hand have paid into my social security since age 14..and have maxed out benefits according to the statements I receive..I've paid it forward and now will have to wait until I'm somewhere into my 70's before I can benefit (if I see ANY) and will still need something on the side to survive..I'm single and don't believe in relationship just to pay basic bills..and don't tell me ANYTHING about the military because we are a marine family and proud to defend our country..know what my uncle got in Vietnam? A raging heroin addiction which ultimately took his life..thank god he had family who loved him so he didn't end up homeless, under a bridge.

Whoops.
You're proud to defend your country, but blame your country for what he did to himself. And the medical community thought I was bipolar.

My stance is you don't choose where you're born, so being proud of something for chance, is stupid.

Instead be proud of your accomplishments. Free Obamacare, so you can pay your Nordstrom card bill.
 

NLXSK1

Well-Known Member
Stand down soldier..our defense budget keeps going up while pell grants, SNAP keep getting cut..soldiers have their benefits including retirement at a much earlier age than I will ever see..35 or maybe 40...Also low cost VA loans and college..I on the other hand have paid into my social security since age 14..and have maxed out benefits according to the statements I receive..I've paid it forward and now will have to wait until I'm somewhere into my 70's before I can benefit (if I see ANY) and will still need something on the side to survive..I'm single and don't believe in relationship just to pay basic bills..and don't tell me ANYTHING about the military because we are a marine family and proud to defend our country..know what my uncle got in Vietnam? A raging heroin addiction which ultimately took his life..thank god he had family who loved him so he didn't end up homeless, under a bridge.

Whoops.
That was a lot of effort to not address my point.

How many soldiers and their families are on economic assistance? If you have such a problem with Walmart due to their employees yet have no problem overlooking the miserable pay and benefits the government doles out to some of our most important contributors to society then you are the one with the issue, not me.
 

Canna Sylvan

Well-Known Member
That was a lot of effort to not address my point.

How many soldiers and their families are on economic assistance? If you have such a problem with Walmart due to their employees yet have no problem overlooking the miserable pay and benefits the government doles out to some of our most important contributors to society then you are the one with the issue, not me.
Sky apparently failed Logic 101 at her university.
 

Red1966

Well-Known Member
nice that they shift their savings onto the american taxpayer..so you know that roll of toilet paper that's $.02 cheaper?..:lol:

Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance

Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.

Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 national and state-level progressive groups, made this estimate using data from a 2013 study by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“The study estimated the cost to Wisconsin’s taxpayers of Walmart’s low wages and benefits, which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs,” reads the report, available in full here.

“It found that a single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year, or between $3,015 and $5,815 on average for each of 300 workers.”

Americans for Tax Fairness then took the mid-point of that range ($4,415) and multiplied it by Walmart’s approximately 1.4 million workers to come up with an estimate of the overall taxpayers’ bill for the Bentonville, Ark.-based big box giant’s staffers.

The report provides a state-by-state breakdown of these figures, as well as some context on the other side of the coin: Walmart’s huge share of the nationwide SNAP, or food stamp, market.

“Walmart told analysts last year that the company has captured 18 percent of the SNAP market,” it reads. “Using that figure, we estimate that the company accounted for $13.5 billion out of $76 billion in food stamp sales in 2013.”

Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove described this week’s report as “inaccurate and misleading,” referring to its use of extrapolated data.

“More than 99 percent of our associates earn above minimum wage,” he said. “In fact, the average hourly wage for our associates, both full and part-time, is an average of $11.83 per hour.”

He said the company had no internal figures to share on the number of workers receiving public assistance.

“The bottom line is Walmart provides associates with more opportunities for career growth and greater economic security for their families than other companies in America,” he said. “Our full and part-time workers get bonuses for store performance, access to a 401K-retirement plan, education and health benefits.”

Hargrove added that the number of Walmart employees receiving Medicaid is similar to the percentage for other large retailers — and comparable to the national average.

He pointed to a 2005 report by economist Jason Furman, now a White House adviser, describing Walmart’s Medicaid enrollment as “a reflection of [its] enormous size.”

Other large retail chains have been the focus of similar reports in recent months. In October, two studies released to coincide showed that American fast food industry outsourced a combined $7 billion in annual labor costs to taxpayers. McDonald's MCD +0.72% alone accounted for $1.2 billion of that outlay.

Yum Brands came in at a distant number two, with its Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC subsidiaries costing $648 million in benefits programs for workers each year.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/clareoconnor/2014/04/15/report-walmart-workers-cost-taxpayers-6-2-billion-in-public-assistance/
We should execute all those damn Wal-Mart workers.
 

Red1966

Well-Known Member
How exactly do they protect what's yours?

The US Military hasn't "defended America" since 1945, you dolt.

If the US was attacked today, over 3/4 of your troops are overseas.

Good luck with your AR15's if armoured vehicles roll in.

So tell me again... Why should people, who of their own free will sign up for the military of a country with an aggressive foreign policy, expect reverence for doing what they chose to do in the first place?
What aggressive foreign policy? We've had a surrender-monkey running the show since 2009.
 
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