If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto on November 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM

The point is that you and I are not morally culpable for the life decisions of other individuals, even if it leads them to work at minimum wage jobs without benefits. There is a wage that the market has set for the task of sweeping floors and stocking shelves.

Feel free to start your own Wal-Mart competitor; pay higher wages, provide health care and advertise to your liberal friends that each overpriced purchase comes with the unshakably warm feeling that they’re providing inflated wages and benefits to undeserving morons. (pro tip; have each of your stores covered in solar panels and you can probably get DOE “loans” to get you started.) I’m sure Obama will at least have Sandra Fluke come to your grand opening.

WalMart will stop being a target for the Left five minutes after they unionize.

tbrosz on November 24, 2012 at 2:01 PM

Yes, the campaign against Walmart is driven mainly by the union issue. It’s also fueled by the left’s snobbishness and underlying disdain for the masses.

I can’t wait to see how Trumka and his goons twist this.

BallisticBob on November 26, 2012 at 12:18 AM

You must be one of his goons.

“It is a huge loss for my staff and my factory. This is the first time we have ever had a fire at one of my seven factories,” he said, confirming that the plant made clothes for C&A and Li & Fung.

Thorsten Rolfes, C&A spokesman in Berlin, said the company had commissioned the factory to make 220,000 sweaters to be delivered to Brazil.

“The victims and their families are in our thoughts and prayers,” he said.

Li & Fung was not immediately available for comment.

Tuba Group, the parent company of Tazreen Fashion, said on its website that the factory opened in 2009 and employed 1630 workers making polo shirts, T-shirts and jackets.

It also said its factories make clothes for Walmart, Carrefour and IKEA, and added that the Tazreen plant had 60 smoke detectors and more than 200 fire extinguishers.

If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto on November 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM

No. You’re right.

It’s better for Walmart to provide benefits to unskilled workers. They’ll just hire fewer of them to offset the cost.

That way, your dependency class can continue to grow.

“The 100-plus workers who died in a fire late Saturday at a high-rise garment factory in Bangladesh were working overtime making clothes for major American retailers, including Wal-Mart, according to workers’ rights groups.”

I can’t wait to see how Trumka and his goons twist this.

That bagging groceries isn’t a good career move.

Ronnie on November 25, 2012 at 8:41 PM

I’ll dare to assume that everyone here already knows that…

If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto on November 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM

That bagging groceries isn’t a good career move.

They both have a better Health Care plan than I do and get Larger Bonuses than I do. (Quarterly Bonuses I might add.)

jaydee_007 on November 25, 2012 at 5:56 PM

Quarterly cash bonuses — pretty much just for showing up. That can’t be repeated enough.

If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto on November 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM

I don’t know what you folks are talking about.

My son and daughter both work for Wal-Mart. Neither of them in Management.

They both have a better Health Care plan than I do and get Larger Bonuses than I do. (Quarterly Bonuses I might add.)

MelonCollie on November 25, 2012 at 3:14 PM

Do you really think Walmart shoppers are more tacky and tasteless looking than Michael Jackson (was), Donatello Versace, Carrot Top, Kathy Griffin, that cat woman or Bruce Jenner?

Everyone looks like a drag queen or a stripper in Cali. It’s a freak show compared to Walmart shoppers.

Your labels are laughable; stuff a sock in it.

MelonCollie on November 25, 2012 at 3:14 PM

And your argument by assertion would get you eaten alive at the Oxford Club, MelonHead.

Anyhow, I dunno why you’d take such exception to my characterizing libs and pseudoconservatives as demonizing success. Surely you can’t argue with the substance of that assertion, can you?

I tihnk (sure you do) the tacky and tasteless is so much more easily found at Walmart because so many more people shop there.

No dimbulb, it’s because Walmart’s constant refrain of lowest prices, coupled with their fondness of wooing the welfare class, attracts shoppers from the most tacky/tasteless parts of society.

Leave it to the libs and pseudoconservatives to demonize success.

gryphon202 on November 25, 2012 at 10:48 AM

Your labels are laughable; stuff a sock in it.

Mr. Suderman claims to be a regular Walmart customer, but he must be the worst comparison shopper in the world. Their pricing is only low when you compare it to the full list price on name-brand items at other retailers — but that is an invalid comparison, as competing chains such as Kroger’s and Safeway not only have their own generic brands, but also rotate the items on sale so that you can actually plan ahead, never pay full price, and save approximately 25% vs. always buying everything at Walmart.

HTL on November 25, 2012 at 2:10 PM

Incidentally, it is for exactly that reason that I still shop at the two locally owned grocery stores here in addition to Walmart. They’ve all been forced to compete with each other now, which I don’t think is a bad thing, but shoppers still have to keep their ears to the ground to get the best deals — at Walmart or elsewhere.

And why is that woman on NBC boasting about raising dumb money? I hope she’s proud of the fact that she exploited the investment naivete of the community.

Harvard has 7% acceptance rate. Walmart closer to 1%.

I think the tacky and tasteless is so much more easily found at Walmart because so many more people shop there. Leave it to the libs and pseudoconservatives to demonize success.

gryphon202 on November 25, 2012 at 10:48 AM

I think tacky, tasteless and gruesome can be found more often in Beverly Hills.

No, it’s hatred of bad taste and tackiness. You don’t have to be rich to find clothing that covers one’s butt or fits appropriately or doesn’t make someone look like a circus clown.

Now why a good portion of the tacky and tasteless congregate to Walmart so the POW site has easy pickings? Dunno.

kim roy on November 24, 2012 at 9:25 PM

Complaining about “tackiness” is the very definition of snobbery.

Now why a good portion of the tacky and tasteless congregate to Walmart so the POW site has easy pickings? Dunno.

kim roy on November 24, 2012 at 9:25 PM

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The “tacky and tasteless” like low prices, as much as the rest of us.

Hatred of Wal-Mart is class snobbery. You see it on the People of Wal-Mart website.

thebrokenrattle on November 24, 2012 at 1:25 PM

No, it’s hatred of bad taste and tackiness. You don’t have to be rich to find clothing that covers one’s butt or fits appropriately or doesn’t make someone look like a circus clown.

Now why a good portion of the tacky and tasteless congregate to Walmart so the POW site has easy pickings? Dunno.

If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto on November 24, 2012 at 12:41 PM

Um, full-time hourly associates are entitled to the same benefits options that are available to salaried associates. That includes paid vacation and health insurance. The average hourly wage for store associates in the United States is nearly $13/hr — that’s well above minimum wage and is actually liveable in many parts of the country. I know you find this difficult to believe, but there *IS* life outside Manhattan.

Oh grow up!

Vince on November 24, 2012 at 6:14 PM

That’s basic economics you wingnut crybaby, grow up yourself! Or at least it USED to be until crony capitalists subverted things. How do you think businesses used to grow before Uncle Sugar cut them special breaks by the hundred???

If the price of low prices Obamacare is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

FIFY, since that’s what ChoomCare is forcing employers to do.

Look to Europe – especially France – for what happens when you follow ernesto’s lead: high youth unemployment, stagnant economy and companies afraid to hire people even when times are good.

Take care of tyrannical government, and the rest will necessarily take care of itself. Easier said than done, I know, but as I am so fond of mentioning in these comments, solving a problem first requires an accurate diagnosis.

gryphon202 on November 24, 2012 at 6:02 PM

A shame that enough of the electorate that voted doesn’t view government as increasingly restrictive on its freedom per unit size, but as a kindly old gentleman willing to help any and all with the humility to ask. Try enlisting people to dial back a giant with a PR arm that can pull off that kind of image rehabilitation.

If you find my tail, be a pal and help me pin it back on.

Wal-mart doesn’t have to disadvantage smaller competitors to remain on top. Plenty of businesses do fine without leveraging the power of big government to get a bigger piece of the pie rather than baking more pies.

mintycrys on November 24, 2012 at 5:51 PM

Oh grow up!

Who says we can’t blame both? We can, and should, hold both responsible for their actions. Leviathan is doing what Leviathan does, and Wal-mart is more than happy to play the game. Wal-mart doesn’t have to disadvantage smaller competitors to remain on top. Plenty of businesses do fine without leveraging the power of big government to get a bigger piece of the pie rather than baking more pies.

mintycrys on November 24, 2012 at 5:51 PM

Take care of tyrannical government, and the rest will necessarily take care of itself. Easier said than done, I know, but as I am so fond of mentioning in these comments, solving a problem first requires an accurate diagnosis.

So whose fault is that? Walmart’s, or the government that exercises power such that rent seeking is possible, and maybe even necessary to do business in this environment?

Who says we can’t blame both? We can, and should, hold both responsible for their actions. Leviathan is doing what Leviathan does, and Wal-mart is more than happy to play the game. Wal-mart doesn’t have to disadvantage smaller competitors to remain on top. Plenty of businesses do fine without leveraging the power of big government to get a bigger piece of the pie rather than baking more pies.

There may be great truth in this.

But, on the other hand, just because the left dislikes Wal-mart so much doesn’t mean that the right has to support it so fervently.

I have alternatives to Wal-mart where I live, so I shop there. I do understand that not all people have this luxury. Wal-mart is a massive rent-seeker and is responsible, in part, for most of the governmental decisions to raise the minimum wage. See, Wal-mart fervently opposes any minimum wage increases–except when they support them. When AT&T sees competitors gaining ground in certain regions, they leverage their lobbying power to disadvantage those competitors by getting the minimum wage increased, or to have environmental safety standards imposed that will cut into Wal-mart’s overhead, but will also cut into a competitor’s overhead, hurting them more than it would Wal-mart. That kind of behavior is odious and antithetical to free-market capitalism, and conservatives should not support it. Wal-mart has learned to use its influence to operate effectively in a crony capitalist system, which puts it among government lapdogs like GE, GM, and AT&T.

mintycrys on November 24, 2012 at 4:47 PM

So whose fault is that? Walmart’s, or the government that exercises power such that rent seeking is possible, and maybe even necessary to do business in this environment?

I say the same thing to “conservatives” that complain about overseas outsourcing: If you want businesses to stay, or even come back, it is up to government to make the environment as hospitable for them as possible. At this point, government does the opposite and makes the business environment here as hostile as possible. This is the framework in which Walmart along with every other American corporation must function.

One of the more interesting observations about lefty dislike of WalMart was that it enabled those below the middle class to live a middle class lifestyle.

While the goods might not be the same quality as a department store, the goods were still similar (clothes, household goods, electronics) enough to imitate the middle class lifestyle.

And why would lefties dislike this? Because it was social mobility of a sort that was achieved without any big government program.

It is an article of faith to many lefties that the poor can only raised up with government intervention. The free market is not supposed to do it.

Wethal on November 24, 2012 at 1:56 PM

There may be great truth in this.

But, on the other hand, just because the left dislikes Wal-mart so much doesn’t mean that the right has to support it so fervently.

I have alternatives to Wal-mart where I live, so I shop there. I do understand that not all people have this luxury. Wal-mart is a massive rent-seeker and is responsible, in part, for most of the governmental decisions to raise the minimum wage. See, Wal-mart fervently opposes any minimum wage increases–except when they support them. When AT&T sees competitors gaining ground in certain regions, they leverage their lobbying power to disadvantage those competitors by getting the minimum wage increased, or to have environmental safety standards imposed that will cut into Wal-mart’s overhead, but will also cut into a competitor’s overhead, hurting them more than it would Wal-mart. That kind of behavior is odious and antithetical to free-market capitalism, and conservatives should not support it. Wal-mart has learned to use its influence to operate effectively in a crony capitalist system, which puts it among government lapdogs like GE, GM, and AT&T.

If the price of low prices is a workforce without health care, paid sick leave, or a livable wage, what is the point?

ernesto

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When liberals just make sh*t up as they go along, what’s the point of facts?

xblade on November 24, 2012 at 1:34 PM

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Ernie’, how (expletive) stupid can you be?

xblade wins !