Walmart traffic light

[Thespis]

It is simple then try and not to support there greed. Mom & Pop places will help you more and they know more about what they sell.

Why not work on changing the government?

Why not work on ending the government protections and the very creation of corporations?

Unless you get rid of government involvement, there will always be corporations, no matter how much you rail against them.

[FrankChodorov]

Concentrate on the government, not on the whipping boy du jour.

this is once again, as usual, showing a complete and total lack of understanding of the situation.

the corporations WANT big government because it protects their interests/profits and FEAR the so-called "free market"

How does this contradict what I said?

Yes, of course the corporations want government involvement. I don't know where I said otherwise. Corporations are a government creation. If you get the government out of the equation, there are no more corporations.

fine...but we must also INSIST on not one shred of social welfare is to be reduced BEFORE all corporate welfare is eliminated because it is the corporate welfare that is CAUSING the need for the social welfare!

[Thespis]

Concentrate on the government, not on the whipping boy du jour.

this is once again, as usual, showing a complete and total lack of understanding of the situation.

the corporations WANT big government because it protects their interests/profits and FEAR the so-called "free market"

How does this contradict what I said?

Yes, of course the corporations want government involvement. I don't know where I said otherwise. Corporations are a government creation. If you get the government out of the equation, there are no more corporations.

fine...but we must also INSIST on not one shred of social welfare is to be reduced BEFORE all corporate welfare is eliminated because it is the corporate welfare that is CAUSING the need for the social welfare!

I'm fine with that, as long as the eventual goal is to get rid of both.

[Caleb]

The point is not so much "Wal-Mart".  Wal-Mart represents something that a lot of liberty loving people find repulsive.

I'm the last one in the world to advocate government involvement in stopping Wal-Mart ... so this isn't about a "statist" vs a "libertarian", as some would try to frame the debate.

It is about understanding just what, exactly, is needed for communities to thrive and survive.  And when I say "communities", I'm not talking about people who just live next to each other.  I'm talking about the concept of that within a community, we are all responsible for being our brother's keeper.  Looking out for each other, supporting each other.  If you didn't believe that, Russell and others, why on earth did you join a tuath? Now what that "community" is, the size and what-not, is open for debate, but Wal-Mart, and Corporations like Wal-mart, are destroying our sense of community, which in turn leads to larger problems.

Strong, closely knit communities do not run into the protective hands of Big Brother.

Caleb

[Russell Kanning]

We could have Chinese people join the tuath.
Don't try to central plan me.

[Caleb]

No one is trying to "central plan" you ... only persuade you. 

[Lloyd Danforth]

Concentrate on the government, not on the whipping boy du jour.

this is once again, as usual, showing a complete and total lack of understanding of the situation.

the corporations WANT big government because it protects their interests/profits and FEAR the so-called "free market"

How does this contradict what I said?

Yes, of course the corporations want government involvement. I don't know where I said otherwise. Corporations are a government creation. If you get the government out of the equation, there are no more corporations.

fine...but we must also INSIST on not one shred of social welfare is to be reduced BEFORE all corporate welfare is eliminated because it is the corporate welfare that is CAUSING the need for the social welfare!

When I first saw this, I thought, "Bullshit", but, didn't comment, because Dreepa said all that was important in the next post.
However the argument for ending social welfare first is that 'Social Welfare'  is the gift that keeps on taking!  It creates helpless dependents who develop an entitlement mentality, and,  who will be a problem long after we stop paying them to exist.
Stop Corporate Welfare and 'poof' it goes away!

[FrankChodorov]

Stop Corporate Welfare and 'poof' it goes away!

are you agreeing with me or not?

[Lloyd Danforth]

No.

It is important to stop all welfare, but, social welfare does more harm.

[Kat Kanning]

Wal-Marts of An Earlier Age

by Clifford F. Thies

[Posted on Wednesday, March 22, 2006]
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/walmart-earlier.html

The attack on Wal-Mart essentially comes down this: opposition to economic progress, defined as greater availability of goods and services people want at ever lower prices that indicate an ever wiser use of resources in the service of society.

It is hardly the first time such progress inspired opposition.

In 1868, the Pennsylvania Rail Road organized the first shipment of fresh fruits and vegetables to the northeastern cities of the United States during the "winter" (actually, it was during April). A train ? whose cars were filled with 1200 barrels of produce ? was loaded in Georgia, and sent north.

After months of having only apples and potatoes and jams, which could be stored in root cellars, the people of Philadelphia and New York were delighted to get fresh fruits and vegetables. As you could imagine, the business expanded rapidly. Specially-designed fruit and vegetable cars were ordered, formerly independent rail lines were integrated into inter-regional networks, and, in Georgia, farmers started growing peach trees along the railroad network, so much so that the state became known as the Peach State.

Such is the transformational character of the market process, always bringing lower cost, higher quality and greater variety of products to consumers, and continually replacing the old ways with new ways.

Only today, the leading agent of change in retailing is no longer the Pennsylvania Rail Road, nor is it the Montgomery Wards mail order house, nor is it the Great Atlantic & Pacific supermarket chain; it's Wal-Mart.

And, just as greenhouse farmers were threatened by the Pennsylvania Rail Road, and just as "Ma and Pa" grocery stores were threatened by A&P, so too does the entry of Wal-Mart into a community pose a threat to local businesses even as it presents expanded opportunities to local consumers.

Every school child knows or should know that the "industrial revolution" tremendously lowered the cost of manufacturing by gathering production from homes into factories, organizing laborers into teams of relatively specialized workers, and supplementing labor with capital. We call this breakthrough in production "the assembly line," and, most famously in the case of the Model T Ford, it brought the cost of an ever expanding array of products within the reach of the masses of consumers.

But, few people are even aware that there has been a parallel revolution in retailing and distribution. Advances in communication, transportation and the management of business enterprises have so expanded the marketplace that, today, we speak of the emergence of a "global market."

At every step along the way, local, skilled craftsmen and independent businesses have had to face the challenge of big businesses entering their market. Suddenly, so it seems, local producers lose their competitiveness in those goods and services amenable to mass production. But, at the same time, the fact that we are all achieving higher standards of living means that new opportunities are opening up for those business men and women who can perceive how consumers would like to spend their increased wealth.

Generally, local, skilled craftsmen and independent businesses have been shifting to higher quality products, specialty shops, and personalized services. For those who understand these changes, the fact that the emergence of the global economy is occurring simultaneously with a vibrant and entrepreneurial small business sector is not at all a paradox.

Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School    How humans flourish: $14



The transformational change brought about by the market process almost necessarily involves stress and disruption. In addition, in the short-run, there can be winners and losers (although, in the long-run, we are all winners). The great Austrian-born economist Joseph Schumpeter described this messiness as "the creative destruction" of the market process.

Even those of us who appreciate the advantages of the market process ? including, in addition to a higher standard of living, the joining of all the people of the world into one, global community, and even an increased ability of each person to actualize his or her potential ? even we understand that there are some disadvantages. And, whoever becomes associated with being the foremost agent of change in any given period is going to be blamed for the bad side of the creative destruction of the market process. So it is, today, with Wal-Mart.

Clifford F. Thies is the Eldon R. Lindsay Professor of Economics and Finance at Shenandoah University. cthies@su.edu. See his archive, and comment on the blog.

[FrankChodorov]

At every step along the way, local, skilled craftsmen and independent businesses have had to face the challenge of big businesses entering their market

The transformational change brought about by the market process almost necessarily involves stress and disruption.

big business enters the market with the state on their side.

in a completely free market with true cost pricing in place that incorporate ALL negative externalities at the point of sale, local producers will win every time on price, service and quality.

[Dreepa]

local producers will win every time on price, service and quality.

I don't believe that.
What about a call center?  Can't that be somewhere else and you get lower price and equal or better quality?

Hegel.

Some jobs get lost and some jobs get created.  Hell look at all the people who know work with computers (that make some things more faster/better)  They are all 'new' jobs, that weren't there 20 years ago.

[FrankChodorov]

What about a call center?

there is nothing "produced" in a call center

[Dreepa]

Knowledge is transferred.  Money sometimes exchanges hands.

So it is ok to outsource call centers?

Look at Tracy he works at a call center in SD.  That was probably in something like NJ before.  Why did they move to SD?  Because it is cheaper.  Hell Jet Blue has like 90% of the call center people working from home.  It is a new technology and we will use it to the best(or worse) of our ability.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Many Mcdonald's across the country are using call centers.  When you give your order, it is handled by someone in a different state.
This has cut order time and mistakes in half at dual lane drivethrus.  Call center employees average 40 cents per hour more than McDonald's line employees.