I totally get your frustration of saying how much more do they deserve, but you have to realize that income isn't always tied to the amount of work someone does. If that were the case, coal miners would be the richest people around. I think your point about debt is really good. That is the reason the middle class is hurting. Not only student loan debt, but we have a "keeping up with the Joneses" problem in America. We have too much personal credit card debt as well. But if you eliminate that, our salaries relative to the price of goods is aligned. Also, home prices and interest rates are back to reasonable levels. So now the issue is that we have a large educated middle class with fewer opportunities. We need to create more jobs to create competition between employers. That's how we will see salaries grow.
I can't watch this right now but I do think these are the numbers I was looking for. Wal-Mary costs America twice. In that we shop there and the profit and that we basically pay so they can pay their part time employees 4 dollars an hour. It's inhumane.
The reason WalMart is successful and so many people shop there is because of the low prices. So you can go pay twice as much for everything at your local small business then tell me who's getting ass raped. Business is business...big or small. Small business do the same posturing and make you feel like your doing something "warm and fuzzy" by supporting them. When it actuality, they are gouging your pocketbook.
Wow. So in effect you're basically saying that there is nothin MORALLY wrong with working people remaining so poor that they still need government assistance to provide for their family? By the way.. Given the numbers in the wal-mart video that are paid out by working folks just like you to support wal-marts record high profits (god damn Obama and his socialist ways!) that means you can't complain about the level of taxes on state and federal earned income. Gotta keep good 'ol wal-mart in business!!!
No, you're missing the point completely. My point is that we actually have a good amount of mobility between classes here in America. Yes, there are super rich people in this country. But we actually have a large and strong middle class. Most countries do not have the industry for them to better their lives at all. I'm not here to defend Wal Mart in every aspect of their business, but the reality is that 2.2 million people have jobs because of Wal Mart. And millions of people are able to get by in their daily lives by shopping at Wal Mart instead of their local stores which were charging them twice as much. Also, people complain about wages. But the reality is that if we increase wages then the prices of all of our goods/services will rise so that businesses can cover cost. So now you've created an even bigger problem for the poor.
Sweetie. I remember you. Instead of debate your nonsense points I'm just going to say: Your reality isn't even remotely based in most people's reality any more than it was before Romney lost.
It's nice to see that the liberal narrative of "Corporations are evil" is still alive and well with so many of you guys. Let's come up with a million other reasons other than hard work and personal accountability for our own success in life.
Riiigghhhtttt Because the people busting their ass for the local Walmart store are lazy fuck offs. Someone has to take them economy driving cruise ship vacays to Tahiti and such. Of course, the local workers at Walmart can't make enough to put food on the table all month long.. But, like, who cares? Rand called from Hell.. She left a message. Said she's proud of the work you're doing. Has a big gold star waiting for you once you return to her to be her minion in person.
Corporations are inanimate objects, but the individuals in charge of them certainly have biases and make explicit value judgments in the conduct of the corporation's affairs. The immense wealth of corporations is not a function of their 'hard work', but instead the aggregate of millions of individual and corporate actions, whether it be the individual work input of labor that a given worker does to complete his job and create a product for the corporation to sell, or the active manipulation of the political system and monopolistic business practices to ensure their dominance. And many of a corporation's deliberate actions (business or governmental) are designed to strip an individual of the ability to actually control their own lives, choose their own products or find a way to exist in human society independent of their control and influence.
Common sense would make you write the above. And people with common sense would understand it. But common sense has to be, like, common? Those who think they are going to get rich off the backs of those who do all the work are parasitic and sociopathic. If I need to I will post definitions of both words. Not that it will ring bells. And Not for you..dahling. I loves your posts.
I also think that rationalizing corporate behavior and alternatively blaming workers for their plight involves a log of cognitive dissonance. You have to willfully choose to ignore facts to the contrary if you honestly believe that an individual is capable of individually determining his own economy, society, etc. This isn't to deny an individual's responsibility for basic self-management, but an acknowledgment that most of the decisions that really matter are effectively out of our hands (i.e. what kind of society do you want to live in; do you wish to participate in the credit/finance economy; and the like).
No, the people at Wal Mart are hard working people. Wal Mart pays its employees $12.78 hour in most instances. The federal minimum wage is $7.25. So that are already paying employees $5 more per hour than the minimum wage. So I don't consider them an evil corporation. Like I said, if they were to increase that even $1 for a regular 40 hour week it would cost them $4.5 billion per year. That would force them to raise prices and make it even more difficult for the millions of low income people who depend on them for low prices. Obama called...he's proud that you're following all of his talking points. He has a gold star waiting for you.
The fact is that this country has the same social mobility as it did 40 years ago. The reason is that education and poverty level play a huge part in our socioeconomic status. So I've said it countless times on here...kids who grow up with wealthy parents in good school districts do have a better chance to succeed. Those who grow up in low income areas have a harder time reaching the next level, but it is possible. This country is filled with examples of people who decided they would rise above their current circumstances to better their lives. Our country provides opportunities for success. It doesn't guarantee everyone will be successful. In other countries, the opportunity for success is not even possible.
I don't agree that the country provides true opportunities for success. I think that the people who succeed are those that squeak through. Corporations enact legislative agendas that actively undermine the control people attempt to exert over their own lives. Can a rare few sneak by and make it? Sure. But do all people have equal and fair access to such chances to the extent that we can truly blame someone's failure on solely their own failings? Not a chance. This ongoing inequality of opportunity is unjust.
You have to have lived under a rock if you think that the social mobility is as it was 40 years ago. Look at almost any unviersity's tuitiion now and 40 years ago and you will see it is not the same. The cost of tuition has gone up. This has made it harder for those who are attempting to move more difficult. There is also a higher inflation now than back then. Finally, it is easy to look at the successes but the failures out numbers the successes. The objective is to maximize success and minimize failure. It isn't to point at success and forget that the failure rate is higher. forget that the USA has dropped miserably in the education system as oppose to 40 years ago.
What state do you live in? There is no Walmart in this state that pays its employees almost 13$ an hour. Working as a trained tech with experience I can only start a job at 15$ an hour. It's a fuck of a lot harder to fix a computer than ring up Doritos all day. Deptment of human services called...they would like to make sure you make the next food stamps subsidy for your local multi-million dollar making wal-mart in big bills, please. With billions of dollars to hand out to people making 13 bucks an hour 20s and 10s won't cut it.
With regard to the comment about an increase in minimum wage "requiring" an increase in costs passed along to the consumer, it does not "require" an increase in costs. It "requires" the world's most powerful, market power-wielding, globally dominant retail entity's shareholders, who are already experiencing historic profits, to TAKE LESS.
Take less! Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Orejon, you'd have those CEO people corporations in stitches with this act! And then Oregon made a joke about how we need to take less. Almost pissed my pants laughing I did. Oh and James? Go look up the CEO of Costco and then come back here and bare your backside for Walmart some more.
