A whole bank company shut down by govt?

[crockett]

walmart is the laragest non-govt employer in the US.  If your "DO NOT BUY FROM THEM" campaign succeedes the us is in alot of trouble!


and no these aren't just low paying jobs walmart's average pay starts above $9/hour

Ever wonder about all the jobs and small business who likely helped our economy more than walmart, whom went out of business because they couldn't compete in small town America?

Granted it's a impossible stat to find out, but I just wonder how many small businesses have gone out of business in this country because of Walmart. That and what was the average income/benefits of employees from these small businesses vs the average Walmart employee.

[Maverick]

Walmart=unskilled labor. If someone wants to earn decent money, acquiring a skill or an education is the path. WHY should Walmart, or anyone else, pay a 'living' wage, when the job qualification is being able to drag barcoded merchandise across a scanner, put said merchandise into bag, and return the customer the amount of change that shows up in the little window?

You do realize that the same description could be used to cover anything from bank teller up to and through factory workers of all kinds in addition to the folks who assemble your mode of transportation. I suppose you also realize that not every job that needs to be done in the world requires a college degree and that a college degree rarely prepares someone for the actual tasks in the work place. A notable exception being industrial colleges that teach a tech trade. Even those graduates are behind the curve when they start out.

BTW how do the cashiers at your local mom and pop store, big box hardware store, small box hardware store, any size box store handle the payment transaction?

[Gunslinger]

Ever wonder about all the jobs and small business who likely helped our economy more than walmart, whom went out of business because they couldn't compete in small town America?

Granted it's a impossible stat to find out, but I just wonder how many small businesses have gone out of business in this country because of Walmart. That and what was the average income/benefits of employees from these small businesses vs the average Walmart employee.

many of those small businesses did not pay more than minimum wage nore did they provide benifits.  The average American family saves about $2000 a year shopping at walmart. 

Walmart provides jobs in poor communities that otherwise wouldn't be there and no matter what you think $9/hour is better than no dollars an hour. 

The biggest problem people usually have with walmart is the fact that they won't let their employees unionize.  A bunch of food retailers out in california were paying their CASHIERS $20/hour because of the union.  They are no longer in business or slowly fading out.

[bj229r]

You do realize that the same description could be used to cover anything from bank teller up to and through factory workers of all kinds in addition to the folks who assemble your mode of transportation. I suppose you also realize that not every job that needs to be done in the world requires a college degree and that a college degree rarely prepares someone for the actual tasks in the work place. A notable exception being industrial colleges that teach a tech trade. Even those graduates are behind the curve when they start out.

BTW how do the cashiers at your local mom and pop store, big box hardware store, small box hardware store, any size box store handle the payment transaction?

Don't know for sure, but I rather doubt bank tellers make much either---they just need to be able to pass a drug screen and background check, be reasonably intelligent....all the other jobs you mention require training of some sort, at the very least, extensive o.j.t. There's damn little to be done at a Walmart by non-management folks which needs more than a few days of training....if ya ever take a close look at the check-out people, it seems obvious

[angelsandair]

It's a good job that the surplus from the last 5 years of economic boom have been saved against bad times like this by an economically conservative administration...

What are you talking about, things have been going up since Katrina and our Democratic Congress.

They wanna tap an oil reserve and put out 50,000 barrels a day when we use something like 87 million. That's like a nickel out of 87$$

[Baitman]

many of those small businesses did not pay more than minimum wage nore did they provide benifits.  The average American family saves about $2000 a year shopping at walmart. 

Walmart provides jobs in poor communities that otherwise wouldn't be there and no matter what you think $9/hour is better than no dollars an hour. 

The biggest problem people usually have with walmart is the fact that they won't let their employees unionize.  A bunch of food retailers out in california were paying their CASHIERS $20/hour because of the union.  They are no longer in business or slowly fading out.

First. If you think having a big box store is better than having a couple of small shops consider this. The small stores were probably owned by some one local who also shops local and their money stay in the comunity to go around again. The taxes were paid by multiple people the town had a couple of different places to shop so if they didn't like one person they went to the next.

Second. The money feels good to save right now but the money you do spend is gone from your town and will never return. This is a one way street funneling money OUT of your town. EVERY one looses in this case.

Third. NEVER sit around waiting for a hand out and say it is better than nothing Move find something better so that you can give your kids a better life.

( I was in a large city earlier this year with a help wanted signs on every corner offering min $15 per hour to start and a street person had the nerve to ask me for money )

Fourth. The only reason that someone needs a union job is that they don't want to make it on their own. There is huge opportunities out there if you just open your eyes. 

You don't need a collage education just plan something out and work hard.

STOP the pitty party

[Dowding]

I'm with Wooley on this. Some of you need to calm down a bit.

Suggesting you should stockpile your own seeds, guns and gold bullion? Pur-leaze. It's almost like you want a cataclysm to occur simply to make your lives more interesting. Take up a hobby maybe?

[SD67]

Really we (the rest of the civilised world) have done this to ourselves.
We have allowed our economic power and manufacturing base to be taken from us by a foreign power. We don't even have the machinery or tooling anymore. When China bought it, they took the lot, the machines, the tooling the whole shebang.
They effectively left us with no capacity to quickly kick start these industries. I think that if China did initiate a war like stance, the rest of the world would be in no position to defend our international interests. China would have free reign to sweep up the smaller less capable countries while we bring our military back to our own countries to keep our own borders secure while we attempt to recoup our losses.

[-tronski-]

Pure fantasy

Corporations aren't foriegn powers - obviously corporations themselves that take jobs and labour costs overseas to increase profits, so its hardly the chinese in their hollowed out volcanoes plotting western demise. The larger arsenals of democracy hardly call up Beijing to order weapons in times of conflict, thats why you keep your ability to make war in house.
What do you think could happen quicker? China launching an attack into Taiwan, or raising, training and building a mechanised battalion?

 Tronsky

[SD67]

Aww don't go killing my buzz!
I was building a perfectly good conspiracy theory there too!
 

[CAP1]

you people are so excitable, just slow down and take a breath, president obama and the democratic congress will fix everything next year. 

[Baitman]

US TREASURY secretary Hank Paulson is working on plans to inject up to $15 billion (£7.5 billion) of capital into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to stem the crisis at America’s biggest mortgage firms.

The two companies lost almost half their market value last week as rumours of a government bail-out swept the stock markets, hammering share prices around the world.

Together, the two stockholder-owned, government-sponsored companies own or guarantee almost half of America’s $12 trillion home-loan market and are vital to the functioning of the housing market.


$15,000,000,000 US taxpayers money going for a bail out, doesn't that bother you

[ZetaNine]

back to reality.........and away from walmart.......... I'm thinking we see another 10 banks taken ove by the FDIC by the end of the year...

[lasersailor184]

First. If you think having a big box store is better than having a couple of small shops consider this. The small stores were probably owned by some one local who also shops local and their money stay in the comunity to go around again. The taxes were paid by multiple people the town had a couple of different places to shop so if they didn't like one person they went to the next.

Second. The money feels good to save right now but the money you do spend is gone from your town and will never return. This is a one way street funneling money OUT of your town. EVERY one looses in this case.

Third. NEVER sit around waiting for a hand out and say it is better than nothing Move find something better so that you can give your kids a better life.

( I was in a large city earlier this year with a help wanted signs on every corner offering min $15 per hour to start and a street person had the nerve to ask me for money )

Fourth. The only reason that someone needs a union job is that they don't want to make it on their own. There is huge opportunities out there if you just open your eyes. 

You don't need a collage education just plan something out and work hard.

STOP the pitty party

Socialists will never understand it.  First, it is a broadly generous AND wrong assumption to say that a Local Mom and Pop store owner buys locally.  Just as much as we shop for the best prices, they do too.  They do it to sell stuff cheaper than the Aunt and Uncle store across the street.  They do it to get the highest profit possible.  They do it to make money.  Wal Mart just does it better.

They do not do it to lose money.  They do not do it for the gratification of selling "Local."  They do it to make money.

Next, the money deficits / surplus.  Given the above WHICH IS TRUE, 80-90% of all the revenue leaves the local mom and pop stores anyway.  They then pay their employees minimum wage.  So no more money is staying in the town, possibly even less money.

Wal Mart not only employees more people than all of the smaller stores, but they pay them more.  On top of that, every single family in the town is spending less.  More pay, less spend... and this is bad somehow?

[angelsandair]

It's all that "The Government is seeding everything man!! *takes a hit of a joint* we need to like... just...  like... chill out...." 

I live 20 miles away from Austin, I'm around that crazy stuff all the time... Sometimes, I just sit there and argue with them for fun about it too...