Wal-Mart & The Economic Multiplier Effect.

Discussion in 'Economics' started by SouthAmerica, May 30, 2005.


  1. Other great thing about Wal-Mart is, most Wal-Marts are 24 hours. Thus if you find the crowds intolerable, you can always go in at night where hardly anybody is there.

    Did I mention all the economic benefits of being able to be open 24 hours with everything you can humanly buy?
     
    #11     May 30, 2005
  2. Who needs customer service to pick out a toilet seat?

    No other store has greeters infront of the store greeting you with all the deals of the day. Not only do I not find the Wal-Mart customer service lacking in anything, I think they are the best.
     
    #12     May 30, 2005
  3. many are forced to buy from walmart given their decrease in buying power. walmart drives down wages also...it's a double edge sword. when workers try to unionize, walmart shuts down stores. many walmart employees are receiving govt assistance which means that they actually QUALIFY, that is indeed sad. those are our tax dollars that are being used to subsidize walmart's workers because they make shit for money. one way or another we are all paying for those great walmart prices. bottom line this doesn't end pretty.....walmart will pay one day. pretty soon there will be a shitload of ex-GM workers out there after their pensions are gutted down to about a third and they will have no choice but to shop at walmart. middle age men who made a decent living and thought they were saving for their retirements via their pension funds will be walmart greeters. middle america is being gutted, filleted and sold out by washington elites who are whores to the corporations and foreign entities.

    so i hope you enjoy the great deals you got on your chicken, tires, and gas. LOL LOL LOL...... yeah that gas is a great deal huh??? just under $2 a gallon??? only took $400 billion to go into iraq.... and they still gouge us while halliburton executives are gorging themselves.
     
    #13     May 30, 2005
  4. A couple of things come to mind...

    First, some facts worthwhile remembering:

    * China has opened to the world.
    * China has been able to lure manufacturing know-how into its borders on the promise of their huge domestic market: 1.3 billion.
    * Chinese labor is inexpensive. Or, US labor is expensive.

    People, these facts are not going to change!

    Next, one has to think in terms of the competitive advantages of one country compared to another...

    Or, let me put it this way, I think it's the best way to visualize a solution to the situation.

    You see, if tariffs or barriers are imposed, a cumulative distortion would be generated, which would eventually force an abrupt correction, and not the gradual reallocation of labor resources to the areas of the economy with competitive advantages, which is occurring at the moment as a consequence of the free market environment.

    Finally, Paretto's theorem comes to mind. Or, for that matter, the film: a beautiful mind. The concept is simple: the optimum of the whole is better than the sum of the optimums of the parts. Or, in other words, we'll all be better of procuring an optimum for the world than the optimums of individual countries.
     
    #14     May 30, 2005
  5. maxpi

    maxpi

    South Central Los Angeles had a big political brouhaha last year over keeping a Super Wal Mart out because, basically, they are a non-union employer. They won, Wal Mart is not there. There are a zillion kids there that have no entry level jobs but hey, the liberals won.
     
    #15     May 30, 2005
  6. I was just wondering why people think walmart owes anybody anything?

    They are a business, business should be cut throat.

    Thats how capitalism works :D
     
    #16     May 30, 2005
  7. What is always very difficult is that how do you tell
    good hardworking citizens that their sacrificing their jobs for somebody else in some other country is a good thing for them...

    I fully understand the long term arguments of efficiency and asset usage...but these people do not have two lives...and their current families do not have make believe needs...

    And by the way...this sort of demand is distorted because many of these lower paid workers could never afford the products that they are producing...How do you ask a $5-10 per day worker to buy the car they are assembling..in a country where the interest is greater than 20%...?

    I would not like to see perfect...but what I would like to see are normal...ethnic..sovereign countries where the French are French...the Africans are Africans...Argentineans are Argentineans...Dutch are Dutch...living in harmony with what they have..but not creating impositions on other countries...

    There is no evidence that the grouping together of countries trading strategies work...look at Nafta...the EU...and the proposed CAFTA....no one has been able to write down who wins..loses...oh but the pasture is greener anyway...

    I do not think that it is normal to see Siberian tigers in North Carolina...This type of globalization is not good...

    This is a case of greed versus morality..and economic impositions
    that distort the harmony of other countries...

    Who says the world has to be efficient in a mingled and forced manner...?

    Its all about harmony...not forced and un-natural impositions...

    You have to both love and hate the US because of its cowboy ways...Everything just does not turn out like they thought...but they are going to try anyway...just because they can.....Sometimes looking back...boy was that a stupid idea...oh well....live and learn.....

    Sorry...but I believe in ach countrie's own self sufficiency and governance....and each state or province for that matter....
     
    #17     May 30, 2005
  8. 7049 yes votes
    4575 no votes

    that's only 10% of population of inglewood.

    i guess those 7000 people had a reason to vote no.






    http://www.laane.org/pressroom/stories/walmart/040407CityNewsService.html

    A proposal to allow a Wal-Mart Supercenter to be built between The Forum and Hollywood Park in Inglewood was soundly rejected today, despite the company spending more than $1 million on its campaign.

    With all 29 precincts and absentee ballots counted, no votes on Measure 04- A won 7,049-4,575, a margin of 60.6 percent-39.3 percent, according to figures released by the City Clerk's office.

    "Clearly, the people of Inglewood spoke with a loud voice in rejecting Wal-Mart's attempt to rewrite laws and reject the attempted takeover of the city," said Miguel Contreras, the secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.



     
    #18     May 30, 2005
  9. maxpi

    maxpi

    Globalization is good for a corporation that does not want Marxists to organize their laborers. Marxists are all up in arms about globalizaton because with the work spread all over the place and competitive in nature they can't really get people organized to strike. They want to stop the globalization and keep the labor force herded into a nice little area so they can get control of them. Who, with a brain, is a Marxist nowadays?? Unreal.

    Blaming Wal-Mart for increased sales taxes is humorous. A much bigger vector in that calculation has got to be the expansion of public services. In California, the illegal immigration has taxed the school, welfare, hospital systems etc. to the breaking point and beyond. You have to have your head in your pocket to think Wal-Mart should be asked to give an accounting of themselves in that context!!

    Personally I think that history shows that the guys with the big trade barriers have the worst economies. The rational world is not worrying about globalization, they are working to reduce trade barriers all the time. China dropped a lot of tariffs just today so they get it.

    I do not worry that somebody will take my job through offshoring. If they can do it better and cheaper and they win the contract, I have to find something that I can do better/cheaper than they, no??
     
    #19     May 31, 2005
  10. If you have to ask, then go back to the basics before you try to provide commentary.
     
    #20     May 31, 2005