#1 Economic Enemy of the People: Wal-Mart

[callady]

Let’s start by looking at what I call the Wal-Mart 22: The 22 Democrats who, on June 24, voted against an amendment to the 2006 fiscal year labor appropriations bill (offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut). This bill barred any spending of money by the Department of Labor to implement the part of the deal the department had made with Wal-Mart calling for advance notice of inspections any time the DOL planned to investigate Wal-Mart. This is the deal that was recently heavily criticized by the department’s inspector general.

<snip>

Anyway, so who were the Wal-Mart 22? Marion Berry, Ark., Sanford Bishop, Ga.; Dan Boren, Okla.; G. K. Butterfield, N.C.; James Clyburn, S.C.; Bud Cramer, Ala.; Henry Cuellar, Texas; Artur Davis, Ala., Diana DeGette, Colo.; Harold Ford, Tenn.; Charles Gonzalez, Texas; Ron Kind, Wis.; Jim Matheson, Utah; Dennis Moore, Kan.; Mike Ross, Ark.; John Salazar, Colo.; Vic Snyder, Ark.; John Tanner, Tenn.; Mike Thompson, Calif.; Bennie Thompson, Miss., Ed Towns, N.Y.; and Al Wynn, Md.

<snip>

Let’s tally up some other Democrats who are on the Wal-Mart dole: Matt Miller, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, is doing consulting work for Wal-Mart. Miller considers himself a Democrat and CAP, I believe, fancies itself as a rapid-response operation in opposition to the Republican idea- and-spin machine. Mia Masten, Wal-Mart’s East Coast rep, is a former Clinton administration staffer (her post was special assistant to the senior adviser to the president for policy development). One of the Chicago Daley brothers, Michael, was hired by Wal-Mart to lobby for the zoning changes to clear the way for two new stores; as a local observer told me, when Daley’s firm is hired, “it is a signal that his position is the one supported by the mayor, a very powerful signal.” I could go on, but you get the point.

This is unconscionable, morally and politically. I think we all get the moral part-I know many people are pretty hip to the way Wal-Mart rampages through our communities (if not, go to www.walmartwatch.com and get religion). But politically, this is dumb: if the Democratic Party can’t be unified in opposition to the number-one economic enemy of the people, to the number-one enemy undermining any hope for a decent standard of living in the future, then, what exactly should people think the Democratic Party stands for? Why exactly should voters believe that Democrats have any more intention to challenge corporate power if the party is feeding at the Wal-Mart trough? And I do believe that, given the choice between Republicans and Republican-lite (the latter includes Democratic supporters of Wal-Mart or so-called “free trade” or both) people will always vote for the real thing.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9116

[Broken_Hero]

1. Why all the hate with Walmart here?...

I still dont' really understand the complete HATRED of Walmart...honestly.

[depakid]

2. Destructive economics, gender discrimination, unsustainability

labor abuses, massive funding for far right causes-

Bascially, if you support Wallmart- everytime you shop there- you support all those things AND you suck money out of your local community and jobs out of the country.

Simple as that.

[Broken_Hero]

4. I shop there all the time, thanks...:)

I know walmart supports the RW more than the LW...my wife went to a little rally they had two mays ago, when Cheney was there makign his Rich and Richer statment, oh and how he knows what it feels like to live paycheck to paycheck....:)

Labor abuses? who doesnt abuse labor? I worked for Carrs Safeway in alasak, and the union treated us like garbage, and took our money with a smile, so who doesn't abuse? Not that i'm saying it makes it right, but why single walmart out, just because its the big dog on the block?

I would rather give my $ to Walmart than the local community here, because the local community here has one gas station...so should i eat my money, and not shop at walmart? In my hometown in alaska, the local business had the whole town in an iron grip...can you believe that in 2000, a VCR was 300 bucks in my hometown? When walmart came to town, it leveled the playing field....and made those greedy local businesses compete...

I would rather spend my money at walmart, than pay high/jacked up prices at local stores...its just like Alaska Airlines in my hometown...they are the only airline, and they charge an arm and a leg to fly out...or you can swim...:)

[depakid]

5. Well, at least now you can make more informed choices

If you want to know more- as they used to say on X-Files- the truth is out there. Some communities are different than others- but by in large, Wallmart is a very pernicious influence.

And yes, I hear exactly what you're implying about monopolies and one horse towns. They're often not any better.

[Broken_Hero]

6. Thank you for an honest post...

I was expecting Flame wars 2430938840348 because of my post, thank you for the insightful post...:) Yeah, I can only talk about my experiences and in mine(one horse town) walmart did some good, thanks for not painting me as a RW nut job...:) In all honesty, i was expecting it...:)

[Solon]

13. I can tell you why I hate them...

They stole from me, literally, trying to win back those lost wages, or at least, if I can't get compensated, make sure they NEVER do that again, and to be honest, I don't give a shit if you have to pay 300 dollars for a damned DVD player to do it!

[Broken_Hero]

16. It was a VCR...

IF you are going to be snide, at least be correct about it, thanks, I will shop MORE at Walmart now, thanks...:)

And how did they steal from you?

[Solon]

27. I'll tell you why...

Read my thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5346761&mesg_id=5346761
Then maybe you would understand, the money taken out of the workers' pockets goes into your low prices, is it worth it?

[callady]

3. And depakid is just skimming the surface

go here www.walmartwatch.com to learn why.

Why hate slavery?

[Selatius]

7. People hate Wal-Mart because they're the best capitalists in the business

They've successfully dominated the competition, successfully kept labor costs down by preventing unionization and outsourcing, and have remained very profitable for the owners, the shareholders of the company. This is the way of the world. Love them or hate them, they have become the cause celebre of how to run a corporation and have been named the most admired corporation by magazines such as Forbes.

[texpatriot2004]

8. It's not capitalism, it's not a free-market capitalism when there is

no room for competition in the marketplace.

[Selatius]

11. Capitalism only requires you to own the means of production. Nothing...

about healthy competition is included in said definition. To be a capitalist is to be in a state of ownership over the resources or the means of production. That is all. Competition in the marketplace is just an incidental. Eventually, a monopoly will emerge as competition eliminates all but the strongest player. Competition, by nature, is a zero-sum game. There will always be one winner in the market if capitalism is allowed to progress to its logical conclusion.

[LostInAnomie]

9. I hate them for their complete disregard for their workers...

... and the communities they destroy. For every two jobs Walmart creates it takes three usually better paying jobs from the surrounding community. Because of this the numbers of people on public assistance rise dramatically.

They are everything that is disgusting about the capitalist system. They destroy small businesses, exploit workers, use sweatshop labor, and contribute to a culture of consumerism.

They have continually used political influence to bend laws to their will. Because of their influence they must be given 15 days notice from the labor dept. before they can be inspected for labor violations, a deal that no other business gets. Because of their made in America campaign laws were bent so that the majority of a product can be assembled outside of the US and still be labeled "Made in the USA".

Walmart is also to blame for starting to sweeping trend of exporting labor to sweatshops in China. They actually suggest to their suppliers that they export their labor if they want to make their prices low enough for Walmart to buy from them.

Forbes can praise them all they want but to me Walmart and the Walton family are fucking disgusting.

[Selatius]

12. What you say is true, but Wal-Mart is "successful" according to the rules

This is capitalism. The goal is to make a profit, and no profits can be had without control over resources. Those who are in a position to make a profit have a decision: To pursue profits with...or without regard to issues of morality or ethics. We see in history that those who disregard morals and ethics in the pursuit of profits gain a competitive advantage over those who do business with respect to those ideals. This is why Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the world and why companies like Costco are not.

[Solon]

14. Those rules need changing, plain and simple...

Tough, and I do mean TOUGH controls need to be put in place on these companies, so they may never take advantage of their dominance ever again!

[Selatius]

15. That was tried with the last batch of uber-capitalists in the 1800s

Well, those reforms have failed. Look at this country, just look at the sick nation it has become. This is Rome. So many leaders now are in it at the bidding of their financiers or at the bidding of their own greed. This country won't even look after its own citizens anymore or defend its borders because the leaders have all been consumed with struggles for the throne. When it gets to the point where only one natural disaster can bring the mightest power on earth to her knees because of that incompetence and sheer greed and selfishness, I would argue it is a sign that the Republic is dying.

It's not just that alone. Now we have the horrors of Nazi Germany and the industrialists who helped Hitler build his war machines in the name of profit to point to as an example of the kind of greed we're seeing. You want to do the same thing again and hope that they will not, again, be undone in another 50 to 100 years? Are you sure you are not underestimating the horrible power of greed? If history has been any indication, it has been a stalemate battle to try and contain that awesome, concentrated power in the hands of those who are dominated by their own greed. I don't think containment (regulation) is the long-term solution. It may work temporarily, but I'm not confidant it will hold forever. It didn't hold last time. A new way has to be researched and tried.

[slaveplanet]

18. You need to watch the PBS documentary

to get yourself a better handle on how they "play" by the rules.

Their idea of "play" has a lot in common with the 8th grade bully who steals all the marbles from a first grader.

Personally Walmart isn't the only one to blame here.
I believe it is a government front . A vehicle in the chain of demanufacturification of the US. The PBS does a good job of outlining certain companies that have been affected. A case in point is Rubbermaid, a company that was flying high in the 90's, had a whole section of Walmart dedicated to it's quality products.
Then Walmart shifted the "rules". In the previous model(sears, k-mart et al) the buyer would come to the manufacturer and asked what the lowest price for a certain # of units would be.
Walmart, and Walmart alone, changed up that model. Now they come along and TELL the manufacturer what they will pay them for a certain # of units(cost of raw material be damned). This effectively drove rubbermaid out of business. They had to auction their huge vacuum forming machines for pennies on the dollar.
Who showed up to buy? Why the Chinese of course. So now you
have Rubbermaid, a former wall-street darling in the 90's, a shell of it's former self , now in the effective position of middleman. Most things with the Rubbermaid logo are now made in China by slave labor.

This scenario is repeated over and over again... It has destroyed Ohio and much midwestern manufacturing. Just imagine what things will be like in 10 or 20 years time.

is that playing by the rules? this shit didn't happen over night you know...the path was cleared over a long period so they could in position to throw their weight around in such a manner. Now ALL(sears, K-mart et al) have followed suit and also TELL the price they will pay.... its sink or swim ....the whole process has accelerated exponentially ... all because of Walmart.

and what do we ship to China?..... RAW MATERIALS mostly...Scrap metal, cotton.....The trade deficit is huge....

this is not Free market , It is not Capitalism.
It is closer to mercantilism.

Once upon a time , we were a British Colony....if you needed a pick-axe, you were NOT permitted to make one for yourself.
You had to purchase it from the crown. We shipped raw material to Britain, they shipped us pickaxes.


We had a revolution over that...

Ask me the fuck again , why I don't like Walmart

[Selatius]

24. I saw the documentary

They moved from a push model to a pull model where they pull manufacturers towards the price Wal-Mart wants instead of letting manufacturers traditionally push their prices as it always has been. Other firms have adopted such a model just to survive and remain in the marketplace. When the first firm began outsourcing labor to other parts of the world, other firms found they had to do the same just to maintain parity. This is the nature of competition. This is why I reject competition as the ultimate long-term solution to the survivability of the human race and this planet as a sustaining ecosystem.

I would say it is playing by the rules of capitalism. They may break a few laws, and that can be blamed to sloppiness on their part, but in large, nothing can stop them from gaining a bigger slice of the market at the expense of competitors.

I would say it is capitalism because I define a capitalist as being in a state of ownership and/or control over the means of production. With a bigger market share comes more control. Wal-Mart has done that.

[mcscajun]

22. Wal-Mart is not successful according to the rules. They break rules.

True, they manipulate every legal means they have to dominate markets, vendors, and communities, but that's not all that makes them profitable.

They also break and bend a lot of rules, despite repeated lawsuits and regulatory rulings:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts /

http://walmartwatch.com /

[Selatius]

25. Then they will change the rules to make it legal

You act like Wal-Mart is the only for-profit enterprise that has squeezed the rules and found loopholes if not broken them, but the history books show a different story. They and others have already changed the rules. This is why the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and other laws have not and continue to not be invoked. Because they control in an indirect fashion the federal government when movement corporatism, in general, finances the campaigns of so many politicians in government today.

Basically, your "boss" pays your politicians, and all you are left with choosing is which one of your boss's pals gets to sit in office. How is that for bending the rules?

[mcscajun]

26. I know they're not the only for-profit enterprise that has acted like that

But they are currently the baddest and the biggest of those doing it, so that makes them a fair target.

[Mr_Spock]

29. YEp, that's why they and Faux news are the enemies of America

If things keep going this way we will be in 1984 all over again :(

[Mr_Spock]

28. Worse. Company. Ever.

I'd never shop there.

They are the leader of the race to the bottom Chinese outsourcing - cheap Chinese products to put Americans out of work race.

They contribute 80% of their money to Republicans - $5000 to Tom DeLay AFTER he was indicted for MONEY LAUNDERING - they are a RW company. RW'ers are murderers.

They have such awful pay/benefits that workers often have to get support from our tax dollars. Incredible.

They have pushed out most of the smaller local shops - try to find a product they don't carry locally. Not.

There's a lot more - this is just a summary...

[chat_noir]

10. We need to add Wal-Mart to the Research Forum

Subtopics to consider:

employee mistreatment
economic impact on small towns
Chinese, etc., labor issues
political clout
estate tax influence

[slaveplanet]

17. Good idea

We should make a termination list , ALL dems & repubs great and small that have greased the skids for Walmart.

Jane Campbell(d) {Cleveland mayor} met secretly in Las Vegas with Walmart's developer, and achieved an end run around city council in order to install a downtown big box on what was once the site of a former union steel mill.

She just lost in her re-election bid to Frank Jackson(d)

[LincolnMcGrath]

19. Kick

:thumbsup:

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

20. Funny thing about walmart

Funny thing about walmart is they use an image they can use for free this :)
there no trademark on the image of the yellow smiley face, it's public domain, All I have to say is "bunch of cheap A$$es"

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

21. double post

[xchrom]

23. wal-mart is the perfect representation for what is wrong

with politics and the state of capitalism in america today.

sadly, to some degree, i have to agree selatious assesment of bing unable to fix the problem.

i.e. we broke up the oil monopolies only to have them reform right before our very eyes.
what was the effort for?

with one percent of the population owning what the other ninety-nine percent own all together{in the u.s.} -- we have gone through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole.

the public doesn't show HALF the concern that it should over the economic erosion that's happening under companies like wal-mart.

there has to be economic diversity in any nation for it to remain healthy -- big box stores, cable companies, chip manufacturers, etc -- are key indicators that those we elect are willing to sell our economic future down the river.