49 Million Americans live in poverty

I have to agree with every word of Hornpharmd's argument against WalMart. If a member of Rex's family was selling a product that Rex needed and the family's price was one dollar and WM was selling the same product for .85 cents, would Rex support his family or would Rex be all for Rex and head for WM? Not supporting your country is a problem, you know.

Somehow our laws should limit the dollar amount of company sales of foreign products in the U.S.. I like the idea of a descending amount starting tomorrow...70% max foreign product through 2012, 60% through 2013, 50% through 2014 and so on, reaching a norm of 20% max company foreign product sales in 2017. Yeah, that looks about right. That ought to be enough time to get our manufacturing geared up. That is, if Rex will loan money to co startups. Of course there will need to be monetary penalties for those companies that won't or can't meet the standards. It's going to be painful to change back to buy American but exciting at the same time. There would need to be lots of regulation and I prefer that the regulations be adopted only after approval by a diverse group of common sense American farmers....no politicians drawing up the regs. Hmm, maybe Satchel had a point about me wanting an agricultural economy!

And to get Americans out of poverty and back to work, we can't ignore illegal aliens. We need to identify and categorize EVERY illegal in this country. Some will need to be jailed, a few will meet the needed criteria and receive work visas, and the rest can be returned to their country. This should open up 20 million or so opportunities for the current jobless.

This business of passing laws to allow boatloads of foreigners to come to the U.S. and work for corporations has got to stop. Corporations should be required to hire qualified Americans or train Americans in the absence of qualified Americans, OR, do without and get into another business. As far as immigrants go, we have no shortage of population and any future shortcomings can more than be made up for by viagara.
 
Pharm, you took the worst case scenarios to try and make your point. We're talking about proving jobs and opportunities and you respond with owning your own store? Apples and oranges. Unless you are part of that family, there is only so far you will go. So WM is helping spread the wealth and opportunities. Instead of having it concentrated in only a few families hands. How can you justify wanting to keep the local economy controlled by the few and powerful. The consumers, especially the poor, benefit from that.

And WM doesn't push out the competitive family stores. There are still furniture stores, drug stores, hardware stores all run by families in the same towns as WM.

And how can you say that only 20% of the money is returned? Where do you think those employees of WM spend their money? What about the taxes WM pays? What about the donations?

I'm not a WM shopper, unless it's online, but I recognize the value they bring to most areas. I'm sure there are some horror stories out there, but I can also find some great stories about opportunities realized.
 
it sounds like the main problem people have with WM is that they play in the globalization game. It is globalization that drives down cost through decreased labor rates & quality. Walmart is merely a small player in a much larger economic movement in which we find ourselves. I think people here have rightly identified both the positives and negatives of globalization.

I think the real question is how best should the US government and people behave within this global economic movement? Should we isolate ourselves? Should we participate openly? Can we fight off the greater movement that is taking place through buying practices? Are we capable of that?

One thought I have had is that lower prices which globalization has provided is very important today to maintain the average US consumers buying power. Without it we would have a lot less crap filling our houses. One major reason why globalization has been so important is that we have domestic economic factors diminishing our baseline buying power. The two main ones are the relative price of real estate and cars, maybe even electrical power. Of those 2, the main one is real estate. I would be interested to see if any has an article or graph but I would surmise that the % of income spent on housing today is significantly greater than 20-30 years ago.

I think what we just saw in 2008-2009 was the corollary to 1929 except it was real estate as opposed to stock. Housing value has been and probably still is inflated. This necessitates that we find price relief in other areas. The problem with that is what we have seen with globalization...
 
Pharm?
Actually it helps to research something you are going to post as fact. I didn't see a link in your post. If you had researched it to provide a link you might have learned things changed..
You posted, "
LOL. The only reason WM shows sales increases every year is b/c they open more stores worldwide. Their like store sales are not up and are below the industry average."

Please read this CNN article article from Nov 2011
"Wal-Mart's same-store sales crept up in recent months, reversing last year's losses and trumping expectations, prompting the world's largest retailer to provide a sunny forecast for the holidays.

Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) said that U.S. sales at its namesake stores open a year or more -- also known as same-store sales -- were up 1.3% in the fiscal third quarter ended Oct. 28, reversing a decline of the same percentage. Same-store sales at Sam's Club outlets rose 5.7%.The Link

Not a huge increase but it was an increase.
 
horn you are right. walmart like store sales were up for qtr 3 and this was the first time in the last 9 qtrs. this is b/c they lowered prices to drive sales and their profits took a hit. their trend is no or negative growth from like store sales. their model depends on new store sales.
 
you are wrong Ag, WM does not have a much better product selection and their fresh foods are not of a of a high quality. their like store sales are proof of this. the chains that have not adjusted like albertsons and safeway have also seen poor sales growth.
 
Just a point of clarification on the meat cutters: Walmart used to have meat cutters. The meat cutters voted in a union so WM "closed" all their meat departments and started buying pre-packaged meat instead.
I live in Liberty and it has been a real boom to this town that WM came here. We have the only WM for 30 or so miles around. So we see shoppers from every small town around here. It helps not only our city taxes, but also the many other small business here that benefit from the additional people in town to shop at WM.
 
What Happened When Wal-Mart Came to Town? A Report on Three Iowa Communities with a Statistical Analysis of Seven Iowa Counties - by Thomas Muller and Elizabeth Humstone, National Trust For Historic Preservation, 1996.

This study examined the impact of Wal-Mart on several Iowa communities. It found that 84 percent of all sales at the new Wal-Mart stores came at the expense of existing businesses within the same county. Only 16 percent of sales came from outside the county---a finding which refutes the notion that Wal-Mart can act as a magnet drawing customers from a wide area and benefiting other businesses in town. "Although some suggest that the presence of Wal-Mart outside of, but near to, the downtown area results in additional activity downtown, both sales data and traffic data do not show this gain," the study concludes. "None of the nine case studies was experiencing a high enough level of population and income growth to absorb the Wal-Mart store without losses to other businesses." The study documents losses in downtown stores after Wal-Mart opened. "General merchandise stores were most affected," the study notes. "Other types of stores that closed include: automotive stores, hardware stores, drug stores, apparel stores, and sporting goods stores." The supposed tax benefits of Wal-Mart did not materialize either: "Although the local tax base added about $2 million with each Wal-Mart, the decline in retail stores following the opening had a depressing effect on property values in downtowns and on shopping strips, offsetting gains from the Wal-Mart property."www.newrules.org/retail/key-studies-walmart-and-bigbox-retail#4
 
I think the method of that video is that economic development and care really produces results. Wal-Mart can be a part of it or not. But it certainly doesn't render your efforts void.
 
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