| Author | Message | ||
     Court |
If fair ties to nominal dollars, how ya'll feel about a secretary getting a $750,000 "Christmas" bonus? How about kids, less than 18 months out of college, getting $>1M bonusi? Wall Street is divvy up the biggest bonus pie in it's history. Some of the numbers are absolutely staggering. I wrote it in one of my columns once, I'll say it again. ANY time you think more money will solve the problem, you don't understand the problem. Don't get me wrong, sometimes the "solution set" requires things that require money to get, but money itself is but a store of value. Wages, I submit, get blamed and made scapegoat for far too much in an effort to provide quick easy answers. | ||
| Arbalest |
Court, did you notice that I did not mention wages in my post? I was talking about non-union companies having organizing efforts. I liked your post. Funny, how people begrudge the landscaper making $42/hr, but the Wall St. crook gets his bonus(enough to pay the wages of MANY $42/hr landscapers) regardless of whether his company stocks go up or down. | ||
| Blake |
"sorry for the previous double post -- fat fingers, perhaps?" No problem. Please remember that you too have the ability to delete your own posts with a couple hours of their creation. Just click on the little "  " delete icon atop your post that you want to delete. Old dog... learn new trick... very satisfying.  | ||
| Bomber |
woof! thanks, Blake! | ||
| Brucelee |
"Wages, I submit, get blamed and made scapegoat for far too much in an effort to provide quick easy answers." Well, as I pointed out in my sneaker example, wages are a piddlin in the cost equation. Fringes, pension, health etc are another story altogether. | ||
| Brucelee |
BTW-with all this nonsense about how WM is jackin their employees by paying $8.50 an hour (not actually the number but it will do), no one here has apparently worked for the corner hardware store lately. If they did, WM would be looking pretty good to them. | ||
| Court |
For the sake of conversation . . .  | ||
| Blake |
Gee. | ||
| Lowflyer |
No...G-E... | ||
| Chainsaw |
...look at the new one going in on route 65 in pittsburgh, pa. no one wants it, they are getting one anyway, If no one wants it, no one will shop there, and it will close quickly. Or it could be that the VOCAL MINORITY doesn't want it. There was a WalMart 'protest' here in Denver. It drew 12 people, yet still made the news  Must be fashionable to hate 'em. | ||
| Lowflyer |
It is a band wagon. People like to jump on those from time to time. Some folks not only jump on and ride it around, they like to get on top of the band wagon holding a damn sign. The rest of us can only hope that when they jump from one wagon to the next, the worst of them will fall off and damage their reproductive organs.  | ||
| Blake |
I've noticed that a lot of folks like to hate the big successful venture, you name it, Microsoft, IBM, GM, ATT, Exxon-Mobil, Harley-Davidson, McDonalds, Starbucks, ... heck I've even seen some ill-speak of BadWeB espoused. Why the heck would that be? :dunno:  I wish folks would count there blessings and enjoy the life they've been given. Especially here in America, we just don't have ANY real reason to complain about anything. Go live for a year in Haiti or any other third world country struggling to make good and then come tell me how pissed off you are about Walmart. After you return from a day at the dump in Somalia trying to scrounge enough sustenance for your wives and children, then tell me how evil Walmart is. Perspective is important. | ||
| Court |
>>>>I've noticed that a lot of folks like to hate the big successful venture I still keep, right here on the ol' writing desk, a copy of Louis Rukeyer's "SUCCESS OFFENDS BUREAUCRATS". Telling. | ||
| Oldog |
I will give you an Amen on the 3rd world comments Blake!, try central america for just a week, we have it sooooooo good.   | ||
| Brucelee |
America is unique (IHMO) in the world. The opportunity that is available here is the envy of other countries and it is why folks want to come here from every nation. Having said that, no one believes that this is a perfect country. There is NO perfect country. The problem is that many hold America to a "perfect standard" when that is bogus indeed. To wit, we have poverty in America. Of course we do, show me a country that does not. In fact, we would have to have poverty as it is a relative construct, not an absolute one. The real issue that critics forget is that Americans and our governments have devoted BILLIONS of dollars towards the issue of poverty and yet it still exists. That ought to tell you something. I have no issues with large corp per se. Some are wonderfully run, some not so. This campaign against WM is largely fueled by unions who can't penetrate WM, liberal pols who know how to milk an issue, the news media that needs a story, and of course, special interest groups that exist to find problems to work on. "Let the good times roll" | ||
| Brucelee |
BTW-there is a course that is offered locally on how to establish a non-profit organization. The basic premise of the course is that if you don't have a job or want a better paying job, you find a "cause", create a NP organization, and start fund raising. Of course, as founder, you are the NP CEO and you go out, find a board, etc etc, You know where this is going, right? | ||
| Blake |
Yeah, into a nose dive of political debate. Yer hard-core brother. Court, Is his conclusion basically that the issue is rooted in envy or what? | ||
| Mikej |
 | ||
| Road_thing |
Another Amen on the 3rd world comments. Rangoon, Burma, for 2 years made me truly appreciate how lucky I am to be an American living in America! rt | ||
| Spike |
It may be quite bad in Haiti or many other countries, but that does not alleviate Wal-Mart's responsibility to be honest to it's customers. | ||
| Jackbequick |
There are a lot of pro's and con's to having places like Wal-Mart around. They *have* destroyed the infrastructure of small town America in many places. But then, maybe we did not need that very bad. I just saw the Alan Jackson video/song "Little Man" on the Classic Country channel on DirecTV. I had heard that song before but the video really pointed out to me some of the things about small town America that were punished unnecessarily and driven away be what I presume would be the "Big Folks". Jack (Message edited by jackbequick on December 07, 2005) | ||
| Bomber |
Small town bidness was irrevocably altered long before WalMart arrived on the scene -- I amrried into a family that had a long standing family-owned/run business which no longer exists in it's previous form, and WalMart simply can't be blamed for it -- big shopping centers, lower cost products, huge choices, all these things, which were tough for small businesses to offer, all played a part I've not seen Mr Jackson's video, but the fact is that the process started long before there were music videos -- keep in mind, no one forces people to go to the mall, have a larger choice of prodcuts, and spend less on what they want/need -- they all could have supported the small business person (although it gets tougher as the small business person disappears due to lack of demand for their goods) it's like saying Walmart FORCES people to work for a non-living wage -- last I saw, they were holding a gun to no one's head -- choices, we all gots choices | ||
| Brucelee |
Does Alan Jackson work for a small town record label? | ||
| Blake |
For sure WalMart wasn't the first and likely not the last... Woolworth? K-Mart? Sears and their catalogue? Walgreens? Target? | ||
| Tramp |
That's a great point, Blake. and actually, as to my own wal-mart hypocrisy, I have two words: "Herman Survivors" ..... I own one pair of footwear, $15- uninsulated hiking shoes from Target. My feet froze near-solid when I went fishing a couple days ago, so me and Z-girl headed out to find me some decent, warm shoes. Everything was well over a hundred, then at Wal-Mart we found Herman Survivors (granted they're not the old US-made Hermans from my youth, but we're not talking Danners, here)- 1000 Gram Thinsulate (  )leather/camo cordura, for $59- !!!!!!!!! NO WAY I was going to find thinsulate 1000 boots for less than double that. I'll have the toastiest toootsies on the ice, this season. Hey- I guess I am the market, sometimes. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
Didn't some obscure failing company called G something used to make bandwagons? There also used to be a saying "What's good for G something is good for America" Perhaps it needs updating to something like "What's good for Walmart is good for Walmart & if you don't like it, tough!" Yours in a seasonal spirit, Grumpy,  | ||
| Brucelee |
Lets spoil this party and increase taxes! Tax-Cut Deadline December 8, 2005; Page A16 The House is scheduled to vote today on legislation that would extend a tax cut that has been crucial to the economic rebound of the past two years. The bill provides for a two-year extension of the current 15% tax rate on capital gains and dividends, due to expire in 2008. Pay attention, for this may be the most important vote on the economy the House has taken all year. What's surprising is that the vote is expected to be a cliff hanger. The Senate passed its tax bill without any capital gains and dividend provisions, so passage in the House is necessary if there is any hope of keeping the issue alive. The very fact that it is proving so difficult to secure a mere two-year extension of President Bush's most notable first-term domestic-policy achievement underscores how far Republicans in Congress have stumbled of late. The 2003 tax cut is about as clear a policy success as has come out of Washington in many years: • The stock market has risen by about $4 trillion in value, and an estimated 40% of that gain is directly attributable to increases in the after-tax return on equities, thanks to the tax cut. (If the tax cut expires, the market will instantly give back those gains.) Housing values have soared so rapidly that the fear is we now face a bubble. Household net wealth has climbed by $10 trillion. • Business investment -- which had sunk into the abyss during the recession, falling by 21% between 2000 and 2002 -- has roared back to life. Spending is up nearly 25% over the past 30 months. • Dividend payments to shareholders have doubled in two years, according to data gathered by the American Shareholders Association. The cumulative impact of the tax cut and the higher dividend payments has put $100 billion into the pockets of America's burgeoning investor class. • The macro-economic signs all point to a solid, sustainable expansion. Employment is up 4.4 million and real GDP growth has averaged 4% -- or twice the OECD average -- since 2003. Today's unemployment rate of 5% means there are now roughly one million more Americans working than were projected before the tax cut. • Oh, and yes, there was a $120 billion reduction in the budget deficit in 2005. That's because tax receipts rose by more than in any previous year in U.S. history, even adjusting for inflation. Receipts were up by $55 billion above projections in 2004; $122 billion above projections in 2005; and are already running well ahead of projections so far in fiscal 2006 (which began in October). • Finally, we wonder if any of the faux debt-hawks in Congress noticed that thanks to the sizzling economy, states and localities are now running hefty budget surpluses, reversing years of red ink and painful service cutbacks. Even New York City -- which for years looked like the U.S. version of debt-plagued Argentina -- is back in the black. House Republicans will scrape for every last vote today to get the 218 needed to prevent the reversal of this resounding tax-policy success. They need almost every Republican vote because the Democratic Party of Howard Dean is reflexively against pro-growth tax policies -- even when they raise revenues. Republicans can take a big step toward reversing their slide in the polls -- and advertise themselves as the party of prosperity -- by enthusiastically distancing themselves from that bankrupt economic philosophy. | ||
| Bomber |
two sides to every story, I'm thinkin, and this one is no difference -- while all the data points above may be true (though slanted) there are other indicators that might be disturbing if you're not heavily invested in the stock market, in the lower half of income brackets, and pay attention to un-empooyment numbers as well as employment numbers -- the mere act of reporting is editorializing, as any J-scholl frosh can tell ya -- the above paints one, rosey, accurate picture there are others to be painted from data around the same topics | ||
| Blake |
Hey Porche-man! We're trying to talk about Tramp's new boots here! So would you please cease interjecting the political commentary? Yeah, I know, darn near every issue can be made political. What I mean is to avoid posting commentary comprised of words like "Republican", "Democrat", "liberal", "Howard Dean", etc. That's not to say it would be frowned upon here to proclaim admiration and support for Tramp's shrewdly conservative investment in a pair of boots having a liberal fitting of thinsulate. ![: ]](http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/clipart/proud.gif) Deal? | ||
| Tramp |
larfin me fargin arse orffff KILLIN' me!!!!!!! Now, then, back to me bootsesses. |
