OT: Plug Digest, Vol 62, Issue 31 - the unfixable problem.

[joe at actionline.com]

> I would say Wal-mart is a great example of true greed.

Keith, I'm really sorry that you seem to have such a hateful attitude
toward Walmart. I don't want to pick a fight with you my good friend,
but I do feel it's important to clarify a couple things.

You asserted:
> They require tax cuts to build in your area
> and they pay the lowest of low wages.

Neither Walmart nor any other business can "require" or coerce any
government, city, state, or federal to provide "tax cuts."

It is common practice and not in the least bit unethical for any
business or any other entity that brings jobs and economic activity to an
area to seek incentives to move in to that area. No government is
"required" to capitulate to providing such incentives.

There is nothing wrong with any business offering whatever wage rates that
they may choose to offer.  Walmart can not offer lower wages than the
minimum wage and nobody is required to accept or stay in any job that
Walmart or any other employer may offer.

> They tell their employees to get government subsistence as part
> of their model.

I seriously question that Walmart "tells" their employees any such thing;
however, the point is that Walmart (and every employer) has every right to
decide whatever wage rates they want to offer, and nobody is "required" to
accept any job that employer may offer.

> Basically we subsidize their business model by supporting their
> employees with section-8 housing, food stamps, and state funded
> health care.

That is not Walmart's fault.  It is unrealistic to blame Walmart for what
the anti-American socialists among our elected representatives have
contrived. Walmart did not do that, did not advocate that, and is not
responsible for that.

> I have no problem with the needy being helped however when it
> becomes part of a business plan, I am against it.

Do you really disagree with the notion that you (if you were an employer)
or any other employer (including Walmart) should have the right to decide
whatever wage rates that they want to offer? Nobody is holding a gun to a
Walmart employment applicant's head coercing them to accept any job that
Walmart may wish to offer. It is still a free country (so far).

> People need to make a living wage.

Do you really believe that employers should be coerced by our government
to set wage rates that employers should be required to offer other than
minimum wage?  Even setting a minimum wage is debatable.

> And as they move up they should make a decent wage. In 2002 I worked
> with a guy who had been a department manager at Wal-Mart and he left
> Wal-Mart because he was only making $8/hr.

So what? Good for him that he was free to leave.

> Walmart is a cancer in my opinion. 

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but what benefit is it and
what does it accomplish to hate and berate the largest employer in the
world because they have a successful business that provides more
employment for more people than any other private sector entity in the
world?

You recommended:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiSmlmXp-aU&

Robert Greenwald is just another anti-everything Michael Moore type -- a
radical, liberal, elitist, left-wing extremist, socialist. It is very
surprising to me that you of all people would be swayed by any of his
one-sided drivel and distortions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Greenwald

Greenwald's approach has been to adapt guerrilla filmmaking to political
documentaries ... in affiliation with politically sympathetic groups such
as Moveon.org.