[romanP]

OPP OPP:

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

Dude.. WalMart.. W A L M A R T! If I got my pick, that's the first chain I'd see in smoking rubble.

And the millions of Walmart shoppers and employees wouldn't certainly thank you, I'm sure.

No, but the rest of America would.

Actually, I'm pretty sure they would. WalMart sucks just that much.

[romanP]

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

No, but the rest of America would.

If everyone hates Walmart, how is it so successful?

The same way that if you make sure there is only one flavour of ice cream available, and everyone needs ice cream, then that flavour will be very successful.

[romanP]

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

That's being a bit simplistic, wouldn't you say?
Their succes is a threat to small towns, small business and Uniones at large. I'd hate to see nothing but metropoles with slave labour.

No, I wouldn't say that. If WalMart fucked everyone, how would they become the biggest company the world has ever known? They aren't perfect, by any means, but they seem to be able to offer shit people want. Otherwise, why would people shop there?

That's the social engineering secret of marketing that a lot of people don't understand. You can make people buy anything if you can convince them it's good enough for them, even if it's something that no one in their right mind should buy.

The success of capitalism depends on a lot of people making uninformed, quick decisions for the cheapest price. That is the magic of the impulse buy. Remember this if you think of going on a shopping spree on Boxing Day.

$1:

And a threat to Unions? Why should anyone but a Union member care anything about Unions?Unions were useful 50 years ago, not today.

You are incredibly ignorant of blue collar society, aren't you? Without unions, we wouldn't have nearly as much safety in the workplace as we have today, nor the wages that skilled workers are able to make. This is often how skilled labour can afford to have medical benefits.

$1:

Slave labour? What are you smoking? People volunteer for these jobs! It's not like their aeronautical engineering firm went of of business when Walmart moved to town, forcing these highly skilled people to work for a pitance. Walmart creates jobs for unskilled people.

No, WalMart gives unskilled jobs to people who could be doing something better.

$1:

The sad thing is, the people you are trying to "protect" are those that need Walmart the most.

That's exactly the point, WalMart needs them, not the other way around.

[Brenda]

$1:

No, WalMart gives unskilled jobs to people who could be doing something better.

Then why aren't they doing that? WalMart doesn't force you to work for them.

[romanP]

neopundit neopundit:

$1:

They are anti-competitive and have been busted for selling products below cost (an anti-competitive practice) in targeted communities in order to shut out their competition.

How is that anti-competitive? The consumer gains.

It's a short term gain. Consider where the money goes afterward, and who it benefits most. In the case of WalMart, the answer is never the community whose industries they helped to destroy.

$1:

there are many people that are, on some level, appreciative of Walmart.

Only because they have no other choice, or are ignorant of WalMart's practises.

[ridenrain]

Sorry folks. In just a few days, you'll have a new company to hate:

BEIJING - PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer, becomes the world's first company worth more than $1 trillion, after going public. It surpasses US-based ExxonMobil as the world's biggest company. Most of the shares - 85% - are held by the China National Petroleum Corporation, PetroChina's state-owned parent company. (NPR)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=15998461

[romanP]

OPP OPP:

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

That's being a bit simplistic, wouldn't you say?
Their succes is a threat to small towns, small business and Uniones at large. I'd hate to see nothing but metropoles with slave labour.

No, I wouldn't say that. If WalMart fucked everyone, how would they become the biggest company the world has ever known? They aren't perfect, by any means, but they seem to be able to offer shit people want. Otherwise, why would people shop there?

Yes, you are simplifying things drasticaly by concluding that people all across america are satisfied with this situation simply becaus WalMart is so successfull. People in general aren't very bright and do not know what's good for them. Do we agree on that atleast?

In fact, this is exactly what WalMart is counting on.

Any person who has ever played any strategy game knows that it is not good strategy to count on the opponent making a mistake. I think the same is true of running a business, eventually it will come back to bite you in the ass, and very hard.

[romanP]

OPP OPP:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

neopundit neopundit:

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Fine, Microsoft still is not the monopolistic monster that Wal Mart is.

According to the EU it is.

And the EU can suck the pus out of my hemmorhoids.

neopundit neopundit:

There are fundamental differences between Microsoft and WalMart. Microsoft had an element of luck involved, as they produced a product on the cusp of one of the biggest technological inventions in history.

No, correction: Microsoft produced one of the biggest technological inventions in history.

And that would be?

Microsoft worked with IBM to produce the first IBM PC. The difference between the PC and many of its predecessors is that the PC was not as much a mystery box as all of the other home computers that existed at the time, made from components anyone could order through a catalogue.

Microsoft has used a lot of shady tactics to get ahead, but they were all white collar shady tactics, which are not nearly as damaging to the average person, and not a whole lot different from what the other large software companies at the time were doing anyway.

[romanP]

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

Everyone deserves a decent living no matter what you work with/as.

Woah. I'm not touching that one.

Why not? We live in one of the richest societies in the world. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should be have to go without food or shelter, and yet it's still a problem.

[romanP]

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

An "unskilled" workforce should still have a salary to live off of without a significantly worse living standard.

I guess that depends on your personal philosophy. I disagree. Vehemently.

What I earn is mine. Only I deserve it.

What you earn is the Bank of Canada's, It says so on the money.

[romanP]

Canadian_Mind Canadian_Mind:

I was hoping my statement was over-the-top enough that people wouldn't take it 100 percent seriously. people shouldn't join the army to kill people, they should join it to protect people. Killing people when neccisary is just a part of that.

Without any doubt, the only reason I would ever shoot another person is to protect my own country. With the exception of another World War II situation happening, if conscription ever came back and I had to be flown to another country to shoot people, I would happily choose to sit in jail.

[romanP]

Brenda Brenda:

$1:

No, WalMart gives unskilled jobs to people who could be doing something better.

Then why aren't they doing that? WalMart doesn't force you to work for them.

In a sort of roundabout way, they do, actually. When WalMart comes to small town America, it rips the carpet out from underneath everyone by making sure that no competing businesses can survive, ensuring that everyone who owned and worked in those businesses will now work for WalMart. Many small American towns have lobbied and demontrated against WalMart coming to their community because they've seen the effects their kind of business has had on other communities.

This is corporate gangsterism at its worst.

[romanP]

ridenrain ridenrain:

Sorry folks. In just a few days, you'll have a new company to hate:

BEIJING - PetroChina, Asia's largest oil and gas producer, becomes the world's first company worth more than $1 trillion, after going public. It surpasses US-based ExxonMobil as the world's biggest company. Most of the shares - 85% - are held by the China National Petroleum Corporation, PetroChina's state-owned parent company. (NPR)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... d=15998461

That's pretty frightening. I don't know about hating, but with a company worth that much after going public, I'd be more worried about China's plans for the rest of the world. They're already being pretty pushy in their own neighbourhood.

[Tricks]

romanP romanP:

neopundit neopundit:

OPP OPP:

Everyone deserves a decent living no matter what you work with/as.

Woah. I'm not touching that one.

Why not? We live in one of the richest societies in the world. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should be have to go without food or shelter, and yet it's still a problem.

I think it was the no matter what you work as. If someone works as a professional arsonist, or works towards raping children. I don't want him having a decent living if you catch my drift.

[sasquatch2]

romanP

$1:

Without any doubt, the only reason I would ever shoot another person is to protect my own country. With the exception of another World War II situation happening, if conscription ever came back and I had to be flown to another country to shoot people, I would happily choose to sit in jail.

Actually when you are there, geo-politics does not enter into it. You are just out ot keep your scalp and your loyalty is not to king and country or walmart---it is to your mates. As an officer, I always felt my job was more about keeping my people in one piece than killing the other guy. I guess you just had to be there....