Grim Views

I use the word "Walmart" as an insult. Like, Baskin Robbins is the Walmart of ice cream.

Some of the information on this image is ... misleading. I can't say "wrong", but it certainly is manipulated to put their point across.

Propaganda is easy to see, once you know what you are looking for. This is propaganda. For what, I'm unsure (I'm not checking a Wal-Mart hate site) and I'm not going to put my foot down and defend people who were born into money - but bullshitting your way to your point isn't going to make me wave your standard for ... hating capitalism? Rich people? White people? Folks without AIDs? I don't know.

Malstrom has tasted the kool-aid, and it is delicious.

If you focus on only one thing:

6 people = 30% of Americans.

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

That isn't a Wal-Mart problem, that's a national problem.

They are part of the problem and would need to be part of the solution. If you want something specific (again which isn't limited to Walmart and is symptomatic of the larger picture) you can work full-time for Walmart and not make enough to pass the poverty level. Walmart certainly has control over their own pay scale and benefits. The player chooses to play in the game. Indeed in some cases the player wrote the rules. Lowest prices at all costs is a wilful choice. "Everybody else is doing it" is not a valid moral excuse.

Abric wrote:Some of the information on this image is ... misleading. I can't say "wrong", but it certainly is manipulated to put their point across.

Propaganda is easy to see, once you know what you are looking for. This is propaganda. For what, I'm unsure (I'm not checking a Wal-Mart hate site) and I'm not going to put my foot down and defend people who were born into money - but bullshitting your way to your point isn't going to make me wave your standard for ... hating capitalism? Rich people? White people? Folks without AIDs? I don't know.

Malstrom has tasted the kool-aid, and it is delicious.

So have you my friend, because all the opposing views are mostly propaganda too.

In all honesty, saying "Some of that is misleading so I will ignore all of it" is...well...not the most reasonable argument imho.

Mal

Abric wrote:Don't hate the player, hate the game.

That isn't a Wal-Mart problem, that's a national problem.

It's quite odd the way you are defending walmart.

No one is saying that it's ALL Walmart's problem, but you seem to be denying that they are part of the problem at all. You seem to have this "all or nothing" thinking that I am not sure I agree with.

Infographic not 100% accurate? Fuck it.

Walmart not 100% to blame for all the problems? They get off the hook.

Are you secretly a Walmart heir? Is that it?

Mal

Let me know how your business goes down in the KC, Greebo, where you pay your unskilled laborers more than minimum wage, with full health and dental benefits.

When you go under, I won't blame you ... even though it would obviously be your fault as the employer for not taking care of your people.

I'm not defending Wal-Mart (they don't need me to) so much as I am refutting an old argument made by silly people. The information provided is not wrong ... it's just spun in such a way that we now have to blame Wal-Mart for all the problems in the world? That's just borderline knucklehead.

Wal-Mart gets a lot of shit because of association. They are a big business who does big business things, so OBVIOUSLY they are the same as all the other businesses, yeah? No - I haven't seen any huge scandal or lawsuits being put against Wal-Mart for cheating the system. Lawsuits and scandals on them being fucking cutthroat and relentless? Sure, but that's business baby... so long as you aren't doing anything illegal, it's fair game to earn the almighty dollar.

Again... guilt by association. Just because I refuse to buy into the bullshit that Wal-Mart is fucking people doesn't mean I wear a blue vest and I sing their creepy Wal-Mart chant. The system is fucked... but just because Wal-Mart is within that system doesn't mean it's the same as Bank of America or ENRON or Wall-Street.

You can't point your finger at any other single company and say the same stuff as you can about Walmart. As they are the biggest, they have the most influence in reducing peoples wages and lowering the standard of living. As I recall, they're also the pioneers in weaseling out of providing health insurance for their employees. And we all know where that cost gets shifted to in the end.

Abric wrote:Let me know how your business goes down in the KC, Greebo, where you pay your unskilled laborers more than minimum wage, with full health and dental benefits.

Greebo's business doesn't have obscene amounts of money, while Walmart could afford it easily.

I'm with Abric on this one, to a point. You can make your own infographic too and pick whatever specific statistics will skew your point into being obvious. Abric is right in calling this propaganda - it takes certain facts and puts them under a certain light to get an audience to agree with its moral "should" or "should not". Don't get me wrong, I don't march around with a pro-Walmart banner and sing the praises of "race to the bottom," but I think if you're going to be a pragmatic supporter of workers rights, you might look less at the internal corporate structure of Walmart, over which you have zero say unless you happen to have some exorbitant amount of stock in the company (is it even public?), and instead look to the laws which govern the companies' options (because while Walmart is huge, it obviously isn't the first player in this game). Those laws are ones you can have an influence over, through whatever political action floats your boat. Where I diverge from Abric might be concerning the undue influence Walmart's cash has over those same laws. We can argue over the moral validity of cutthroat capitalism all day long, but we would be fools to think Walmart execs are gullible enough to take some moral high-ground when it presents an existential threat to their company.

I don't shop at Walmart because their products are typically stale and their customer service blows donkey privates, not because of their policies.

However, they due treat their employees like ass though, but they get away with it because people love a bargain... at whatever cost.

Also, Nike pays Michael Jordan as much in one year than all of its sweatshop employees that make their shoes. So yeah, it's a much larger issue... one that our government and people will do nothing about, along with many other things.

You have a choice to spend your money. No one is forcing you to work at Wal-Mart, nor is anyone forcing you to shop there. Don't like the wages? Find another job. Don't like the products? Buy them slightly higher somewhere else, or shop at amazon.com.

I don't like Wal-Mart either, mostly for the weird and crazy people that shop there.

Abric is right on this one dudes.

I mean I could take this seriously if it weren't for the fact that I personally know a lady who has worked for walmart for 15 years and is making around 16 dollars an hour with benefits as a female clothing clerk. Her job is literally putting dresses on a rack, keeping them organized, and if someone has a question (almost no one ever does) answering it.

Wal Mart does some underhanded things, just like every other major business. They also do alot of nice things, like help gather money for charities such as the red cross, give jobs paying minimum wage to the elderly who literally can't get a job anywhere else, fund a lot of community events (at least where I live), etc etc.

Also for the record Wal Mart started as a small business independent grocery store.

Ryanica wrote:You have a choice to spend your money. No one is forcing you to work at Wal-Mart, nor is anyone forcing you to shop there. Don't like the wages? Find another job. Don't like the products? Buy them slightly higher somewhere else, or shop at amazon.com.

I don't like Wal-Mart either, mostly for the weird and crazy people that shop there.

It's not really that black and white though Ryanica. Some people really don't have another option, walmart is the only game in town both for employment (without a degree and sometimes with a degree) and grocery/clothing. It's sad but true. When you have a business that refuses to buy from wholesalers unless they specifically lower their prices for them and them alone, other competing businesses just cannot match that.

Finding another job isn't that easy. I'm in a place that didn't go into recession and it still took me 9 months to find a job. I was at the point of hiking to the nearest walmart and applying. Because no one else was willing to hire me.

I dislike walmart but there are still a few things I pick up there because the alternatives are way way higher priced and I make less than 20grand a year. When I have the money, I prefer to buy my toothpaste and shampoo at Shoppers, when I am shit ass broke, I hike to walmart and pay 3 bucks less.