by OneVike
On Thursday evening of July 16, 2009 @ 6:30pm in the City Council Chambers at 421 Main Street, a group of representatives from Wal-Mart will come before the Chico Planning Commission for approval on a new Supercenter to be built in Chico. They promise to create new jobs for those who live in and around Chico. So I did my civic duty and informed you of the meeting, now while I will tell you why I am against it.
I originally started writing this article in favor of Wal-Mart and their new Superstore. However, as I looked into all the particulars of the current situation, I must admit I have changed my position. While I do not doubt the sincerity of Wal-Mart's representatives, I do question the wisdom of the corporate bigwigs at Wal-Mart. I read a quote somewhere that has stuck with me through the years. "When a company becomes large enough it will inevitably become part of the establishment." I believe Wal-Mart has become so big that it has gone beyond beating its competitors by having lower prices, but now Wal-Mart is supporting government policies that will decimate small businesses. In a reversal from their prior stance, Wal-Mart is now in favor of Obama's healthcare plan.
Corporate America's cheerleading for more government involvement in health care now includes Wal-Mart, that liberal paragon of social irresponsibility. With Americas largest private employer blessing an employer mandate, aka "pay or play." This would require businesses that do not offer "meaningful coverage" -- i.e., government-approved -- to pay some percentage of their payroll to a federal insurance plan. This mandate is one of the more controversial policies in the Democratic health package, and Wal-Mart's endorsement will help it along, or at least give liberals political cover against business criticism. The Mom & Pop stores that liberals accuse Wal-Mart of running out of town may, will be the ones who get hit the hardest.
I know, the Democrats claim that the small businesses will be exempt from such a burden, because the mandate is limited to large employers. Well truth be told, that will not reduce the number of uninsured employees on America. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 99% of firms with more than 200 workers provide health benefits, only 62% of smaller firms. That means that in order to cover the people who are uninsured, Mom & Pop businesses will have to be forced into the government mandated health care system. That my friend will effectively kill small business in America. Think about that, 85% of all jobs in America are created by the small businesses. Force them into this and it will cripple the country. Wal-Mart is now willing to go beyond price gouging, they are willing to destroy their competitors with the governments help.
So as I look down the road to the future, I can now do nothing else but come out against Wal-Mart and their plan for a super store in Chico. They claim they will produce more jobs, but what about the millions and millions of jobs that will be eliminated when the government realizes they still do not have every citizen covered. The time to stop the destruction of the small businesses is now, or there will be no small business in the future. So if you want small businesses to survive, then be heard this Thursday evening at 6:30pm during the Chico Planning Commission hearing on this matter.
(Jack Lee) If you put a pig in front of the trough you can't blame the pig for eating. Same goes for Walmart, they are like most companies, whatever reduces their overhead they are in favor of it. Companies would like to get out of paying for healthcare because it's expensive. If government comes along and offers to pay it for them...why not? The healthcare will come immediately from another pocket, not the corporate pocket, but over time it will all get adjusted out more or less evenly in the form of inflation, higher costs for goods, higher salaries, but for the immediate impact it will help the corporate bottom line and then they will worry about the other stuff later when they have to face and then look for another creative short term solution with government involvement no doubt.
OneVike, why do you think Obama's HC initiative has gotten as far as it has? It's dawned on WalMart, et al., how much they would like to foist the burden of their employee's healthcare onto the government. Slapping their collective forehead: "Why didn't we think of this before!" "No more shopping plans, no more open enrollment hassles" ... but we citizens just gotta make sure that they pay, they still gotta pay.
Especially shifty operations like WalMart. I've heard that operations like Walmart pay more in credit card transaction fees than they do for their employees' health insurance ... which is horrifying ... at both ends.
Eh, mallwise, Chico's already gone to the dogs. Don't you let those council people cut them any sort of sale tax deal. They gotta pay.
Jack
Walmart, they are like most companies, whatever reduces their overhead they are in favor of it.
Tina
It's dawned on Wal-Mart, et al., how much they would like to foist the burden of their employee's healthcare onto the government. Slapping their collective forehead:
Basically, both of your arguments against my stance is the idea that Wal-Mart is doing for Wal-Mart what every company does to stay in business, and if that means getting in bed with the enemy, so be it. After all, it is inevitable that we will be living with a national healthcare system eventually anyway.
You know the series I am writing on the Reformation? Well there is a family by the name of the Medici's who were powerful players during the renaissance, but they were not always the big dogs on the block. Long story short, within 250 years, this family grew from a small local mercantile business into the most powerful family of the Middle ages. In time the Medici’s would be Kings, Queens, and even two successive Popes. My point is that Christ warned us that the love of money is the root of all evil, well I look at the current situation of Walmart as I do the history of the powerful Medici family. They began as an honest business who’s owners only wanted to achieve more than society said they could. In time they cared more about their wealth and position than society and their neighbors
Now compare the Medici’s to a man named Carter Braxton. Carter was born to a wealthy tobacco plantation owner who died when he still in his teens. Fast forward, and we find him becoming a member of the Continental Congress. Then after offering his support for the revolutionary cause that included his wealth to sponsor shipping and privateering, he would eventually lose everything he had. At the age of 61 Carter Braxton, who spent the last years of his life in poverty, would die. As a signer of the Declaration of independence, Braxton gave all so that we can have a chance to achieve that which he lost.
Of the other fifty five wealthy men who signed the declaration of independence, five were captured and tortured for being traitors before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, while another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. All the signers pledged everything they owned for our right to be free. Compare what these men sacrificed to that of the Medici’s or the people who now run Walmart.
You tell me who cares about the future and who does not. What Wal-Mart is doing by getting in bed with the government, regardless of the reason, will only help to eventually destroy what the founders sacrificed everything for. See the founding fathers could have done the same thing. Why go against King George over a simple tax. Heck they would have been fine, but they knew that King Georges policies would eventually destroy them, so they stood up to him. It is time Americans stand up to King Obama, not get in bed with him.
You two are kind, some have even accused me of not standing up to conservative values by attacking Wal-Mart, but I ask you, what is conservative about jumping in bed with a socialist government administration to wipe out any competition like small businesses? I have been accused of a lot of things, but I am always consistent in my beliefs , and when a business gets so big that they care more about their business then the freedom of the people, then they become part of the problem.
"If you put a pig in front of the trough you can't blame the pig for eating."
Jack, surely you are not comparing our capitalist elite to pigs at a trough?! ... thoughtless, greedy, animals with no thought for their own future, let alone the common good?!
Finally! A convert! Giggle.
Actually, I don't think WalMart's management is quite that bad. In fact, I heard a report awhile back about this lavish conference they put on for their Chinese vendors, where WalMart read them the riot act over the greening of their production facilities and methods. WalMart said their customers and the Congress were all over their case, and if the vendors didn't get to work on this, WalMart was going to have to find other vendors. Is that cool, or what?
But don't you worry, OneVike, that healthcare bill will turn out to be 800 pages of gobbledygook which somehow makes it possible for WalMart to dump its health coverage with no viable public plan in place ... and they'll do it.
If we had Nationalized Health Care--NOT socialized medicine--we wouldn't have to worry about any of this.
Further, all those companies that moved overseas to cut health care costs just might move back!
After reading your article, I went and did some investigating of my own. Then I came back and read the comments by Jack and Tina. I must say that I am a bit perplexed by the way us rightwingers who are supposed to be walking in lock step with eachother, can disagree on this.
I then read what OneVike wrote as a rebuttal to Jack and Tina. I never thought of the Medici family in that way before, but you are right, especially when you put in context of the founding fathers. As much as I really want to say otherwise, I cannot. I really like Wal-Mart though and love the money I save, but it is time we as conservatives put our money where our mouths are.
In the past I have avoided places that support policies that hurt America, and now I will add Walmart/Sam's Club to that list, because I refuse to support the left anymore. It’s sad about Walmart’s decision. There are other places to get prescriptions filled, and other places to buy what we need. Although it may cost a little more... do we really want to support those destroying our country.
Good article by the way. It is a subject we need to talk about if we are to turn this country around.
Who couldn’t see this coming? As if now there will be card check and somehow Wal-Mart will be spared if it does come around to their automatically opening front doors..
To me, what is missing in the US Corporate Culture is guts, they have none, Wally World is merely throwing the US taxpayer under the truck of socialism, all the while hoping that it will escape the same fate...
But this should not surprise anyone, after all the emporium for Chi-Com products had the Hilde-Beast on its board while actively driving American companies to manufacture in China. I have not set foot in Wal-Mart since the Clintons got to Washington, this is just another see I told you so.
I am personally shocked by your stance on this OV, I mean get real, whether it is Walmart trying to survive under this behemoth in D.C. or the companies they buy from (which are the same companies all of the other retailers buy from), they are leftists in some way. This holier than thou, I am not going to support this, is a JOKE.
Until we change the way the government in this country forces companies to play these political games to survive, nothing will be different.
In the most general way, I think we have concensus. We know Wlamart must operate by the rules of capitalism and if that means going to Obama's plan to avoid health insurance payments, that is what they will do. Nobody is truly condemning Walmart. We may not like it, but we understand it.
Walmart has been moving left for quite a while now especially with their beloved GREEN nonsense. Many still refuse to see it. A person can't even afford there paper towels these days. Their is a store called Ingles, who's regular price on many such items is now lower than Wally. The next decade may see Wally's fall and it will be a self destruction from poor business practices as the cause with political leanings a close second.
Doe anyone remember a certain giant retail store called K-mart? Notice how fast they nose dived when they started embracing the PC worlds view? They eliminated their fire arms department, and then they hired Rosie as while embracing the fringe left. They paid dearly for doing so, and almost closed their doors.
As for those who claim they had to compromise to survive, isn't that what we are told the GOP is doing? Well we all know how that is working out. You never ever compromise principles, or why have any. But after all we are talking about a business here that sells Communist Chinese goods by the train load.
Walmart is headed down the same road as K-Mart.
Two questions for everyone, when will they eliminate their gun department, and what small yet growing retail discount store will replace Wal-Mart?
*If we had Nationalized Health Care--NOT socialized medicine--we wouldn't have to worry about any of this.*
"From each according to his means to each according to his need" Karl Marx.
This program is born of an "ism" that will ultimately become a tyranny on the people. In America we are supposed to be free to "pursue" (as individuals) happiness...we are guaranteed only the freedom to do it. We are equal in our freedom as long as we don't subscribe to MARX.
State socialism: socialism that advocates utilizing the power of the state to equalize income and opportunity (as by progressive income and inheritance taxes, by compulsory insurance against old age, unemployment, sickness, and accident, and by state administration of industries, public utilities, common carriers, banking, and housing)
Sounds like Obamaland all day long!!!
Quentin, you can pretend this idea is as American as apple pie but it is not.
In the most general way, I think we have concensus. We know Wlamart must operate by the rules of capitalism and if that means going to Obama's plan to avoid health insurance payments, that is what they will do. Nobody is truly condemning Walmart. We may not like it, but we understand it.
Speak for yourself. I do condemn them. They have been sleeping with the enemy for quite some time. Ever since they had that major management shake up in Bentonville including how the stores are now designed and on what will be carried on the shelves and in what quantity. That is when the fog of politics set in because they hired Leslie Dach, one of numerous former Clinton operatives that now head up the Wal-Mart operations worldwide.
Walmart went from a large on hand in store inventory with a layaway to a just in the nick of time delivery inventory system. In the Super Store they removed at least one entire store shelf level store wide. This means fewer items on the floor. That's fine if you have the stock in the back room and can replenish the shelves that night as supply runs out. Or have a clerk get an item for you in the stock room. They don't though.
Walmart was behind the light bulb fiasco as well embracing new fluorescent and taking all the incandescent bulbs off the shelves.
Some companies doing business with Wally are waking up. It's not quality you get at Wally but a cheap price where quality is less. Just ask Snapper lawn mowers.
Walmart has harmed the very ones who help make them what they are. When Wally World ended layaway especially at Christmas it began pushing Wally Credit. Layaway was not hurting them one bit and as such there is no net loss on layaway. I can buy a Big Screen TV on credit at Wally and may pay for it or not. If I don't others will. Layaway was sure cash for Wally but they got too blame greedy. I can go to a Mom and Pop store and do my Christmas shopping and they are happy to take layaway.
Next is the musical relocation of items within a department or even placing items on the other side of the store to make you go search for it. That makes persons in a hurry angry. There's many things I would have bought there that I no longer will either because of quality or higher price than elsewhere.
This is just a short list of things I could share with you all, but the bottom line is Wal-Mart is not the Wal-Mart conservatives supported in the past. People I know have told me things I cannot even share. Let me just say that all you conservatives who blindly support Wal-Mart, are in for a surprise.
You people need to wake up and start watching what is going on in the corporate business world because big business loves big government. Part of the reason the founding fathers got fed up with England was because of the prevalence of mercantilism, mercantilism preceded Capitalism. The Robber Barons were and are mercantilists, not Capitalists. The Democrats and socialists love mercantilism, because it's just a short step to Fascism.
I could share more with you on this, but maybe you should just educate yourself and you will see the whole picture for what it truly is. I think OV is finally realizing it, because of his Medici tie in. The Medici's were as he put it mecantilists. While better than feudalism, it is not better than capitalism.
First of all, the Medici NEVER cared for anything but advancing their wealth and family position. I suppose this is comparable to a corporation's prime directive, but you're not really suggesting that WalMart be busted up or something? Like Ma Bell? That's so, so very anti-trust, so very "left" of you. I'm shocked.
But what revolutionary era failed businesses have to do with any of this, I fail to see.
And if you all are gonna boycott WalMart over this, you'd better start researching all the other corporations you're going to have to boycott, cause they're all piling on.
"Until we change the way the government in this country forces companies to play these political games to survive, nothing will be different."
Exactly! Government makes the rules. When BIG GOVERNMENT makes rules that are inconsistant with our freedoms, that favor some and harm others, or that disrupt/destroy the people in choosing which businesses survive and which do not we have tyranny, a condition that forces people to behave in ways they would not otherwise behave for survival.
When one state has a more generous welfare program than another state people will often migrate (are they greedy Libby?) to get more benefits for themselves. When government decides to give designer healthcare, weight rooms, dental, education and legal help for free to prisoners in addition to room and board...voila! Crime pays. When government offers free education and healthcare even for people who enter the country illegally...hey, why not come on down? When government decides that some people earning under X number of dollars are eligable for special grants why bother to work...get a grant and go to school instead...or just lie and buy a new car! When government says you don't get welfare as long as your man lives with you the incentive is for you & yourr man to divorce...he moves in with a pal (visiting you late at night) so you can get welfare and he can continue to work. Government makes the rules and government is THE PROBLEM!!!
Obama's (and Kennedy's) plan is to take over the industry. they will design the rules in such a way that all business will either fail or opt for government HC...and private insurance will "wither on the vine"...sound familiar? They got the idea when that cute little southern couple just happened to tap into Newt's private phone conversation.
I don't mind fighting the battle OV, as long as we correctly identify the enemy, socialist/marxist/facist government...that is who has all of the control and power.
"When government decides to give designer healthcare, weight rooms, dental, education and legal help for free to prisoners in addition to room and board...voila! Crime pays."
Tina, are you seriously advocating that we should refuse life-saving treatment to prisoners, instead letting them die in their cells?
No wonder you're a Joe Arpaio fan.
Tina?
Did you see the NOT?
I must say I enjoy watching the conservatives disagree with each other. I suppose it isn't unusual.
After all "conservatism" is tricky to define.
'Tis good that some folks realize that unfettered capitalism is antithetical to Chritianity.
Some foks finally get it.
AMEN!
K, I think it was about the outrageous cost that greatly exceeds the cost of average American families healthcare plan. You wouldn't have a problem with that???
I support Tina. Jack Lee
When we had mom and pop stores, big chain stores came along and displaced them. When the big discount stores came along they displaced the chain stores, that's just part of the evolving way of business. But, where is anyone saying how that process has been good for the consumer by giving consumers more choice at a lower cost?
You're wrong Billy-boy. You are woefully out of step with progress. Wal Mart is a corp. and you can't hate corporations without hating capitalism.
Tis good that some folks realize that unfettered capitalism is antithetical to Chritianity.
You don't get it do you Quentin? I am not against unfettered capitalism, I am against a big corporation getting in bed with the government in a way that will decimate small businesses. And what we have here is Wal-Mart using the health care issue to destroy its smallest competitors.
When it comes to health care, an employer mandate will reduce the margins of their rivals. This is especially true for businesses of a slightly smaller size that cannot insure on the same scale or currently don't reach the 55% of the 1.4 million Wal-Mart employees who are insured through the company. (Another 40% or so are covered by spouses or the likes of Medicaid.)
The Wal-Mart-Stern-Podesta troika that is behind all this made sure to specify that "shared responsibility" must be "fair and broad in its coverage," with an emphasis on the latter. The Mom & Pop stores that liberals accuse Wal-Mart of running out of town may get hit hardest. Democrats say they'll exempt certain small businesses, size details to be determined. But if the mandate is limited to large employers, it won't reduce the number of uninsured. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 99% of firms with more than 200 workers provide health benefits, only 62% of smaller firms.
Businesses are also largely indifferent whether compensation comes in the form of wages or benefits, so an employer mandate -- an indirect tax on employment -- may cause wages to rise more slowly. Or it may simply mean fewer jobs. In a 2007 paper, the economists Katherine Baicker of Harvard and Helen Levy of the University of Michigan estimate that 0.2% of all full-time workers and 1.4% of uninsured workers would lose their lobs because of an employer mandate. Most at risk are the 33% of the uninsured earning within $3 of the minimum wage. Thus many of the same people who shop at Wal-Mart because of its low prices -- and who Democrats claim to speak for -- would be worse off.
When a business gets in bed with the government to save their own ass, and it is at the expense of others businesses, in this case small business, I think the one who gets in bed with the government needs to be taken to the wood shed. See Quentin, it is not unfettered capitalism as you call it, it is an attack on small businesses via backroom dealings between Cooperate America and a socialist government. I do not think a corporations are evil, but when they use government to push small businesses around they are not playing on a level playing field anymore.
My cure, get the government out of business, and allow capitalists to be capitalists.
No wonder you're a Joe Arpaio fan.
Name one incident that was ever proven, where "The Sheriff" refused medical care to an inmate.
You know K, maybe you should talk to the voters of his area who keep returning him to office. I am talking about 55% to 41% in last Novembers election. That was despite an overwhelming advantage in money that his opponent had.
Funny, how the liberals around the country want him gone so bad that a record amount of donations from outside Maricopa County was received by all the Democrats running. They had a large advantage in money, yet the voters saw through it and still returned "The Sheriff" and the other Republicans back.
Talk about trying to force your opinion on an area where you do not even live. Well the citizens saw through the liberal lies and returned him and the others to office.
Oh the money helped to reduce the amount of votes the republicans got, but only because liberals like George Soros tried to buy the county. Why is it liberals like you, Quentin, and Libby, never decry the illegal activities of the left?
You Hate so bad that you make up reasons to hate, without ever looking at the facts.
What Wal-Mart is doing will eventually burden the smaller rivals with costs that they cannot afford. Wal-Mart knows they themselves can easily afford this given their enormous revenue base and the efficiencies and leverage on Suppliers they are able to realize.
This is nothing short of a government power play to shut down small businesses in America. Wal-Mart knows it and that is why they are agreeing to it.
I used to like Target but they do not carry
all I need so I go to Wal-mart for all else.
Looks like I’ll be going elsewhere now. Damn, our choices are dwindling.
They say we’re obese now, wait til Obama gets
through. We’ll either be over weight, on welfare with
only enough money for beans and gravy
or skinny as hell, dying on the hospital doorsteps.
This isn’t capitalism. This is a big corporation embracing socialism. The entrepreneur is the engine of capitalism, not massive global corporations.
Some call it corporatism when the government picks winners and losers in the market. That is not good. The point of economic activity is getting the consumer goods he uses. It is not to protect certain producers. It is not to do what “big business” says to do.
The consumer is the one who is screwed by corporatism through higher prices and lower quality goods.
A free market would be one in which the government would not interfere in health care, would not impose food and drug regulations, would not impose wage limits.
All the bad economic news comes down to one root cause: government intervention in the economy.
The government is, was, and always will be the problem.
First of all, the Medici NEVER cared for anything but advancing their wealth and family position.
Yea, he must have been a Democrat, because he reminds me of George Soros. Although I think history will be much kinder on the way the Medici family made their wealth compared to the friend and financial supporter of Obama, Kennedy, Clinton, Schumer, Reed, Pelosi, and other socialist pigs on the left.
One more thing and i am finished with my take. I heard from a friend that George Soros invested a large amount of moola in Walmart stocks a couple months back. At the time I didn't think anything of it, but now it all makes sense. Knowing his political connections and his history of. Well,,,,,,,can anyone spell insider trading?
Don't expect this administration to investigate though, because they are in it up to their necks.
I just don't get the argument about Walmart. If you don't like a business and or the business practices, don't support the business and don't shop there. How long will they last if we the Chico consumer doesn't support their business and we don't shop and spend our money there. Let them spend their money and build something no one will support.
You don't get it do you Quentin? I am not against unfettered capitalism, I am against a big corporation getting in bed with the government in a way that will decimate small businesses. And what we have here is Wal-Mart using the health care issue to destroy its smallest competitors.
I get it perfectly!
In unfettered capitalism big corporations will do ANYTHING to succeed--INCLUDING GETTING INTO BED WITH THE GOVERNMENT!!!
The love of money is the root of all evil. Capitalism is the love of money in that money is the primary concern--above every other consideration.
This is WHY Jesus and his followers were socialists.
You can deny the facts all you want--I do not care.
You cannot be a capitlaist and a Christian.
Quentin: "If we had Nationalized Health Care--NOT socialized medicine--we wouldn't have to worry about any of this.
Further, all those companies that moved overseas to cut health care costs just might move back!"
2 questions...
Is this what our founders would have done Quentin?
Please explain the fundamental difference between "nationalizing health care" and "Socializing medicine"
It's not that I personally care one way or the other where someone shops, but I do care when a company gets in bed with the government. I know, all businesses are in bed with the government one way or the other, however Wal-Marts idea of sleeping with the government is to support policies that in the long run will shut down small businesses. In this case via nationalized health care.
I remember in "92"-"93" when Bill and Hillary were attempting to take over 1/7 of the American economy. At a town hall meeting, Hillary was told by a small business man that his business could not afford what she proposed. Her reply was and I quote, "We (the government) can not be responsible for underfunded businesses".
I ask you, what small business is not underfunded? Small businesses do not have the deep pockets and shareholders that Wal-Mart does. So when all the small businesses are put out of business and there is only Wal-Mart type stores left, what choice do you have?
No this is not about free choice of where to shop, this is about big corporations getting in bed with the government to destroy their small business competitors. That is not the way capitalism works, and it is reasons like that that has put us in the morass we are in now.A government that can give you everything can take it away also. We need to stand up and tell Wal-Mart no more.
I expect Wal-Mart to get the green light to open their Supercenter, but mark my words, there will be no end to the misery of the small Mom & Pop shops that cannot compete. If we want to help the economy, than let's tell the City of Chico to cut taxes on small businesses and give them an incentive to compete with the deep pockets of Wal-Mart.
Give small businesses the kind of government incentives they give big companies all the time. Help the small business man compete for a change instead of saddling them with more and more taxes and burdensome regulations. You want a level playing field? Then tell Chico Planning commission to stop expecting the small business man to do things only deep pocketed corporations can do. It is time we stand up together and demand our government do with less, and do less, so that we can do more without expecting big corporations to ride on a white horse acting like the savior.
Free up the cords of bondage the small business man is tied with. Give them a chance to compete, and I promise you that Chico will reap the rewards. Then all citizens of Chico will benefit, not just one big corporation and those who shop for values the small business man cannot compete against.
It is my experienced opinion that this country will not recover from our current economic troubles until the portion of the economy that employs almost 80% of the citizens begins to recover, and that is the small business. Not the corporations. So let us come together tomorrow night and demand that the City of Chico reverse years of regulations that have helped put us in a spot where it seems like only Wal-Mart can save us. We have businesses open that are struggling now. Do we really want to make them struggle more? NO! help those whose doors are still open, before their business also becomes an empty building. That can only be done by helping the small business man, not giving them more competition they cannot compete against.
This is WHY Jesus and his followers were socialists.
You can deny the facts all you want--I do not care.
You cannot be a capitalist and a Christian.
Quentin, we went through this and all I am going to do is direct you to the place you can read everyone of my rebuttals to your pathetic attempts at claiming Christ was a socialist.
Post Script Article 5/3/2009 "Was Jesus a Socialist"?
Give it up, you lost the argument back in May and you will lose it again.
I think a Walmart superstore would help bring more shoppers to Chico.
According something I read recently Wal-Mart Stores has abandoned a record-shattering 45 proposed projects over the past 10 months and another 19 Wal-Mart projects have been killed by local citizen's groups. In total, the world's largest retailer has suffered an historic loss of 64 projects.
Sounds like Walmart won't risk friction if enough locals oppose them. PR is also a factor in the bottom line.
"You cannot be a capitlaist and a Christian."
Quentin, I find this statement to be based on the same kind of simplistic, binary, with-us-or-against-us worldview that defined the Bush years, and it's unbecoming of an intelligent liberal like yourself.
I dont think my last comment made it so here is another try...
K: "I find this statement to be based on the same kind of simplistic, binary, with-us-or-against-us worldview that defined the Bush years"
K, is this statement not a "either or, binary, with you or against you" statement itself?
Its kind of like saying "Intolerance is bad"...its a somewhat self defeating statement.
I dont have any problem with Quentin making an absolute statement as long as he can justify it...Shouldn't statements be judged based off their validity or truthfulness? Truth is by nature exclusive, and there fore potentially binary.
It seems that the real problem with Quentin's statement is not that it is binary, but that it isn't true.
Or are you saying that you subscribe to dialectic reasoning?
*Tina, are you seriously advocating that we should refuse life-saving treatment to prisoners, instead letting them die in their cells? ** No wonder you're a Joe Arpaio fan.*
I know you're smarter than than K, so I won't bother to answer this stupid, stupid question but I will ask you to look at the California system and budget and tell me these CRIMINALS aren't being given much more than they deserve.
Quentin I didn't studutututter I saw the NOT. The government plan will be a state plan in a matter of a few years and will be socialized medicine.
Sue: "They say we’re obese now, wait til Obama gets
through. We’ll either be over weight, on welfare with
only enough money for beans and gravy
or skinny as hell, dying on the hospital doorsteps."
I like your style...please comment more often!
Tony: "The government is, was, and always will be the problem"
Sanity...pure sanity! Bless you Tony.
Ted: "must have been a Democrat, because he reminds me of George Soros."
Absolutely...add to your list all the many people like Howell Raines who made that $90 million cooking the books at Fannie Mae. They love and abuse the capitalist system for their own personal gain while pretending their on the side of the little guy.
gogogirl: "If you don't like a business and or the business practices, don't support the business and don't shop there."
More sanity...i don't know how much of this we can take in one day but I'd like to find out...keep it up!
Quentin: "The love of money is the root of all evil. Capitalism is the love of money in that money is the primary concern--above every other consideration."
This is the very intellectual "mind-reader" opinion. It has been lauded in all intellectual circles. The crystal ball on the shelf allows the reader to see into the minds and boardrooms of anyone who wants to make a buck. The more evolved readers can also see into the hearts of men to determine their relationship or lack thereof with God.
I knew someone would throw a wrench into the sanity...I might have known it would be the very "Mad" Hatter...Q.
NICK! Great to hear from you.
Jack: "Sounds like Walmart won't risk friction if enough locals oppose them. PR is also a factor in the bottom line."
The customer is always right for smart businessmen. Stupid businessmen fail, even if it takes awhile, because customers reject them. Consumers need to get it is they that have the power...buying power! (Unless of course they turn it all over to government.)