On 7/30/2010 11:00 AM, Dan Abel wrote:
> In >,
> > wrote:
>
>> What a lot of people fail to see is that American Manufacturing tends to
>> be too expensive with all the folderol involved.
>>
>> Chinese importing creates jobs. It makes if AFFORDABLE to purchase
>> goods for resale. That creates a need for employees to do sales work etc.
>>
>> Importing is not the evil that people make it out to be.
>>
>> If Wal-mart could not purchase imported goods, they'd go out of business
>> and put hundreds of thousands more out of work. They'd go bankrupt.
>>
>> Also, the American people demand low prices and cheap goods.
>>
>> We are doing this to ourselves.
>
> You need to repeat that last sentence several times. There's been a
> long history in the US of business (not just Walmart) manipulating
> markets for their own profit. To the extent that businesses compete on
> an even keel, I have no problem with that. To the extent that some
> businesses get tax breaks, drive their competition out of business and
> use excessive government services which *we* pay for; that's just not my
> concept of a free market with free market competition.
>
You essentially stated my issues with Walmart. Unfortunately lots of
folks are only interested in important stuff like American idol and have
no idea what you are describing.

Walmart gets huge help from us (we pay for the government) in my state.
There are four Walmarts in my general area and now the 4th one will be
vacating their current location to literally move across the street. So
why do they move? In my state we (the taxpayers) find and develop the
land for them and then build all of the infrastructure (highway
interchange, traffic signals, electric, water, sewage, storm sewers etc)
and then give them a nine year tax abatement. So they don't pay taxes
for nine years and when the time is running out they simply have us do
it all again. In the case of the 4th store we have spent the last year
literally leveling a mountain for them so the yca nmove across the street.

I tell people that even if they live in a dollhouse they pay more taxes
than Walmart and they think I am making it up even though it is
verifiable at the county.

And then add in the fact that employees are informed to go to the
nearest welfare office for their medical plan since a very high
percentage of their employees meet official poverty guidelines. In my
state over 50% of the welfare budget goes to Walmart employees.