Good points, answered below to keep argument and counter-argument together.
>1, it isn't the right of employees to receive health care from their >employer. It is a benefit of employment. Government forcing companies to >offer such benefits makes it a part of minimum wage, and is only a step >closer to socialized medicine. Health benefits from the employer are not a right, nope. But people who don't have them cause public costs. Fact of life. Maryland is simply trying to reduce its costs. >2, In many cases the land is paid for by wal-mart or private investors, >but in many cases it isn't. This is something that is standard with >almost every large corporation. Amazon, Toyota, and Sykes all got >similar deals in Kentucky. The number being floated is one-third of the sites are subsidized. This is significant if true, no? >3, This is an opinion, one that I disagree with based on personal >experience. I've seen wal-mart come in to areas only improve the area. >For instance. Wal-Mart recently (10 years ago) built a store in an area >of Lexington near our house. The store was built in an area that was >going down. Retail space was empty, and the store quality in the area >was low. Now that area is very busy, new shops have gone in, very nice, >locally owned shops that specialize in niche markets that wal-mart in >general doesn't compete with. Twice this has happened in Lexington. >Wal-mart came in, helped with traffic by placing stores in areas closer >to the people. Created shopping centers where new shops were able to >thrive because of the traffic generated by wal-mart. Sure this is >anecdotal, but it is true. I bet this has happened in more places than >one. According to that NC study there are often benefits to certain businesses, especially restaurants. I think I saw the point made that Wamart may be a good deal in an urban area that is blighted and possibly this is an example of this? I can think of one in Albuquerque that might be another. By the way, I noticed earlier that I was confusing your mention of this store yesterday with different stores in Kentuck, sorry. From this distance it sort of all blends in. >4, Numbers? There is no arguably, this is something that you should be >able to prove. Im sure :) But I am not going to go dig up the data for this :) If someone's already calculated it and I turn it up when I get back to this tomorrow I'll be sure to post it though ;) >The quality of the goods goes both ways. Sure maybe it won't last as >long, however it gives people the ability to try it out for a lower >price. The xBox 360, same one everybody else sales. Wal-mart sells it >for less. Less than most briack and mortar stores, probably so. Electronics seem to be cheaper on line though. As to your dance show example below, ok, that might be a benefit, though I am not sure how to quantify it. >A pair of dance shoes, sure wal-mart sells a lower quality, however for >somebody getting in to it, they probably don't want to spend top dollar >for shoes they don't know if they will use. > >> Meanwhile, consumers have access to cheap goods, yes, but the benefit >of >> this is also debatable if the goods have a much shorter lifetime than >> those that could be bought elsewhere. >> >> None of the above even touches on the costs to the public purse of the >> litigation caused by the company's environmental practices, >discrimination >> or wage and hour practices (over 40 complaints based on the company's >own >> website). >> >> You are right in saying that the ultimate solution to this is for >people >> to stop shopping there. In the meantime though, while the public is >being >> educated, governments can stop putting food in the trough. >> >> Dana ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:192888 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
