Bringing Wal-Mart Down--The Process
What you’ll need to bring Wal-Mart down.
1.) The media on your side to keep the Wal-Mart agenda in the public’s face:
No problem! 80% of all media, print or otherwise are registered Democrats. Liberal bias in the media is well established. Case in point: The Leader is a Liberal biased newspaper. Their editorial board during the past presidential election came out in support for John Kerry. In the last three days, The Leader has published two “Wal-Mart” articles. First story on Aug. 4th headlined, “Outside the BIG box—New breed of critics fighting Wal-Mart”. Second story on Aug. 6th (today) headlined, “Wal-Mart discrimination lawsuit has executives on the defense”. (Click here to read full story) http://photos22.flickr.com/31695683_b7c41d63ef_b.jpg
Look to your hometown newspaper to “be a player” in the “bring Wal-Mart down process”.
2.) Establish your class action suit against Wal-Mart in a state that will put your case in front of Liberal activist judges to insure success. Case in point: The Wal-Mart discrimination case against women was filed in California. Wal-Mart will seek to have the entire discrimination case dismissed before –get this—the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most Liberal activist judges in the nation! What do you suppose Wal-Mart’s chances are of getting the case dismissed? You got it…..ZERO!
3.) Spin your case against Wal-Mart in the media to make it sound “noble” to illicit support. Case in point: The very last paragraph in today’s Leader AP article reads—“But using statistical formulas to compensate plaintiffs in class actions in not unusual. That’s how the courts ordered payment to thousands of Alaskan fishermen whose livelihoods were destroyed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, although the amount in on appeal.” Didn’t that statement just pull on your heart strings? That’s why it was tagged on the end of the article because you’ll remember it more than the body of the story. Trick of the trade!
The wheels are in motion to put Wal-Mart out of business. The Democrats are going to regulate it and sue it into the ground!
1.) The media on your side to keep the Wal-Mart agenda in the public’s face:
No problem! 80% of all media, print or otherwise are registered Democrats. Liberal bias in the media is well established. Case in point: The Leader is a Liberal biased newspaper. Their editorial board during the past presidential election came out in support for John Kerry. In the last three days, The Leader has published two “Wal-Mart” articles. First story on Aug. 4th headlined, “Outside the BIG box—New breed of critics fighting Wal-Mart”. Second story on Aug. 6th (today) headlined, “Wal-Mart discrimination lawsuit has executives on the defense”. (Click here to read full story) http://photos22.flickr.com/31695683_b7c41d63ef_b.jpg
Look to your hometown newspaper to “be a player” in the “bring Wal-Mart down process”.
2.) Establish your class action suit against Wal-Mart in a state that will put your case in front of Liberal activist judges to insure success. Case in point: The Wal-Mart discrimination case against women was filed in California. Wal-Mart will seek to have the entire discrimination case dismissed before –get this—the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most Liberal activist judges in the nation! What do you suppose Wal-Mart’s chances are of getting the case dismissed? You got it…..ZERO!
3.) Spin your case against Wal-Mart in the media to make it sound “noble” to illicit support. Case in point: The very last paragraph in today’s Leader AP article reads—“But using statistical formulas to compensate plaintiffs in class actions in not unusual. That’s how the courts ordered payment to thousands of Alaskan fishermen whose livelihoods were destroyed by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, although the amount in on appeal.” Didn’t that statement just pull on your heart strings? That’s why it was tagged on the end of the article because you’ll remember it more than the body of the story. Trick of the trade!
The wheels are in motion to put Wal-Mart out of business. The Democrats are going to regulate it and sue it into the ground!
posted by sallyann | 11:45 AM
1 Comments:
Sal- It sadly does not surprise me that the Liberals are targeting Walmart. Nothing frustrates them more than losing tax revenues for their pet programs. Walmart's low pricing structure reduces the overall sales tax revenues they can spend frivolously and promotes competition throughout the market place. It forces other businesses to become more efficient in their processes and less greedy when selling. Why would the left support that?!?
The arguments that are being used by the naysayers are faulty. They assume that all of the Walmart employees had high-paying jobs with great benefits before they were hired at Walmart. They also assume that none of the Walmart employees were receiving subsidies before Walmart took them away from their Utopian jobs.
Reality #1- Walmart has provided more than jobs for our communities-they promote the importance of community service with their employees and raise tons of money for community service agencies every year. They also promote from within, give stock bonuses as incentives (which allows the employees to have ownership in their company) and the new jobs they create means more dollars to spend within our communities, which benefits other businesses as well as the community.
Reality #2 - the majority of people that Walmart employs don't hold college or technical degrees and $8.23/hr is fairly good money compared to what else is available out there. It equates to $17,118.40 annually for a fulltime employee. Let's compare the facts -what are they getting for pay and benefits at Burger King, KMart, etc? They are big companies too but nobody picks on them. They don't provide health insurance or $8.23/hr to their part-time staff (and the majority are part-time)- I know this because I know people who work for these companies.
How about the folks who work at Friendlys, Dennys, etc? The waitstaff at restaurants make sub standard minimum wage (I think it went up to about $3.00/hr with the last minimum wage increase). They are expected to make up the other $3.00/hr (minimum wage standard) in tips and they pay taxes on those tips (whether they make them or not)out of their $3.00/hr paychecks. They are mostly part time as well and don't get any benefits. Why aren't the left wingers beating their employers up?
In terms of the cost for employees let's consider the facts.
If an employer pays his employee $8.23/hr, what does it really cost the employer?
Well, every dollar paid in wages (regardless of part-time or full-time status) costs the employer-
6.2% for the employer match for Social Security,
1.45% for the employer match for Medicare,
Federal and State Unemployment insurance is calculated on on the first $7,000 of wages in NY (this formula varies by state). The rate that is charged depends on the employer's rating (if they have a lot of layoffs and claims their rate is higher). For the sake of illustration, let's assume the combined rate is average- around 3.2% of the first $7,000 of wages.
Worker's Compensation insurance- covers work related injuries. This is based on state determined rates and is adjusted up or down based on the employee claims history. An unsafe workplace drives costs up. An office worker might cost $.40 per $100 of wages, whereas anyone operating small equipment could start around $3.50 per $100 of wages. A machine shop worker could be $6.50/ $100 of wages.
This rate is completely dependent on the risk factors of the job and of the company. For the sake of illustration, I will estimate the average rate to be around $1.10/$100 of wages.
Short-term disability insurance- this coverage is mandatory in NY and provides income for short term, non-work related disabilities.
Let's do the per hour math (assuming a 30 hour workweek) -
$8.23 actual wage plus $.51 for SS, plus $.12 for Medicare, $.15 for Unemployment Insurance, $.09 for worker's Comp plus $.05 for Short term Disability.
That $8.23/hour actually costs the employer $9.15/hour.
The average monthly cost for a low end coverage employee family health insurance policy (higher co-pays and more limits on services)is around $650/month or $7,800 per year (individual coverage runs about 50-55% of that)-high end coverage runs around $1,000/month). If the employee works 30 hours per week, this equates to an additional $5.00/hour in benefits cost per covered employee (30 hrs/ week times 52 weeks divided by 12 months = 130 hrs/month, then divide the premium by the hours to determine the hourly cost). This means that if the employer offered and paid for 100% of the health insurance costs per year, they would be paying $14.12/hour for the employee. If the employer pays for 75% and the employee for 25% the rate drops to $10.37/hr actual cost to the employer, but lowers the employee's effective payrate to $6.98/hour because of deductions for their share.
Are taxpayers subsidizing services for the lower wage earners? Yes, but that is true regardless of the company employing them. In many cases taxpayers were subsidizing 100% because many people did not have jobs- now that they do, they require less help and have an opportunity to be more self-reliant and feel good about their efforts. NY offers health insurance to everyone who doesn't have it, with the cost for the coverage based on income. Parents can enroll their children in ChildHealth Plus and families or individuals can enroll in Healthy NY. There are many people throughout the state who utilize these programs and work for a myriad of employers besides Walmart. Many businesses just cannot afford the cost of health insurance for their employees. That is a litigation and health care industry problem, not Walmart's fault.
I have never worked for Walmart but I certainly do shop there. I enjoy the low prices and have always been treated well by their staff - far better than at many high end stores at the Mall. I buy my monthly staples and many other things there. I furnished my son's dorm room entirely at Walmart for 50% of what it would have cost at the mall. Walmart has been very successful in promoting good customer service skills with their employees and I have never left there without being asked at least once if I found everything I was looking for.
All in all- the benefits are far reaching for the community. Lower prices mean our hard earned money goes farther and not only do we spend less on the products we use every day, but we pay less in taxes at the same time and have more money left for other things.
More jobs means that less people are relying on government to help them exist, which reduces the burden on taxpayers and helps the new employees to feel good about their efforts.
Walmart rewards initiative in its employees far better than many retail companies out there. If someone has the drive and determination to be successful, they have opportunities at Walmart.
Only the irrational left would try to paint WalMart as the devil. Go figure--
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