Hey,
If I may...
So you can shop at walmart, no one said you can't. But not only do I reserve my right to never step foot in one, but also to mock people stupid enough to do so. To defend them against complaint is even worse than if you just shopped there meekly.
With that comes my right to have a "personal problem" with this living co-operations actions that affect my life. You make it sound so petty, but am I really expected to have no negative feelings towards the actions I have seen the Walmart group doing for many years?
When I lived on an island in the States, we had a law. No franchised corp was allowed to build on the island. They fought tooth and nail, they tried to put a Subway, a McDonalds... It did not matter that the locals did not want one, so they were forced to legislate. Why would they do that? Because even one franchised corp would ship that much money out of the local economy, and replace peoples self employment with a far less accommodating work. That is an example of local economy, as it was surrounded by 30 miles of water it was easier to understand.
Bottom line, if the global economic model was one that functioned, we would have already seen so. The IMF, the WTO, the specter of "free-trade" (I am running out of stream, but ask me about free trade, soft-wood lumber, and Metclad Inc. one day, that's a good rant too) have done nothing but worsen many problems. World hunger is worse than ever, pollution hotspots and sweatshop style labour have increased. Product quality has decreased, health concerns about these products abound. We have a much smaller manufacturing base. We have let them outsource everything, and where is the profit that they realized? Kept at the top of the ladder, so economically we (the normal people) are up shit creek.
So that , in all its glory, is what I mean by:
If you choose to shop at Walmart, you don't deserve full-time employment.
Makes perfect sense.
thanks,
-Pip
If I may...
Quote:They also employ a lot of people in areas where small business have failed on their own. Yeah they're big business and there is always a downside, i just don't think it's as one sided as you.All I said, and I feel it still very valid, is that people who shop at walmart do not deserve full-time employment. This is because if supporting walmart, you have to support them as a whole. Walmart is not a close friend of yours offering savings because they really and truly care about your quality of life. If you decide that the most important bottom line is the cheapest products possible, than you have to live with that choice, and all its implications. If you prioritize saving a few cents over supporting any kind of reasonable economy, then you are choosing a walmart world of minimum wage work, never enough hours, no proper benefits. And the next level, with 90% of the products being imported you are choosing to support the manufacturing industry that is 1000's of miles removed from you. You are also choosing not to have employee unions. You are stating that you don't want anything of any quality, but everything as cheap and disposable as possible. And every cheap, disposable object has to be shipped overseas for a short involvement in your life before you throw it out and do it again. We are also now edging onto the pollution issue, because this very economic model is about as inefficient as possible.
So you can shop at walmart, no one said you can't. But not only do I reserve my right to never step foot in one, but also to mock people stupid enough to do so. To defend them against complaint is even worse than if you just shopped there meekly.
Quote:Someone's a little bitter i sense - have a personal problem with a corporation Pippy?But it's recognized as a living (but never dying) entity with it's own rights.
With that comes my right to have a "personal problem" with this living co-operations actions that affect my life. You make it sound so petty, but am I really expected to have no negative feelings towards the actions I have seen the Walmart group doing for many years?
Quote:I think global economy is a far more powerful force for good than the local economy.Give me an example of how the global economic model is a "far more powerful force for good" than local economy, if you could. I can go on and on about the issues it has created. It was decentralized control and the outsourcing of dangerous work that led to the Bhopal incident. Look at pre-NAFTA Mexico City, and post-NAFTA. How many products made in China were recalled last year? Were the recalls effective? If you see the global economy as a force for good, you must really be ignoring or missing a lot of the information, including basic economic principles.
Quote:lead to interdependency and make conflict too costlyOr more likely, if the interdependency becomes one-sided or unfair. Trust me, there are much better motivators for avoiding conflict that we should try first.
Quote: Both are essential but ultimately the global economy is more beneficial for both peace and innovation.I can only see that being possibly true if you were talking in an ideological sense. The perfect, functioning and well-maintained global economy, in theory, could potentially be "Better for peace and innovation". But the global economy as it stands today, and also where it appears to be going, are the exact opposite of such. Peace and innovation? We are in the middle of a perpetual war against an emotion that is part of an economic "protection racket" and are driving the same cars we had 100 years ago. Do you see peace and innovation? Please be kind enough to point that out, as it pertains to global economy. And don't say the stupid Gates foundation, or some flaky pseudo-philanthropy, because problems pretending to be solved by the ultra-rich that were in their own right caused by the global economic models flaws (that made them ultra-rich) do not count.
Quote:Bill Gates and Warren Buffet also populate that list, yet they are the easily amongst biggest individual philanthropists the world has seen. They've done more for the species than the equivalent net worth of local business owners combined while providing an equal, if not greater amount of jobs.You're kidding right? You're just pulling my leg? You are gonna stand there and defend Bill Gates and Warren fucking Buffet as heros? Judging from our prior disagreements, I am gonna assume you are a multi-millionaire. That is the only reason I can think that you would get any sense that the world you want to live in is in any way coherent to the world they want to live in. Bill gates and Warren Buffet. God damn. If they did more for us as a species... I can't even begin to express how silly that is. What does the statement that "they did more for the species than the equivalent net worth of local business owners combined while providing an equal if not greater amount of jobs" even mean? That there are actually more jobs in you local community, and more money to go around after all the private business has been replaced by a international corporate entity? Where do those more jobs and monies come from? Isn't in the corps best interest to have as little overhead as possible? Dosn't add up (literally).
When I lived on an island in the States, we had a law. No franchised corp was allowed to build on the island. They fought tooth and nail, they tried to put a Subway, a McDonalds... It did not matter that the locals did not want one, so they were forced to legislate. Why would they do that? Because even one franchised corp would ship that much money out of the local economy, and replace peoples self employment with a far less accommodating work. That is an example of local economy, as it was surrounded by 30 miles of water it was easier to understand.
Bottom line, if the global economic model was one that functioned, we would have already seen so. The IMF, the WTO, the specter of "free-trade" (I am running out of stream, but ask me about free trade, soft-wood lumber, and Metclad Inc. one day, that's a good rant too) have done nothing but worsen many problems. World hunger is worse than ever, pollution hotspots and sweatshop style labour have increased. Product quality has decreased, health concerns about these products abound. We have a much smaller manufacturing base. We have let them outsource everything, and where is the profit that they realized? Kept at the top of the ladder, so economically we (the normal people) are up shit creek.
So that , in all its glory, is what I mean by:
If you choose to shop at Walmart, you don't deserve full-time employment.
Makes perfect sense.
thanks,
-Pip
