sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

The pursuit of happiness is one of the most commonly misunderstood clauses in the Constitution. In modern times, happiness has come to be considered a mood, often depicted with a smiley face. This is not the original meaning or even the meaning commonly associated with the term 70 or 80 years ago.

Happiness is based in the root word "hap" which means chance or luck. The second part of the word "ness" refers to "the act of being." Happiness was historically used synonymously with "good fortune." Hap is the root of the word haphazard (taking a chance with peril), happenstance (chance circumstance), hapless (don't have a chance), and happen (to occur by chance). For reference.

The meaning the founders intended should rightfully be known as our right to pursue our own good fortune, the right to be free to take our chances, the right to pursue our opportunities unfettered by government. We have the right to make our own road in life, to take grand chances on ourselves, without being bound by or controlled by the government of the United States...or so it says in the paperwork.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Happiness to me means: **** you! Pay Me!

Blaize

You boys do all realise, were it not for the welfare system you all hate so much propping them up, Wal-Mart would not be able to stay in business. The reason they make so much is by keeping the overwhelming majority of their employees only "just" still part time, and therefore eligible for welfare. I have never worked there, but I knew a few people who did a few years back and everyone in the building not in the management team was on 38-9 hrs/week. Apparently they would give out leaflets explaining how to get food stamps in the break rooms.

Shop there all you want, you may as well, you are already subsidising the workforce.

Great company.

Very American.

sixshooter

iTrader: (12)

The Walmart example is illustrative of both the problem with wealth redistibution schemes and our system of entirely too many labor laws. Since people are incentivized to only work so much and companies are incentivized to use part-time workers, those are the fruits the laws will bear.

I have serious concerns about blaming Walmart for the poison fruit planted by the American congress. And I have no doubt Walmart would survive a transition to a full-time workforce.

Blaize

Perhaps I am being a bit dramatic. You are right they would still survive, but they would not have had nearly the same profits or the meteoric rise over the last 20 years.

mgeoffriau

iTrader: (7)

It has nothing to do with being American or otherwise. It's about individuals acting in their own economic self-interest, as they have the right to do (except when the government sticks the gun in your face and tells you otherwise, of course, as in healthcare).

Wal-Mart has created a company structure that is profitable in the current system of laws. It's ridiculous to think that they'd try to maintain the exact same company structure and not adapt if the system of laws were to be dramatically changed (such as the end of welfare programs).

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Wal-Mart vs. The Morons

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-Mart Every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-Mart will sell more from January 1 to St. Patrick's Day (March 17th) than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-Mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target +Sears + Costco + K-Mart combined.

5. Wal-Mart employs 1.6 million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

6. Wal-Mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

7. Wal-Mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-Mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-Mart has approx 3,900 stores in the USA of which 1,906 are Super Centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 billion different purchasing experiences will occur at Wal-Mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a Wal-Mart.






More fun with stats:

a. The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

b. Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

c. Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

d. War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.

e. Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

f. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

g. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

Gov't has FAILED in every "government service" they have shoved down our throats while overspending our tax dollars.

Blaize

The thing is, welfare is designed to help people who have no income, not help corporations retain income. It is meant to help the poor and Wal Mart is using as a benefits package. It may be legal and within the law, but that does not make it right. Every company does this of course to a certain degree but Wal Mart is the far and away world leader.

I would not argue to defend the US welfare system, it is full of problems and abuse. It is necessary in some capacity to maintain a civilised society. It just doesn't work properly the way it is because there is no motivation to get off of it, and it would seem that most Americans don't give a **** about other Americans unless they work 50+ hours a week.

But I left 4 years ago and that was just before everyone became so ridiculously polarised about all of this stuff. It seems to have gone from "how do we fix it", to "lets get rid of it" or "lets never change it".

Its a funny thing viewing your own country from outside, all sorts of things become clear.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

**** Welfare. It's designed to **** your face.


I propose the Braineack Welfare System: YOU DONT WORK, YOU DONT GET MONEYS.



Also, do you have proof on the Walmart Welfare mama jamma? And so what if they encourage employees to take advantage of the public system? Now 25 year olds are covered under you parents insurance....we should be mad at that too.

Blaize

Actually I moved to a country with socialised medical care and love it. I get sick, and I go to the hospital and they fix it. Free. I would much rather my tax dollars (or rather Pounds) go towards that than blowing up people I have never met for being brown and born on oil feilds. But that is a whole other discussion.

No, as I said I have no first hand experience with Wal Mart, only what I have heard. I am sure I could google something and find an article about it. Then we could all have fun chasing it thru 10-15 "source" links. then you would find an article to refute it and that again would be another 10 links to chase. Nobody does any actual reporting in the U.S. any more they all just source each other and retype stuff. This is the internet, we are all talking about "what we heard", nobody but the BBC and NPR can back up anything they say any more, and they never say a damn thing so that's that.

It does not upset me one bit that my parents taxes are helping sick Americans who need help. To my mind that is what civilised people do for one another. It boggles the mind to think that all the flag waving right wingers have decided that to be a true patriot is to ignore the suffering of others because they don't have a job. Particularly given the inscription on the greatest symbol of American freedom (statue of Lib.).

But I am getting on a soap box now and I have been on this forum long enough to know you are not going to change your mind. I also don't know if I can keep up with the intellectual level established by the first line of you last post.

And most importantly, I may need your help in the future with M/S and you seem like the kind of guy who holds grudges, so I am going to stop now before I burn the bridge

JasonC SBB

You are confusing gov't and society.

JasonC SBB

You mean "taxpayer funded", not "free".

Do you assume that a free-market system of health services wouldn't be way cheaper per individual than a gov't micro-managed system? Note: There is NO FREE MARKET in health services in the USA, due to heavy regulations - these regulations are lobbied in place by the big players, to protect them against competition from small startups. The pet health care industry is much freer and as a result I pay $20 per month for cat-surance; there are numerous small clinics in my city, including urgent care facilities, than there are for people, and and an eye operation was $2.5k (and covered), vs. $15k for a person.

Why not a gov't run *catastrophic* coverage insurance system, but without the gov't running the hospitals and the docs? Why assume that a socialized insurance system requires the gov't to tell the hospitals and docs how to run their operations?

Agreed, but this is a false dichotomy. Your thinking has been conditioned by the mass media and its false left-right dichotomy, e.g. "you can't have a non-interventionist foreign policy *and* a true free market in health care. And the false statement "the existing screwed up system in the USA is due to the free market".

Chiburbian

iTrader: (1)

Don't take this as an attack - but if you have a bias that was strong enough to lead you to immigrate from your home country, it is only natural that you will percieve reality in such a way that backs up your world view.

I believe this is called normalcy bias?

If you believe that Hondabaruvrolet cars are pieces of junk, then every time you see a junky Hondabaruvrolet car on the street or in the shop it will reinforce those beliefs. Nevermind the millions on the road that are NOT junk and NOT in the shop...

You have no first hand knowledge of the alleged abuse you speak of. You likely heard these things from people whom you consider friends, whom you very likely share a worldview with. They might have heard it from somewhere and to avoid having to cite sources called it their own story. People do this all the time. Thats why documentation and citing sources is so important when backing up arguments.

If Wal-Mart felt it could fulfill the needs of its customers better by paying $20/hr they would because the market would reward them for it.

Jobs like Wal-Mart, McDonalds, Taco-Bell etc are NOT the kinds of jobs you need to have if you want to provide for a family. They are for unskilled workers who are getting thier feet in the door and proving they can be reliable and valuable workers. If the skills and value of an employee is not being properly rewarded, it is the responsibility of the worker to find different employment. If the employee stays for the lower rate, then he sends a signal to the market that a person of his skills and assets is worth the amount he is getting paid. He lowers the pay rate for EVERYBODY whom is at the same skill level or less.