The Glade 4.0

I understand what you are saying here but I've always been of the mind that it isn't your employers responsibility to make sure you have insurance. It's a perk for working there, a benifit.

Going to be a lot of "Wal-Marts" out there when Obamacare really starts to kick in.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Very many, indeed, yes.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

It's a cyclical problem. Insurance companies have, naturally, worked to ensure the highest possible rates (and the lowest possible payouts) for their customers, and raised the requirements to the point that many people can't get health insurance without being umbrella-ed into a group plan, particularly with obesity rates on the rise. That's why the de facto way to get insurance is through an employer. That's a cost employers don't want to bear, so they minimize the people who fit the requirements (i.e. full-time folk). Normally it works itself out and there's healthy competition among employers in a given area for a skilled, smart workforce.

A company like Walmart throws things out of whack. It's been proven time and again that where they set up shop, numerous local businesses close down. The right or wrong of that is a different debate, but what does unequivocally happen is that the number of employers in a given area goes down as they find themselves unable or unwilling to compete with Walmart. Walmart ends up creating a 21st-century "company town", albeit one with far more freedom than that term used to imply. But small towns wind up depending on the Walmart for the bulk of their employment (and thus economies), and Walmart is able to bypass the normal checks and balances that would naturally be in place for another, less-powerful retailer. So you wind up with a workforce that is either woefully unskilled or one that's overqualified, but that exists at the mercy of Walmart, with no other option but to move out of the area (financially infeasible for many). There aren't better places to work (at least, not many of them) available in the town anymore, but they're being paid minimum wage (or barely over) and kept at non-full-time status. As Nephyr said, many can expect you to work essentially full-time hours while only affording you part-time benefits, so you're unable to make a second job work (even if you could find one after everything else closes down). Legislation requiring employers to provide health insurance is going to have a definite impact on the issue.

I'm not saying any of this is good or bad. Those are value judgments, and they're for a different argument. But I certainly do understand the fight many people put up to prevent Walmarts from moving into their towns. They carry with them low-cost goods, a number of jobs, and a serious impact on the local economy. I feel it's up to the people in the town to decide whether or not the pros outweigh the cons.

Yeah, it used to be all mint juleps and verandas, now its all racists and jesus. Oh, and hurricane trashed cities.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Like I said earlier Vindy...

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

Wal-Mart up here in the Great Northwest aren't any better than what Mr. Sky is describing.

I detest the place, and haven't been in years. There are other/better alternatives.

The thing is, while all of this is true it ignores a more fundamental problem that the town really has nothing else going on except retail business.

If the small local retailers were still there, people would be earning more money, true, and be full-time but they'd also be paying more for most everyday goods at the smaller stores. While this might be better overall, in some cases, it isn't so great for those that don't get one of the better jobs at the smaller local places, but more importantly, it ignores that a town of any size really needs something else going on besides services for its own citizens.

A town that's dying to Wal-Mart really needs to attract some kind of other business that's engaged in production rather than services. A plant, mill, mine, rail yard.. something that employs a reasonable number of people doing something that Wal-Mart doesn't compete with.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

You guys confuse the lack of money with the lack of education (education includes manners and ethics from your parents).

There are those with plenty of money, but poor of education, and then there's those with no money, but plenty of education.

Personally I only associate with those well educated, regardless of their monetary status.

They often walk hand in hand, Lydiaa. It may be hard because we don't have [sarcasm] tags, but we all know that poor does not equal stupid.

It's a bit chicken-and-egg. In Alabama, at least, Walmart is often turned away when they want to move into an area, and has taken to choosing rural towns that specifically have lost their other main economic drivers, simply because it knows the town is desperate and that it's easy pickings. The town in which I used to live (and still woefully own a house) was in a constant state of this.

Also, I should note that while my experiences with the people of Walmart have been been both A) exceptionally poor and B) all in the South, it's not necessarily indicative of the South as a whole. There is a reason I still live in it, after all. The South is full of racists, misogynists, homophobes, zealots, idiots, rednecks, and all manner of other deleterious types. It's also chock-full of the sweetest, kindest, nicest, most generous people you'll ever meet. And sometimes, infuriatingly, you'll find people who are all of the above, at the same time. It's all shades of gray.

The South has its fair share of trashy, uncouth reprobates. Probably a bit more on average than other locales, simply because it doesn't, culturally, value intelligence and education as high priorities. But they're everywhere, in all four corners of the nation and beyond. There is enough good here to compel Phe and me to remain, and especially given the incongruity of our social and political views, that's saying something.

This strikes me as bizarre, mainly because if there's another major employer, there's more people with money to spend, and Wal-Mart does sell items that probably aren't in the budget for people stuck on part-time minimum wage or thereabouts.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

If I can buy the exact same brand names at different stores, and one is 10% cheaper across the board, I'll always shop at the 10% cheaper one. (And this is where arguments about "quality" disappear - Walmart in Canada carries the exact same products that other places carry... They just sell them for less money. They don't have cheaper "walmart brand" or the like. A case of Diet Pepsi is a case of Diet Pepsi. A carton of Tropicana orange juice is the same at any store you buy it from. A star wars lego set is a star wars lego set. I'm going to go where it's cheapest.)

To put another point in Walmart's favor, they are the only "grocery store" that still gives its plastic bags free, all the other local stores charge 5 cents a bag for them, under the ridiculous premise of "helping the environment." (Not at cent of that money goes to actual environmental causes, it's just a scam to get more from their customer base.)

If I want better variety and selection, I'll still shop elsewhere. If they will price match, I'll even pick them above Walmart, simply to give those other stores the business. But I have no qualms against shopping where it is cheaper. I don't care for Walmart's so-called "Fresh foods," because they aren't. But everything else is the same.

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Well Ali Baba had them forty thieves, Scheherezade had a thousand tales
But master you in luck 'cause up your sleeves you got a brand of magic never fails...
...Mister Aladdin, sir, What will your pleasure be?
Let me take your order, Jot it down -You ain't never had a friend like me
█ ♣ █

It's amazing how everyone thinks the south is more racist than other parts of the country. Some of the most racist and genuinely rudest people I've met we're from northern states.

I forget the comedian but it was said "you want to see real bigotry? Talk with a southern accent".

Individually, perhaps.

Institutionally, no. The south is still the horse to beat in that race.

We should have let y'all stay seceded. I would say, on the whole, there are *far* more ignorant redneck southerners than ignorant yankees.

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Holy shitsnacks!

In my eyes...people in the north are not racist. We hate everyone.

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Raell Kromwell

For over 40 years Pennsylvania has had the highest per capita concentration of KKK members.

So no I wouldn't say that "the South" is more racist than "the North". If anything I find that in the north there is simply more societal pressure to mask certain mannerisms and expressions.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

It's nothing new. Northerners have been looking down their noses at the South since they were all colonists.

If you live North of the Mason-Dixon Line and anywhere west of the Mississippi except Texas, you have an insufficient understanding of racism and diversity, particularly from a historical frame of reference. Slavery is not the defining element of race relations in the United States; it hasn't been for a long time. Unfortunately, actual historical fact and data matter very little when the Master Narrative of American identity is ...

1. The Union was saved by the valiant slave-hating Northerners.

2. There were only Jim Crow laws in the South.

3. Boston was not part of the Slave Triangle.

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Not quite the same subject, but then it's in response to a subject that has little to do with the original subject:

It's been my observation that most people who get their panties in a twist about racism, being politically correct, and intolerance are.... white.

For a broad example, take the Family Guy episode of "When you Wish Upon a Weinstein." It was banned from airtime because it was decided by several board members that it was offensive to Jews. But, each one of those board members were not Jewish. However, the man who wrote the episode was.

For a more personal example, my friend is an Indian. Not the kind of person from India, but the kind a little kid thinks of when you say "Indian" to them. Navajo, to be more precise. What term does she (and MANY others I've met at Pow Wows) call themselves? Native American? Navajo? Nope, Indian. In fact to a lot of them, "Native American" is a bit insulting, as they never called this place "America" to begin with and/or it just underlines the fact that people are tiptoeing around some perceived "sensitive" issue.

The sooner we can get over racism, reverse racism, and offense by proxy, the happier I'll be. I'd love to see true equality for the sexes too, but that will never happen. The first commercial I ever see on the television where it's the *wife* who is the forgetful bonehead of a situation and not the husband, I will give them my money out of principle. For having such a commercial, and people not getting up in arms about it, would be sign of true equality. Let's take equal share in being the moron of the household.

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Les Zombis et les Loups-Garous!

Today's generations love being outraged for others.

Khross's post sounds an awful lot like, "It's a black thing. You wouldn't understand."

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Buckle your pants or they might fall down.

Funny, I thought he was pointing at the lies the American gestalt has been trying to have accepted as reality. None of his bulleted statements are true, but many revisionists have tried to paint them into the picture.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I had a conversation with some Apaches along these lines.

"We don't refer to ourselves as native americans."
"What do you call yourselves."
"The People."
"Well, we're all people."
"If you say so. Then we are Apache."
"Well, what about Navajo?"
"They are Navajo."
"Well that's just annoying."
"Call us what you want."
"Savages it is."
"Oh, **** you."

All of Khross' posts are a variation of "you wouldn't understand."