Person of the Week: Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan

Stephan is absolutely correct. Whatever money Walmart is driving ll be ultimately utilised for the welfare of the poor. So he’s doing no wrong and cannot be blamed for no fault of his.

Problems? What problems? Where are these poor people?

I’m sure the poor people will be a lot happier when the government steps in to fight against “against the perceived benefits of low prices and convenient shopping outlets” by mandating minimum-price standards to keep those prices sky high and also passing ordinances demanding that shopping outlets have limited (and random) hours and obstacle courses at their entrances to make them less convenient.

The $8 gallon of milk will significantly reduce the poverty rate in all counties.

Anybody like to buy my store? Great traffic flow. I watch the cars go by everyday to walmart. Time for a drink.

Anybody like to adopt my family? Great low prices at the expense of the kids meals, little health insurance and little respect.  I’m one of the cars going everyday to walmart.
Time for a drink of tap water.

Wal-Mart is leaving our country. Google on to Business News today and read for yourself, Americans. Yay!

Walmart stores should always be located within 1000 feet of a trailer park and there should be a 50% chance that the store will be in the background of the reality show Cops.
That is a well positioned store location.

Walmart strategy Expert,

That is just too funny for Gupta 1, but I have to admit it is true.

So the big mighty Wal-Mart remained number 5 in South Korea and couldn’t beat the competition. They are not doing so well in Japan also.
Maybe we are giving too much respect to this corporation?

The intro to the story stats, “against the perceived benefits of low prices and convenient shopping outlets.”

These are not perceived.  They are factual!!!

What about the other facts?
Low wages
Encouraging manufacturing to import vs American made
Taxpayers paying for Wal-Mart employee’s health care
Taking advantage of foreign workers in sweatshop conditions

These are not perceived. They are factual!!!

Oh, who cares about all that crap, JM?!  I just saved $.35 on socks!  That’s the attitude.  This takes precedence over everything else.  The only excuse for shopping there is if you’re poor (like the employees).

Two of JM’s claims are not even factual:

The wages are not “low”, and are higher than most retail wages. They are even “living wages” by most standards if you don’t choose to live extravagantly (GET A ROOMMATE!). Your false perception: not factual.

They do not encourage manufacturers to import. They merely encourage manufacturers to sell for a reasonable price and not rip people off by overcharging, no matter where the goods come from. Your false perception: not factual.

As for the taxpayers, if you want to change it, write your congresscritter and ask for welfare reform. If you really want to change the law so working at WMT makes you exempt from government services.

Sweatshops? There is a real problem there. A rather small percentage of what Wal-Mart and others sell comes from sweatshops.

Coherent,
“ a SMALL percent of what is sold comes from sweatshops”

Huh? What is a SMALL percent? You need to do some research. Your statement should be “a SMALL amount of what is sold comes from UNION shops. Thank You.

“Your statement should be �a SMALL amount of what is sold comes from UNION shops”

That’s a good thing: I avoid goods where unions are involved wherever possible. However, it does not take away from the fact that there is indeed a sweatshop problem that should be eliminated, even if it is involved with only a minority of the factories and goods. I did the research.

Coherent,

Your telephone service is provided by union workers. Your highways are maintained by union workers. Your largest trucking companies are union. Your favorite television and movie stars are union, including recording artists. If you avoid all of these as much as possible you must have an exciting existence. Certainly much better than mine. Please stop by your nearby mart today and get some clothing that me and my co-workers have dutifully sewed for you.

“Your telephone service is provided by union workers. Your highways are maintained by union worker”

Thanks for helping my case. Phone service is almost nonexistent.  Every time the workers get their way during a telecomm strike, the service gets worse. The highways are cracked and dangerous, and the “workers” get rich at public expense and drag out the work as long as possible when it is done. Even if I cannot avoid union products, it doesn’t mean I have to enjoy the lousy quality of work and service that unions encourage.

As for the movie stars and recording artists, they are forced to be in the union whether they want to or not.

As for the clothing, chances are that it is not made in a sweatshop. Just because something is made by a hated brown-skinned foreigner does not mean it is made in a sweatshop. There’s something almost racist about the reactionary attitude of the arrogant American at the thought that some foriegn workers are better at some things than Americans are.

Coherent,
If the clothing is not made in sweatshops, where are they made? Modern, clean factories? By young children or by adults? By Europeans or by Asians? Please enlighten us more on this topic. Every report that many of us have seen show either women or children working in stark, barren locations hunched over at a table. I guess this image is false?

“Every report that many of us have seen show either women or children working in stark”

Women OR children? So, if it is a factory with women working in it, and there are tables, and there are no lace curtains, it must be a sweatshop, right?

Yes. Please show us one that is not.

Apparently the choices available to WMW for “People of the Week” are limited.  They picked people whose writing is lawed as evidenced by a previous blog.

Gupta, walmart must be using sweatshops to get their prices low.  You sound very intelligent, so we really should listen to you.  I also think WMT causes global warming, wiretaps our phones, killed JFK and Marilyn, and has a secret society that meets in basements and plans out how to make people poor.  Oh, and I think WMT is the reason for all airline strikes, bad highways, GM’s bankruptcy (when it happens), and birds that crap on public streets.  BTW, when a company declares bankruptcy and the government has to intervene, bail out, and pay the pension plans—is that governmental assistance from my tax dollars?  Just making sure that my tax money supports union workers as well as the WMT non-unionized workers.  Atleast I get to help everybody.

Sorry coherent. What you are saying is simply not true.
I stated before that I work with a lady that has been in Canada for 5 years after leaving China and I confirmed the information in the “high cost of low price” movie. Not only did she confirm the information in the movie as true, she expanded on the subject and told me about more injustice’s.
I am choosing not to shop at Walmart for that and many other reasons. I am also shying away from buying these cheap imports from other more reputable retailers.  I feel to guilty.
We are now able to buy products that are labeled fair trade. A good example is kicking horse coffee. The farmer is paid fairly. Sure makes the coffee taste better too!

Alex: If a small number of the factories/workers who are involved with Wal-Mart are sweatshop related, you are going to end up with plenty of examples for “anecdotal evidence” movies like this just because of large numbers of suppliers.

“I amazed”
There is no correlation between my hypothesis on sweatshops and your take on global warming, wiretaps etc. You need to invest time at your local college and take a class on “Introduction to Logic”. You will find this beneficial as you postulate on the occurrences in our world.

I am still waiting for proof that the clothing is being made not in sweatshops, but in clean, modern facilities that take care of their workers. “ I amazed” and “coherent”, where is your info. on this? Please wake us up when you can refute SUCESSFULLY that these factories are as great as you state they are.

Gupta: You agreed that your definition of sweatshop was any factory where women are present, that has tables, and has no curtains.

That’s a silly watered-down definition of sweatshop, and pretty much fits in with the rest of the so-called “labor movement” screaming “Sweatshop!!!!” any time they hear of a factory that doesn’t pay someone $26 an hour. And when you cry wolf like this, it hurts any good that might be done in bringing to light the real places where people are physically abused, locked in, etc.

Where are these places where people are abused and locked in? It has to be sweatshops… or unfortunately where the challenged are kept…

The clean well paying factories Wal-Mart deals with do exist. 
They are in coherents imagination.

We are still waiting to see where these “nice” factories are, coherent. Any luck in finding them?