The Neutrality of this Article is Disputed

Is this what they are paying Leslie what his name all the money for?

“Wikipedia is not always the most reliable source of information, granted...”

Sorry to have Wal-Mart Watch break the bad news to you, SanDiegoView!

Bill

Information about the company posted on the Wikipedia page may have come from a source that actually works for Wal-Mart.  That seems....likely? And it’s hardly propaganda. How about this edit?

I recommend reading through the edit history, it’s quite humorous.  It’s almost all edits by apparently bitter and angry anonymous posters that are reverted back to original content with comments like irrelevant, inflammatory, and gratuitous. How about an ad for an anti-Wal-Mart movie?

Hmm...looks like Wikipedia doesn’t like the redirects through this site. The addresses in the links are good however.

Another article on this subject.

The scanner, however, can reveal as much about the controlling instincts of an organisation as what its bored employees get up to during the work day. A review of edits made by CIA addresses reveals a correction to an entry on the lyrics used in a musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, while one Democrat worker for some reason altered an entry on Tim Henman.

...delicately-phrased reconstructions of half-truths. This whole post shows you just how easy it is to spin anti- or pro-, and how easy it is to see through both. It’s kind of depressing really.

My apologies for the multiple posts.

From the New York Times

A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room
By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 1, 2005

“When small-business owners or union officials - also employing political operatives from past campaigns - criticize the company, the war room swings into action with press releases, phone calls to reporters and instant Web postings.”

“The war room, which is part of a larger Wal-Mart effort to portray itself as more worker-friendly and environmentally conscious, runs counter to the philosophy of the chain’s founder, Sam Walton. Believing that public relations was a waste of time and money, the penny-pinching Mr. Walton would not likely have hired a public relations firm like Edelman, Wal-Mart’s choice to operate its war room.”

Sorry to have the New York Times break it to you “Bill”!

However as the ‘war room’ stunted slime cannot get ‘changes’ made to Michael Barbaro’s articles at least WalMart can wire tap his phone calls.

WalMart- The corporate leader at ‘CULTS R US’

SanDiegoView,

“War Room”? 

Who cares?

What your (obviously) fried mind can’t seem to comprehend is that most Fortune 50 corporations have “war rooms” (or some equivalent with a more generic name) of some sort. 

Given the amount of negative publicity given to Wal-Mart by organizations critical to them, I, too would have a “war room” of my own if my company’s reputation was constantly under attack. 

Don’t like the “war room”?  Take a look in the mirror and thank yourself for inspiring Wal-Mart to create it.

What we have here is “the price of doing business” in a world where any schmoe who has an axe to grind/too much time on their hands/internet access is clamoring to lay cyber-claim to the label as the “one who brought Wal-Mart down”.

Sounds familiar to you, SDV?

Bill

Well, since Wal-Mart’s “price of doing business” has been going up, I guess us schmoes are doing OK.

Meanwhile, the underlying economics of expansion have turned against Wal-Mart, even as it relies increasingly on store-building to compensate for sagging same-store sales. On balance, the new Supercenters are just not pulling in enough sales to offset fully the sharply escalating costs of building them. Part of the problem is that many new stores are located so close to existing ones that Wal-Mart ends up competing with itself. All in all, the retailer’s pretax return on fixed assets, which includes things such as computers and trucks as well as stores, has plunged 40% since 2000.

Ken V,

“Well, since Wal-Mart’s “price of doing business” has been going up, I guess us schmoes are doing OK.”

And, where would you be without the help of the unions and their Democrat allies?

I Can Tell You One Place We’re Not...

“...where would you be without the help of the unions and their Democrat allies?”

Well for starters RDS, neither Ken nor I had to move to northwestern Arkansas to “make ends meet.”

Altering Wikipedia entries is just the lastest move by Wal-Mart in an ongoing campaign to sanitize the internet. For years Bentonville has curtailed the acticities of anti Wal-Mart sites through lawsuits and acquisitions. As a poster pointed out in another thread, the long and confusing history of the domain name walmartsucks.com is a textbook example.

The number of Sam Walton quotes available on line has steadily decreased over the years. A search of the most popular quote sites reveals about a dozen of the same ‘business inspirational’ quotes over and over again. You have to look much harder to find what Sam said that is in direct conflict with the current business model coming out of Bentonville. Find the quote about “treating your employees well so you don’t have to spend all your money on lawyers to fight the unions” if you can.

It has also been my experience that negative stories about Wal-Mart seem to have a very short shelf life before being buried so deep in the major search engines* that even a resolute researcher is forced to wave the white flag.

Several companies offer their services to manipulate the major search engines to ‘enhance’ their client’s hit position. If they can move it up, they can move it down.

And who can forget the Bush miserable failure Google bomb?

Screwedby,

“Well for starters RDS, neither Ken nor I had to move to northwestern Arkansas to “make ends meet.””

What does my moving to Northwest Arkansas, have to do with the unions and democrats backing your anti Wal-Mart campaign?  I would be for ‘capitalism’ and ‘free enterprise’, no matter where I lived!!  As I have said many times before, I am NOT pro Wal-Mart, I am for a business being able to rise or fall by it’s OWN actions, not for some outside forces trying to disrupt the process!!

As for my moving to Arkansas to “make ends meet”, I was doing that in Wisconsin, it’s just that now, I have gone above “making ends meet”, to being able to retire early with the means to not have to worry about “making ends meet” anymore!!  But, you will see the main reason I moved, in about 4 months, when you are outside freezing, and shoveling 3 feet of snow, and I’m not!!

That’s a good one!

“As I have said many times before, I am NOT pro Wal-Mart...”

And the Pope isn’t catholic.

Screwedby,

Like I have said before, you guys see only black and white and because you “Hate” Wal-Mart, anybody who doesn’t, must “Love” Wal-Mart!!  You can’t seem to fathom how anybody could defend a store, unless they were as emotional about it as you are!!  If this site was about Target and you were trying to destroy it, I would defend them too!!  What you can’t understand, is IT IS A RETAIL STORE CHAIN, they sell things, I and others buy and we don’t want you to STOP us from being allowed to shop there, that doesn’t make me PRO Wal-Mart, but rather PRO Shopping where I want, otherwise known as “freedom of choice”!!  We allow you the choice where to shop, why won’t you do the same for us?  You shop where you want to, and we will shop where we want, what’s so wrong with that?  We’ll leave the stores you shop at alone and you leave the ones we shop at alone!!

...they sell things...

I wouldn’t go around accusing people of being simplistic if I were you, RDS. If all Wal-Mart did was “sell things”, none of us would be here now.

We allow you the choice where to shop, why won’t you do the same for us?

You sound like anti Wal-Marters are barricading the entrances to Wal-Marts. You want to shop at Wal-Mart? Go ahead. Meanwhile I’ll go ahead and point out to you the countless reasons it’s not the smart thing to do.

Like this, for instance:

James Howard Kunstler, an ardent Wal-Mart foe from upstate New York, talks about what he calls the $7 hair dryer fallacy.

Kunstler argues that “people who shop at a giant discounter to save $7 on a hair dryer don’t realize that they pay a hidden price by taking that business from local merchants, because those merchants are the people who sit on school boards, sponsor little league teams and support the civic institutions that create a community.”

So what you are basically saying Ken is instead of paying Walmart $7 for that hair dryer you should pay a local merchant $10 for the exact same thing.  And while you are at it you should be paying more for many other things that you buy from the “local” merchant so you can support the local causes.  Meanwhile those “local” merchants, because Walmart won’t be considered a competitor anymore since they have local customer loyalty can up the price on the hairdryer to to $12 because… well, there is no Walmart competition so they just can. 

And in the end I as the consumer have the exact same goods but with 2 dramatic effects… 1) I have less goods because I spent more money on the goods I did buy thus curbing my ability to purchase all the goods I normally buy and/or 2) I have less money to save because I spent more money on my purchases so i have harmed my family’s financial position.  So how was I as the consumer benefited by this?  Who’s going to pay me the additional monies so I can pass it on to the “local” merchants?  That whole arguement that you should by “local” is full of hot air and flys in the face of capitalism.

But hey, at least there is a sponsor for the local little league team!  It’s just ashame my kids can’t play on that team because I can’t afford the gas money to take them to practices.

Ken

When you talk about buying local, you are longing for a time that has not existed in decades, did not disappear due to Wal-Mart and, due to the haze of time, appears to be more wonderful than it really was. Let’s talk about this.

Small town merchants existed in the days before suburbia, shopping malls, strip malls, retail centers, interstate highways, mass car use and a postwar boom. My own hometown had 300 + stores at one point. They almost all closed BEFORE Wal-Mart came anywhere near my town. In fact, up until 1997, the closest Wal-Mart was a normal Wal-Mart, not a Super Center, roughly 30 miles away. To blame Wal-Mart for the decline of my own hometown’s retail is simply insane. To complain about the lack of small town merchants in this day and age is no different than complaining about the lack of buggy whip selections. Can you say outdated?

Small town merchants weren’t the wonderful community supporters you might imagine. Oh, sure, they sponsored the local baseball team from time to time but why don’t we look at their products, their prices and their workforce? Small town merchants generally carried what they wanted to carry. They marked their products up 40% to 50%. What was the customer going to do? If you wanted a suit coat, you had to buy it from Joe’s Suit Store and you had to pay the 50% markup. You didn’t have any options. You were usually waited on by Joe himself, assisted by one of his three part-time clerks, who earned minimum wage and no benefits. The small town merchant sold what he wanted, with no customer options, at a price that guaranteed him a huge markup. His clerks earned a pittance and NO BENEFITS. If the store profited $100,000, Joe kept it all and the clerks got nothing. Oh, Joe was also open M-F from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm. He was closed from 12:00 pm-1:00 pm for lunch and, if he was sick or went on vacation, sometimes did not open up at all. So, here is the REALITY of the small town merchant.

1. Limited parking and it was not free.
2. Lowly paid clerks with no benefits or profit sharing.
3. Poor product selection.
4. Very limited hours.
5. High prices

Is that what most Americans want? If so, how do you explain the exploding popularity of strip and shopping malls after World War II? Wal-Mart did not kill the small town merchant. Progress did.

Instead of paying $12 to a local merchant for a product so that he can supposedly support local charities and such, why not pay $7 at Wal-Mart and use the $5 savings to donate to local charities of YOUR choice? Why do you insist on letting others make your decisions for you?

What makes our economy great, and will continue to make it great, is our ability to search the globe for the lowest price goods and services. Our goal should not be the protection of jobs, which is sentimental and not based on any real logical fact, but, rather, to seek out the best goods and services at the lowest prices. This will give us more disposable income and allow us to invest in new businesses or support charities.

Here is an excerpt from a “Buy American” article by Harry Binswanger at the Ayn Rand Institute.

“International trade is not mortal combat but a form of cooperation, a means of expanding worldwide production. The benefits of international trade flow to both trading partners, even when one of the countries is more efficient across the board. This is the “Law of Comparative Advantage,” covered in every economics textbook. Free trade does not destroy but creates employment.

The lucrative workings of free markets do not depend upon lines drawn on a map. The economic advantages of international commerce are the same as those of interstate, intercity, and crosstown commerce. And if we kept crosstown trade accounts, the “trade deficits” that would appear would be as meaningless as are our international “trade deficits.” Fact confirms theory: the U.S. ran a trade “deficit” practically every year of the nineteenth century, the time of our most rapid economic progress.

Philosophically, Americanism means individualism. Individualism holds that one’s personal identity, moral worth, and inalienable rights belong to one as an individual, not as a member of a particular race, class, nation, or other collective.”

I Didn’t Know You and RDS Were So Charitable, Nick

“...why not pay $7 at Wal-Mart and use the $5 savings to donate to local charities of YOUR choice?”

I had to hold my nose to get past your latest hypocritical post, Nick.  I’m sure both you and RDS are giving record amounts to the charities of “YOUR choice” due to all the money you’re saving at Wal-Mart.

Sam Walton Quotes for Those That Want Them

The number of Sam Walton quotes available on line has steadily decreased over the years. You have to look much harder to find what Sam said that is in direct conflict with the current business model coming out of Bentonville. Find the quote about “treating your employees well so you don’t have to spend all your money on lawyers to fight the unions” if you can.

This may not be the most complete collection of Sam Walton Quotes on the web, but it should attract the attention of those companies that are trying to sanitize the web on behalf of Wal-Mart.  All quotes are taken from the book Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story by Sam Walton with John Huey, published by Doubleday in 1992.

On Executive Salaries

“A lot of what goes on these days with high-flying companies and these overpaid CEO’s who’re really just looting from the top and aren’t watching out for anybody but themselves really upsets me.” (p. 9)

“But if American management is going to say to their workers that we’re all in this together, they’re going to have to stop this foolishness of paying themselves $3 million and $4 million bonuses every year…” (p.255)

“The fact is, a lot of folks in our company have made an awful lot of money.” (p.171)

On Asscociates

“Obviously, everybody who went to work in a Wal-Mart didn’t get rich.” (p.252)

“Our relationship with the associates is a partnership in the truest sense.  It’s the only reason our company has been able to consistently outperform the competition—and even our own expectations.” (p.126)

“We have more trouble coming up with educated people who want to work in our industry, or with people of the right moral character and integrity.” (p.137)

“In the beginning, I was so chintzy I really didn’t pay my employees very well.  The managers were fine.  Those guys all had a piece of their stores’ profits from the beginning.  But we really didn’t do much for the clerks except pay them an hourly wage, and I guess that wage was as little as we could get by with at the time.” (p.127)

“You see, no matter how you slice it in the retail business, payroll is one of the most important parts of overhead, and overhead is one of the most crucial things you have to fight to maintain your profit margin.” (p.127-128)

“There’s one more aspect to a true partnership that’s worth mentioning: executives who hold themselves aloof from their associates, who won’t listen to their associates when they have a problem, can never be true partners with them.” (p.141)

“Partnership involves money—which is crucial to any business relationship—but it also involves basic human considerations, such as respect.” (p.142)

More Sam Walton Quotes

On Unions

“I have always believed strongly that we don’t need unions at Wal-Mart.” (p. 129)

“On the other hand, let me say this: anytime we have had real trouble, or the serious possibility of a union coming into the company, it has been because management has failed, because we have not listened to our associates, or because we have mistreated them.” (p. 130)

“…take care of your people, treat them well, involve them, and you won’t spend all your time and money hiring labor lawyers to fight the unions.” (p.130-131)

The Waltons

“Now, when it comes to Wal-Mart, there’s no two ways about it: I’m cheap.” (p. 9)

“Among other things, Walton Enterprises owns banks in several towns around here.  Jim [Walton] and a partner own the local newspaper, the Daily Record.” (p.73)

“Maybe it’s time for a Walton to start thinking about going into medical research and working on cures for cancer, or figuring out new ways to bring culture and education to the underprivileged…” (p.77)

Wal-Mart Expansion

“We never planned on actually going into the cities.  What we did instead was build our stores in a ring around a city—pretty far out—and wait for the growth to come to us.” (p.110)

“Just like today, we became our own competitors.” (p.111)

“Quite a few smaller stores have gone out of business during the time of Wal-Mart’s growth.  Some people have tried to turn it into this big controversy, sort of a “Save the Small-Town Merchants” deal, like they were whales or whooping cranes or something that has a right to be protected.” (p.177)

“Today, though, we have almost adopted the position that if some community, for whatever reason, doesn’t want us there, we aren’t interested in going in and creating a fuss.” (p.182)

On Buying American

“Our vendors resented us for prying the lowest prices out of them.” (p.183)

“Every job we save creates another potential Wal-Mart customer who’s not worrying about where his or her next dollar’s coming from.” (p.243)

“What we learned is that we had fallen into a pattern of knee-jerk import buying without really examining possible alternatives.” (p. 242)
“We still want to drive a hard bargain, but now we want to guard against abusing our power.  We want to find more ways, like Bring it Home, in which we can use our influence to give something back.” (p.244)

“One of the better examples of what I’m talking about is our Bring it Home to the U.S.A.  program, which we started in 1985 in response to the soaring U.S. trade deficit.” (p.241)

“Wal-Mart believes American workers can make the difference…if management provides the leadership.” (p.241)

Other

“Find some humor in your failures.  Don’t take yourself so seriously.” (p.248)

“Make good on all your mistakes, and don’t make excuses—apologize.” (p.248)

“But a culture like ours can create some problems of its own too.  The main one that comes to mind is a resistance to change.” (p.169)

“It never occurred to me that I might lose; to me, it was almost as if I had a right to win.” (p.14)

Thank you ScrewedbyWal-Mart for putting all that together.
Those quotes will make for interesting placement in the future.

“Don’t like the “war room”?  Take a look in the mirror and thank yourself for inspiring Wal-Mart to create it.’

“Bill"- It pleases me that you think that I had a hand in the creation of WalMart’s Liars Club. A small and supposed honor that if I SanDiegoView have earned any credit humbles me to reflect more deeply on- ‘to lay cyber-claim to the label as the “one who brought Wal-Mart down”.”

I have not been pleasantly accused of that before. Is my wanted posted up on the wall in ‘Action Alley’? That would be honor enough for the time being.  WalMart will bring themselves crashing down. The trick in destroying evil is to let it consume itself. This CUSIP number (93114E) is interesting financial cancer for the pigs in Bentonville.

“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
Abraham Lincoln

mary,

“ 1) I have less goods because I spent more money on the goods I did buy thus curbing my ability to purchase all the goods I normally buy and/or 2) I have less money to save because I spent more money on my purchases so i have harmed my family’s financial position.”

Isn’t that the recipe for poverty?  Spending MORE than you have to and NOT being able to build savings for the future?

Screwedby,

“I had to hold my nose to get past your latest hypocritical post, Nick.  I’m sure both you and RDS are giving record amounts to the charities of “YOUR choice” due to all the money you’re saving at Wal-Mart.”

First, you have no clue as to how much I give to charity, I wouldn’t be suprised to find that it is a lot more than you do!!

Here’s a short list of ‘Some’ I have given to this year:

St. Jude
Paralyzed Veterans of America
VFW
National Children’s Cancer Society
Arkansas State Police Assn.
National Firefighter’s Assn.
Children’s Make a Wish Foundation
The Special Olympics
The American Deputy Sheriffs’ Assn.
Kids Wish Network
Fraternal Order of Police
American Lung Assn.
American Heart Assn.
Young America’s Foundation

Maybe you could list ‘Some’ of yours!!

...you are longing for a time that has not existed in decades...

I’m not “longing” for anything. Merely pointing out one reason some folks have for not shopping at Wal-Mart.

Excellent list of quotes, Screwed. If posters will use one now and then as a sig at the end of a post, it makes them easy to find.

Arkansas State Police Assn.
The American Deputy Sheriffs’ Assn.
Fraternal Order of Police

Aren’t they the ‘charities’ that give you a decal to put on your car that you think (hope) will save you from a ticket, but it won’t?

Ken

Who do YOU give money to? Why are you always so negative? RDS was smart enough to manage his money properly and retire early. He had paid taxes his whole life and contributed to a society of deadbeats who refuse to work. In his retirement, as he supports himself on the money he earned, he still pays taxes to supports deadbeats. He also takes some of his hard earned money and supports causes he deems to be worthy.

I realize that personal choice with regard to one’s own finances is criminal to liberals like yourself but, unfortunately for you, it is the American way. Liberals think all of our money belongs to government and the amount we get to keep is a gift from the government. Liberals don’t believe in personal charity; they prefer social engineering.

Have you ever stopped to consider the utter stupidity of collectivism? Now, I know that Hilary, Hussein Obama and The Breck Girl all believe in collectivism and not the individual but that does not make it part of our culture. I am simply shocked that there are Americans today who are secretly working to undermine the capitalist system that made us so great. We are not part of the whole. We are not a group. We are a collection of individuals, with individual abilities, work ethics, goals, dreams and opportuniities. You cannot engineer a collectivist society in a nation of individuals, Hilary’s “we’re all in this together” speech aside.

Only a scumbag like Hilary could get away with openly advocating a socialist economy.

What is this nation coming to?

You’re a scarey dude, Nick.!

You remind me of the Steve Buscemi character in Billy Madison who sat on his sofa with lipstick smeared around his mouth and made out a list of People To Kill!

“What is this nation coming to”, indeed.

Sure Bob/RDS...Anything For You

Maybe you could list ‘Some’ of yours!!

Some of my favorites are:

The Washington Area Disassociation Association Twits, or WA-DAT.  (They named George Bush as a lifetime member.)
WA-DAT’s sister organization, National Organization of Disassociation Associations & Twit Assemblages (NO-DATA). (They’re also trying to recruit George Bush as their national spokesperson.)
Center for the Prevention of Hate & Violence (Nick’s posts are sounding a bit ominous lately.)
The American Society for the Preservation of Energy Soft Drinks
The American Bag ‘O Glass & Toy Manufacturer’s Assn.
The BBB Fund (No...that doesn’t stand for the Better Business Bureau it stands for Buy Bob a Brain)
Send Nick Yelanich to Law School Charity

No doubt about it RDS. When it comes to obfuscation, pernicious evasion and absolute asininity, you have no equals.

Ken V,

“Arkansas State Police Assn.
The American Deputy Sheriffs’ Assn.
Fraternal Order of Police

Aren’t they the ‘charities’ that give you a decal to put on your car that you think (hope) will save you from a ticket, but it won’t?”

I know that those decals won’t stop you from getting a ticket, therefore, I don’t even put them on my vehicles!!  I just support law enforcement, because they put their lives on the line, to protect us from the weirdos, who think that if you have more than they have, they have some sort of right to take it from you!!  And, I support charities that help children, because children can’t help themselves!!  The veteran charities, speak for themselves, they protect our freedom, therefore, I want to help protect them!!

Screwedby,

Well, I see that you have shown your true colors and would rather act like SDV and clown your way around admitting that you talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk!!  I try to be serious and you try to be a ‘clown’!!  Got NO ‘real’ charities, now do you?  And, you can’t count buying ‘beer’ as supporting your local Bartenders Assn.!!

The American Bag ‘O Glass & Toy Manufacturer’s Assn.

Myself!

I like it when we talk about charity. It gives me an excuse to run this quote again:

The No. 1 givers Bill and Melinda Gates, the world’s largest international donors, who made history (in 2005) by giving their estimated $3 billion Microsoft Corp. dividend to their foundation. It’s one of the largest donations in history by a living donor.

To put it into perspective, that ONE gift is THREE TIMES BIGGER than the amount that America’s RICHEST Family, the descendants of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. founder Sam Walton, has given during their ENTIRE lifetimes, according to our ranking. ~ Business Week

Ken

With your rhetoric, I wonder if you don’t wear a Karl Marx T-Shirt to work each day. Your post was so off base, I am almost speechless. Your comparison of Bill Gates and the Waltons is ridiculous. You start from a false premise. Let’s look at this for a minute:

1. You falsely claim that one’s wealth belongs to society and that the wealthy somehow have an obligation to “give back”.

2. You foget that the wealthy create jobs and wealth for other people and ALSO pay roughly 50% of their income in taxes. The top 1% of taxpayers pay 36% of the taxes in this country. The top 10% pay nearly 70%. You only need to gross about $105,000 per year to make the top 1% of “the wealthy”.

3. Why don’t you attack Bill Gates, who made his entire fortune in the US yet gives billions to Africa? Why don’t you tell him what to do with his money? If he outsourced 10,000 jobs to Africa, he would be Benedict Arnold. Yet he gives 90% his charitable contributions to the Third World and you yawn?

4. Do you feel that you (or any other American) have the right to tell others what to do with their assets? Can I tell you how much to tip when you go out to eat? Can I take your riding mower and keep it for myself because I need it? Is what yours mine?

5. You accuse me of being “scary”? Do you support lawbreakers? Do you believe in the rule of law? Do you agree with illegal immigration? Do you believe in national security, language, culture or pride? Do you support giving up our nation to illegal immigrants and Muslim terrorists? Why am I “scary”? To me, this is just a ploy to try and move the conversation away from a discussion on illegal behaviors. I don’t particularly like lawbreakers. I despise criminal invaders. I believe that we have the right to police our own borders and to punish invaders. In the past, enemy fighters who were in your country, and not wearing a uniform, were considered to be engaged in espionage and were quickly tried and shot. We need to get back to protecting this nation against those who wish to kill us.

Yes, Ken, there are people out there tonight who are plotting our deaths. All this discussion of Wal-Mart and unions is irrelevant if you cannot agree on a violent solution to the problem of foreign invasion. What good is “changing Wal-Mart” if we are all dead?

Your comparison of Bill Gates and the Waltons is ridiculous.

It wasn’t my comparison. It was Business Week’s.

...a violent solution to the problem of foreign invasion.

You are really sounding crazed, Nick.

I Couldn’t Get Past #1, Nick

1. “You falsely claim that one’s wealth belongs to society and that the wealthy somehow have an obligation to “give back”.

Those Sam Walton quotes sure come in handy when you need them!

“We still want to drive a hard bargain, but now we want to guard against abusing our power.  We want to find more ways, like Bring it Home, in which we can use our influence to give something back.” (Sam Walton, Made in America p.244)

Screwedby,

““We still want to drive a hard bargain, but now we want to guard against abusing our power.  We want to find more ways, like Bring it Home, in which we can use our influence to give something back.” (Sam Walton, Made in America p.244)”

Are you saying that the Waltons DON’T, “give something back” or that they just Don’t, ‘give as much as you think they should back’?  I think that the University of Arkansas would be one that would disagree with you!!

Besides, this quote from Sam, was during the “Buy American” campaign and meant that they were going to give something back, by supporting more American Suppliers!!  He wasn’t talking about giving to charity!!

Like I asked, “How much do YOU give back”?

As for Bill Gates, at one time, his wealth was estimated in the trillions, so what does $3 billion mean to him, petty cash?  Besides, that $3 billion, is just his DIVIDENDS, not his wealth!!  But, like Nick said, it’s his money and he can do with it what he pleases!!

Actually RDS.... Bill Gate’s wealth was NEVER estimated in the trillions but more in the 2 figure billions. 

But if you also know the history of Bill Gates, as everyone points him out to be this great philanthropist, it wasn’t until just a few years ago that he started giving away his billions even though his fortunes have been made over the past 25 years.  There was a time when everyone was on him to give me.

that should have read “give more”

Everyone’s An “Expert” On Bill Gates

“Bill Gate’s wealth was NEVER estimated in the trillions but more in the 2 figure billions.

Even Mary can see what a NUTCASE you are, RDS.  You come out “shooting from the hip,” making statements that aren’t even close to being accurate, then you most likely will follow up with posts trying to pry both of your feet out of your mouth!  I suppose you’re going to tell us it was a “simple typo.”

Nick’s got you beat though:

<i>“…Tell me the name of the person whose wealth was stolen by Bill Gates.” Of course, the idiot couldn’t answer him.  Nick in
Saturday, August 04 at 11:20 AM

Nick, Did you forget that 4 days later, YOU became the idiot who seems to know where Bill Gates “stole” his money from.

“Bill Gates ‘stole’ from IBM and other companies.” Nick in
Wednesday, August 08 at 07:09 PM

This is another example of Nick showing his lack of knowledge when it comes to the world of business.

The IBM/Microsoft blunder is one of the classic business blunders of all time!  It is used in business schools to this day, and will be for a long time to come.

The TRUTH is… IBM helped to make both Bill Gates and Microsoft through its now infamous “oversight.”

Back in the days when Bill Gates was developing his first version of DOS on behalf of IBM’s personal computer business, IBM had the opportunity to demand or ask for exclusive rights to DOS.  For whatever reason, they didn’t.  This allowed Bill Gates to hang onto it and shop it around to every other computer maker in the country.  Hence the term, “IBM clone.”

And where is IBM’s personal computer business today?  The remnants were sold not long ago to Chinese computer manufacturer, Lenovo.

Mary

Bill Gates’ personal fortune actually hit $100 billion at the height of the dot.com boom (when Microsoft reached a market cap of more than $400 billion).

If Bill Gates cashed out his whole $50 + billion fortune right now and used it to roast a pig, I could care less. He made it. He has every right to do what he wants with it. As long as he doesn’t interfere with others’ rights, he is free to spend his money however he likes.

No American has an obligation to give anything to anyone. Productive Americans already pay taxes to support deadbeats. Here is an interesting quote from Alexis De Tocqueville’s “Democracy In America”:

“As the great majority of those who create the laws have no taxable property, all the money that is spent for the community appears to be spent to their advantage, at no cost of their own; and those who have some little property readily find means of so regulating the taxes that they weigh upon the wealthy and profit the poor, although the rich cannot take the same advantage when they are in possession of the government.

In countries in which the poor have the exclusive power of making the laws, no great economy of public expenditure ought to be expected; that expenditure will always be considerable, either because the taxes cannot weigh upon those who levy them, or because they are levied in such a manner as not to reach the poorer classes. In other words, the government of the democracy is the only one under which the power that votes the taxes escapes the payment of them.”

The shiftless, lazy, illegal and incompetent picking the pockets of the productive? Naaahhhhh.............not here, not in the US, right?

YAWN!  :<O

Nick, you’ve got to be what somebody meant when they used the term, “indiscriminate information gourmand.” But to put it another way...you’re boring!

Alexis De Tocqueville’s “Democracy In America” You’ve got to be kidding.  Just a little “light” late-night reading for you, huh?  You must be a real Party Killer.

Nobody likes the guy with the immediate answer to every question or worse, the dreaded follow-up “And did you know...?”

In countries in which the poor have the exclusive power of making the laws...

It would be interesting to see just how many state and federal legislators fall below the poverty level.

First Nick crawls in bed with the planet’s largest communist country (China) and now he quotes the French! Is that desperation I smell? (Or perspiration?:o)

Naaahhhhh.............not here, not in the US, right?

Let me dust off my book of 60’s clichés....

Love it or leave it!