What’s Good for the Middle Class is Good For Wal-Mart

They bill thenselves as a friend of the middle class nothing could be further from the truth. Driving down wages and driving manufacturing off shore. And yes matt from oregon, I am a union member (cupe) I get a good wage and am well taken care off. I do not shop at walmart canada. I support Canadian companies that support the Canadian economy.

Well they WANT people to be poor and broke because then they will shop at Wal-Mart.  This is why the stock has shot up from $54.00 a share to almost sixty in a short period of time.  The economy is getting worse and people see"save money, live better” and that the prices are “unbeatable”.  Like I said before in a lot of cases this is true but it isn’t always true.  However, it’s the PERCEPTION that it’s true that causes people to go in there and shop.  This is ESPECIALLY true in Michigan where there are no jobs, people are losing the ones that they have, the cost of gas and food is out of control and people are losing their homes.  Since I’ve lived in my current apartment complex I have seen as least ten people get evicted with all of their stuff sitting on the ground.  Can you really blame people for wanting to save money?  Detroit and Flint are two of the most violent and worst cities in the U.S.

No Wonder She’s Soooo Popular!

WASILLA - The Matanuska-Susitna area is the methamphetamine capital of Alaska, according to Alaska State Troopers.
In 2003, authorities uncovered nine meth labs in the area. Last year, the number increased to 42, said Kyle Young, an investigator with the troopers who works with the Mat-Su narcotics team.

Officials with the Office of Children’s Services in Wasilla said the problem affects children. The office receives about 40 calls a month from people reporting abuse or neglect involving some aspect of the highly addictive drug.

In late February, the Mat-Su narcotics unit arrested a couple at their Willow home. Michelle Motta said for years she tried to warn authorities that her three young nieces lived in the midst of a methamphetamine operation run by their parents, Phillip Dean and Laura Jackson.

Alaska State Troopers reported finding a “large active meth lab” in a detached garage shop. The house was a frigid mess, with piles of dirty dishes, clothes everywhere and frozen pipes, investigators said.

Through a hatch in the shop floor, the team found an underground room with a meth lab in one corner, as well as old marijuana root balls and lights from a past pot-growing operation.

An investigator said the team didn’t find the children at home but saw signs of them there. Motta said the girls - ages 14, 8 and 6 - at times slept in the garage with the lab.

A year ago, the oldest girl detailed the household’s rampant drug problems and squalid living conditions in a handwritten letter to a judge.

“My parents grow marijuana and crystal the(y) did the drugs that they bought in front of (my sisters),” the letter begins. “They spent most money on them instead of food or doing laundry. I got left home with nobody there I got left home with drug(g)ies...”

Motta now has custody of her three nieces. The Jacksons are jailed at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in Palmer.

Children sharing homes with meth labs face the risk of contamination, fire, explosion, neglect and hazardous living conditions. Caseworkers report little children complaining of breathing problems from toxic fumes rising off chemicals such as acetone, ammonia and hydrochloric acid.

When authorities surrounded a converted bus housing a meth operation in Big Lake in January, a 13-year-old boy who answered the door bragged that his mom cooked the best meth in the valley, according to the troopers.

During a 2003 bust at a house outside Wasilla, officers discovered five children living inside, all younger than 8 years old.

The calls about meth to children’s services in Wasilla accounts for as many as 40 percent of the agency’s total monthly child protection calls.

The troopers are aggressively going after meth labs, said Capt. Ed Harrington, the supervisor of the state’s drug and alcohol enforcement unit.

“It’s just not a simple process,” Harrington said. “Just because somebody calls in and says ‘So and so’s cooking meth’ doesn’t mean we’re going to kick the door in the next night.”

Generic Wal-Mart Wageslave in Michigan

Very Simple: America Hurts, Wal*Mart Thrives! And it’s just good business for Lee Scott and his crew to help their business grow. So what if they completely F*Up the Greatest Country Ever…
It’s just business, don’t take it personal....

Mike the Canuck,
It’s funny, with all this blogging… Cathartic I think… We could take it al down and just put up your post. The truth usually doesn’t take pages and pages because Truth is simply the truth.

“They bill thenselves as a friend of the middle class nothing could be further from the truth. Driving down wages and driving manufacturing off shore.”

BOOBIE in the rubber room

“Meth Labs”

Theres more Meth Labs in just one county of Kentucky VS the entire State of Alaska.

Get real you idiot.

There’s More Christian Soldiers in China Too!

And there’s probably more “Christian soldiers” in one province of China than there is in all of the United States.

Glassy-eyed zealots like yourself OCS, are a dime-a-dozen in this country!

No Wonder She’s Soooo Popular!

And Bobby, your story represents Palin in what possible manner?  The hate, lies and garbage that is spewed here is nothing short of shameless and you’re at the top of the list Bobby

Dan: And what “truths” do you have to offfer? Seems to me that YOU are spewing hate,lies and garbage about Bobby. How does that give YOU moral authority or credibility?

This article give the President way too much blame/credit for the economy.  Isn’t it possible that maybe the tech stock crash of the late 90’s, 9-11, and the current mortgage crisis may have all influenced the economy more than who is President?

Onward Christian Soldiers in Dan

Theres more Meth Labs in just one county of Kentucky VS the entire State of Alaska.

From some of you guy’s posts I bet you’re very familiar with a lot of em....

Dearest Onward Christian Soldiers,

“Theres more Meth Labs in just one county of Kentucky VS the entire State of Alaska. “

There’s also more Wal*Marts… Do you think there is a connection??? I think you have made a very interesting point. More-Wal*Marts = More Meth Addicts.

Dave in
I believe that the economic downturn is related to the governments overspending post 9-11. They have spent irresponsably and I believe to a large degree criminaly. Condi at Chevron, and Bush with the Saudi Royals and Bin Ladens. Dick Cheney still has his options and friends at Haliburton, and even though the stock is coming down rapidly, you can bet that no one in the inner circle of the oval office has to worry about paying the bills for the rest of their lives. Now in the after-life, I don’t know if they will think it was all worth it. They have all thumbed their noses at the US justice system. Karl Rove is a worm. I can argue both sides of the isle, but in my lifetime there has never been a more scandelous bunch in the White house. Shame, Shame, Shame.. A lot of what is posted is just rehashed over and over. I like talking politics, but as I’m sure you will agree, this is monotonous. I can assure you that if we would not have squandered an impeachment on Bill Clinton, we would have seen at least one regarding this administration. For the record I don’t care for Sarah Palin. I find her Glib, Divisive and Condesending. She reminds me of a combination of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney. I think America has suffered enough devisive politics in the last 16 years.
Have a nice day! And have a great Future!

Bobby:"She reminds me of a combination of Karl Rove and Dick Cheney"~Bobby~~~~~~~ NOTE: Then that would make would her a Dickless Cheney,right?

I’m trying not to let anybody turn this into a debate on sex. I personally like sex. But there are already too many republican strategist who are trying to make her look like a target for Democratic Sexism in an effort to deflect an examination of the issues. However, I believe without being sexist, your term “Dickless Cheney” is pretty acurate. First we had Trcky Dick, You can’t Lick Twice and now Dickless Cheney. I believe you may have coined a phrase that deserves it’s place in the Pantheon of Republican Dicks.

ddrb,
Proof that you don’t have to have one to be one.

Anybody who has read any of my post over the last 7 years (probably nobody here) would know that I predicted a mortgage meltdown and a huge taxpayer bailout of Fanny May and Freddie Mac that would equal the savings and loan scandal of the mid 1980’s. I’m not psychic. It’s simple math. For visual purposes picture yourself in a room with all your fellow wage earners. All arround the room are ladders with another group of people holding big nets. Now picture the wage earners taking all of their wages in $bills of all denominations and throwing them up in the air over and over again. The people on the ladders get to keep as much of the money that they catch in the nets. Some have bigger nets and some have smaller nets. This process repeats itself over and over. The money that lands on the floor is left for the wage earners to scramble after. this is called “trickle down ecconomics”. Now when the wage earners run out of money to throw up in the air, as they most certainly will, they can get fake money and pretend that they are still playing the trickle down game. And when that runs out then the Government steps in and takes all of our tax dollars and pays back all the fake money with real money. Our Money. If you think we have a deposite now wait till next Friday!

“I believe that the economic downturn is related to the governments overspending post 9-11.”

That might make sense had the economy been in good shape before that, but it wasn’t.  Because of the tech stock crash shortly before the 2000 election the economy was already in bad shape by then and was one of the bigger issues of the 2000 election between Bush and Gore.  9-11 just kept it from recovering like it would have, and the mortgage crisis made it even worse.  While it would be foolish to blame the tech stock crash on Clinton, giving him the credit for the good economy that was partly caused by the overinflation of the tech stock is also foolish, and blaming Bush for the bad economy that he inherited is just plain ignorant.

CamPains Weigh In on Fanny May Freddy Mac:

Dogma: At a rally in Colorado Springs, Col., Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said, “They’ve gotten too big and too expensive to the taxpayers. The McCain-Palin administration will make them smaller and smarter and more effective for homeowners who need help.”

Human: Democratic nominee Barack Obama, speaking in Terre Haute, Ind., said, “These entities are so big and they’re so tied into the housing market that it is probably true that we have to take steps to make sure they don’t just collapse, because the housing market, which is already weakened, would be in even worse shape if we didn’t take some steps.”

Bobby,

“they can get fake money and pretend that they are still playing the trickle down game. And when that runs out then the Government steps in and takes all of our tax dollars and pays back all the fake money with real money.”

First, there is NO real money, it’s been ‘fake’ ever since we went off the gold standard to back our dollars!!  Second, they will never run out of money, as long as the government has printing presses!!

“Our Money.”

According to Ken V., there is NO such thing as ‘our money’, it all belongs to the government, you only get what the government wishes to give you to pay your bills, hence the term, “paycheck to paycheck”!!  Taxes already take over 50% of the money you earn, and if they chose to make it 100%, what could you do about it, remembering that it is their money to begin with, after all they are the ones who print it!!

If U.S. dollars aren’t backed by GOLD anymore, what do you think they ARE backed by?

If U.S. dollars aren’t backed by GOLD anymore, what do you think they ARE backed by?

RDS in

Debt and Bonds Held by China?

In the weeks, months and probably years ahead, the average American Taxpayer will find them selves, once again, out of pocket because of the Walmartization of the United States Economy. How bad will it be? Only time will tell. The reality is that there are a lot of homes standing empty or on the verge of foreclosure. This is due to the elimination of the middle class. One VERY LARGE group that has replaced the middle class has been dubbed the working poor. As average household incomes have decreased and will continue to do so, the majority of Americans have been encouraged to fall back on cheap credit in order to fuel America’s Walmartized economy. This is the “fatal flaw” of a service economy. Empty homes don’t need any of the goods sold in the big box chains, Wal*Mart of course being the leader. The only real cure for this dire financial storm heading right toward 95% of us, is to encourage the rebuilding of the US manufacturing base, There are those who will argue that we are living in a “Global Economy”. Well, this is an undeniable fact. But just like it is each of our responsibilities to take care of our own house, and keep an eye on our neigborhoods. It is also our responsibility as tax paying citizens to make sure that our Country is safe and sound. It’s not. This is not a new debate, it is in fact getting old. The “Credit Crisis” is just another symptom of a rapidly failing financial policy. I for one am pretty fed up with being a lab rat for a series of “band-aid” attempts to cure an economic cancer that has been left unchecked for too long. It’s time to move in a better direction. One where Wal*Mart is no longer America’s largest employer. It’s time to clean up the neigborhood. It is up to the wage earners and tax payers to make the difference. No matter who wins the upcoming Presidential, Congressional, Senate and Local elections. In a Nation Divided but absolutely co-dependent on all of it’s citizens, it is time to heed those immortal words “America, Vote With Your Wallet” The economy good or bad will touch us all no matter which political party you support.

Oh, I left out the most important part: Remember to sell, sell, sell, your Wal*Mart Stock! Stack it High, and Watch it Fly!

By now most even the most uninformed people on these boards have heard about the Federal Take-over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And some of the more astute of you probably noticed that I’ve been spelling the names wrong. By the middle of the week information on the implications to the general public will have started to trickle in. By Friday, look out! This not going to be pretty. What can you do? Most people posting here are probably already doing it. Don’t support Wal*Mart and do everything in your power to get their hands out of the public’s pockets. Let your elected officials know that if they want to stay in office, then a Wal*Mart driven economy won’t do. I got rid of my Fannie and Freddie stock 3 years ago. I could have made a few more bucks if I held it longer. Wal*Mart stock? I sold in the 90’s after I met some of the board and found out what they were about. I couldn’t own the stock with a clear conscience. They are BAD people who are out to get as much money out of you as possible and when the well is dry they move on. Sort of like the Aliens in the movie independence day. Or maybe a giant parasite.. They certainly have been trying to hedge their bets in other countries. Fresh meat for the beast. By next Friday our economy is going to need a lot more than special sauce to be good. It looks like Wal*Mart has finally “Rolled it Back”.

Anonymous in usa.com
Been there.
EMF

In honor of Wal*Mart’s concern for “Change” I am changing my screen name to EM*F. It has a nice “Ring” to it.

Fannie/Freddie Update:
Another Huge Tax Payer Bailout. Anybody on this board know how much government backed pension plans were still heavily vested in Fannie and Freddie? I honestly don’t know. I may find out later. If the States etc. are still holding huge amounts of stock and the stock loses it’s value, guess who pays to back up those plans? Hint: Taxpayer’s.

Under the Wal*Mart Economy:
American Taxpayers are paying for bailout after bailout.
Turning China into the Greatest Economy on the Planet.

God forbid China dumps all its American Ivestments. It would make the collapse of the USSR look like a bump in the road. And, speaking of the USSR as well as China, They are both well aware that our millitary is totaly strapped and they can pretty much do whatever they want.

Here’s a little something for the pope of this board “
Onward Chistian Soldiers”

“Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye?

Somebody has to pay for all the economic “stimulous plans and bail outs and it ain’t going to be Russia, China or Iraq.

YEAH MIKE!!!  TRUE CANADIAN!  KUDOS to you!!!!!

Published on Monday, September 8, 2008 by The Seattle Times
David May Talk, Goliath May Walk
by David Sirota

“This is a David-and-Goliath confrontation, but we believe we’ll have enough stones in the sling to knock this out.”

That is a recent statement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when asked whether business lobbyists will defeat the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) - a labor-backed bill that cribs from Canadian law and makes joining a union a tiny bit easier. In the imminent confrontation over this almost embarrassingly modest proposal, corporations are actually billing themselves as the underdog - the poor, overmatched peasant David against the Philistine monster Goliath.

To the propaganda-numbed ear, it sounds plausible. History books and Washington news releases have seared a corporate hagiography into the public discourse - one mythologizing business as the brave little guy fighting the good fight against all-powerful union puppet masters - even as labor’s agenda has been stomped for a generation.

In truth, if the EFCA is “a David-and-Goliath confrontation,” then labor is David and the unholy business-politician alliance is Goliath - and that is an understatement. In a political system run by money, this is the United States invading Grenada, Sherman blazing into Atlanta, German tanks challenging Polish horses. This is the NBA All-Star squad playing a high-school team; Hulk Hogan arm-wrestling Gary Coleman; Michael Phelps competing in the Special Olympics.

In short, the struggle pitting Big Business and bought-off lawmakers against workers has been a cruel joke.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, corporate executives at Goliath, Inc. spent $17 billion lobbying Congress in the last decade. Labor leaders at David’s union hall mustered $333 million. In the 2008 election, business interests have outspent unions 18-to-1 on campaign contributions.(Continued)

Of course, with Democrats poised to win the election, many believe the EFCA is a fait accompli because of the fallacy that unions own the Democratic Party. What a laugh.

During the 1990s, Bill Clinton helped the Gordon Gekkos crash the Democratic Party, infamously translating his support for NAFTA, telecom deregulation and Wall Street favors into campaign checks. Today, business has given 10 times the cash to Democratic candidates that labor has coughed up. In that context, a Democratic sweep in 2008 automatically assures EFCA’s passage about as much as Chevron’s environmental ads guarantee the oil industry’s commitment to seriously fighting climate change.

That said, corporations’ underdog act reveals their authentic fear that EFCA could pass next year - and it certainly could. That’s because America is not (yet) a pure plutocracy. To the dismay of the country-club crowd, workers still get most of the votes in elections, and this time around, they may actually vote their wallets.

The 2008 campaign has become a referendum on the results of conservative economic policy, and 30 years into Ronald Reagan’s class war, those results are stark. As the government stopped enforcing labor laws, business ramped up union busting, union membership plummeted and workers predictably lost ground. Today, industry profits rise, wages decrease and white-collar theft gets more audacious. Just last week, The Wall Street Journal reported that companies are raiding employees’ pension funds “to finance their executives’ retirement benefits and pay.” (If workers got a dime for every story like this, their pay would be much higher.)

In response to this predatory behavior, the prey is getting smart. Polls now show most Americans say they would join a union if given the chance (i.e., if they could without facing the employer retribution that EFCA is designed to prevent). The country has figured out that in an everyone-for-themselves capitalism, there is safety in numbers.

And so far away from the power lunches and Gucci gulches of Washington, unions have been organizing this realization into grass-roots pressure - and it might be just enough to pass the EFCA. The Davids have discovered that money may talk, but enough voters may be able to make Goliath walk.~~~~~~~~~~Common Dreams

New York Times Editorial
Published: September 7, 2008
During the boom years of the Bush presidency — remember them? — economic growth was an especially unreliable indicator of how most Americans were doing.

The numbers were impressive, but the gains were lopsided, benefiting executives and investors far more than hourly workers and salaried employees. Because the growth was fueled by reckless lending and borrowing, it created an illusion of wealth even as many Americans lost ground.

The strange and painful disconnect was evident again in recent weeks.

The government reported that the economy grew at a surprising 3.3 percent in the second quarter, while productivity (the measure of how much workers accomplish per hour) soared. Unfortunately, those bounces did not mean a rebound in the lives of most Americans.

Growth rose, but so did unemployment. Productivity surged, but wages fell. Fixing that disconnect is the central economic challenge for the next president.

Increased exports were responsible for last spring’s strong economic growth numbers. But selling more abroad has not led to more manufacturing jobs or working-class pay raises at home.

One reason, as The Times’s Louis Uchitelle reported, is that manufactured goods accounted for an unusually low share of export gains in the first half of 2008, while commodities like corn and scrap metal accounted for an unusually high share. Worse yet, exports are likely to fall as the economies of Europe and Japan slow.

American consumers also helped drive recent growth, spending nearly $100 billion in government-provided stimulus payments. That was only a temporary lift. A true rebound cannot occur until the economy stabilizes. For that, oil prices have to settle at or below their recent levels; housing prices have to bottom out; and emerging economies, like China, have to avoid recession, thus propping up global growth.

Washington has little influence over those factors. But the government can try to stop things from getting much worse, helping to set the stage for a rebound. Congress will likely have to provide another round of stimulus — which should center on bolstered food stamps and grants to state and local governments. It may also have to provide more foreclosure relief.

That’s the easy part. Once the economy stabilizes, the creative and controversial work must begin to build an economy in which all Americans have a shot at sharing in the growth.

Senator Barack Obama has addressed the issue conceptually, rejecting the “you’re on your own” ethos of the Bush years. He has put forth prescriptions, including specific plans to create jobs with public-works investments, and he supports legislation that would make it easier for employees to form unions.

It’s well established that public-works spending yields a big economic bang for every buck and that unions lead to better pay. The politics are difficult. First, Americans must agree that government has a useful role to play in the economy, a notion that has been disparaged for decades. Big employers with powerful friends on Capitol Hill — Wal-Mart comes immediately to mind — can be expected to fight any attempts to foster unions.

Senator John McCain has also pledged to address the struggles of working Americans. Both candidates say their energy plans will create jobs. But Mr. McCain emphasizes more high-end tax cuts as the main engine for new jobs. Tax cuts are always politically popular. As job generators, however, they are a loser strategy, especially now. The Bush era, with its huge tax cuts, has the worst job-creation record of any post-World War II economic cycle.

America needs more jobs and American workers need a raise. Mr. Obama should sharpen his promising ideas. Mr. McCain has yet to address the real economy’s real problems head on.

Wal*Mart is much like nationalized retail but without the benefits of nationalized health care, energy, and housing. The very things that the right wingers hate. I find it interesting that they have attempted to turn themselves into a partisan political issue, since they stand for so many things that both sides of the isle can’t stand.

Hey Onward Chinese Soldiers!

How are you going to explain this to your kids?
Excerpt:
Who are you voting for?

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com)—The budget deficit will jump by $246 billion to $407 billion this year, the Congressional Budget Office estimates in a report released Tuesday.

“Over the long run, growing budget deficits and the resulting increases in federal debt would lead to slower economic growth,” the agency said.

Last year, the budget deficit was $161 billion. The government’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30. The agency attributes the jump to “a substantial increase in spending and a halt in the growth of tax revenues.”

That drop in revenue is driven in part by an estimated 15% decline in corporate tax receipts. They fell as a result of lower corporate profits and tax rules governing how businesses depreciate their investments this year. A second factor is the rebates provided to tax filers from the economic stimulus law Congress passed earlier this year.

The spending hike is partly due to efforts by the government “to cover the insured deposits of insolvent financial institutions,” the agency said.

To date, 11 banks have been seized by the FDIC this year - not a high number historically, but higher than it’s been in recent years - and that number is expected to grow in the coming months.

The CBO said it expected the deficit to exceed $400 billion - or 3% of gross domestic product - for each of the next two years if current policies remain in place. It also forecast several more months of “very slow” economic growth.

“The nation is experiencing a significant period of economic weakness,” said Peter Orszag, director of the CBO, in a press briefing.

The CBO’s estimate for the cumulative deficit over the next 10 years is now $2.3 trillion. Earlier this year, the CBO estimated the country would have a $300 billion surplus by 2018. But that was wiped out in part because of new spending approved by lawmakers for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and revised economic projections.

The agency’s latest estimates do not reflect the Treasury announcement this weekend that the government would temporarily takeover Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored enterprises that form the backbone of the mortgage market.

But Orszag said that come January, the CBO will be incorporating the activities of Fannie and Freddie in its baseline for the federal budget. The CBO will be working with House and Senate budget committees to address questions of just how transactions by both companies should be accounted for - the answers to which will greatly influence the net effect the companies have on the federal deficit.

“The degree of control exercised by the federal government is so strong that the best treatment is to incorporate [the agencies] into the federal budget,” Orszag said.

To allay one concern that many taxpayers have expressed, the roughly $5 trillion in loans that Fannie and Freddie own or back would not be added wholesale to the debt held by the public, Orszag told CNNMoney.com.

“I don’t see a scenario in which you take a total of the mortgages backed and add that to the federal deficit,” he said.

But beyond all these near-term concerns affecting the government’s debt load, he said the biggest challenge facing the country’s coffers is rising health care costs. Federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid alone is expected to jump 30% in the next decade - from 4.6% of GDP this year to 6% in 2018. By 2050, it could jump to 12% of GDP.

As a result, Orszag said in the press briefing, “The nation is on an unsustainable fiscal course.”

According to Ken V., there is NO such thing as ‘our money’, it all belongs to the government...

Since you misinterpret everything you read, RDS, I’m not surprised my posts are no exception.

According to Ken V. when you are in business you have to pay your bills.

Underneath all this right wingnut rhetoric is the basic belief that cheating, stealing, and conniving are sound business practices used to keep “your money”.

No need to pay the costs of doing business if you can get away with it.

“I wonder how many times you have to be hit on the head before you find out who’s hitting you? It’s about time that the people of America realized what the Republicans have been doing to them.” - Harry Truman

Bobby in the next room
Saturday, September 06 at 09:13 AM

Anybody who has read any of my post over the last 7 years (probably nobody here) would know that I predicted a mortgage meltdown and a huge taxpayer bailout of Fanny May and Freddie Mac that would equal the savings and loan scandal of the mid 1980’s. I’m not psychic. It’s simple math.

Told you so!!!
Here’s to the death of Reaganomics and the rise of a strong vital middle class!!! Let’s hope the next administration doesn’t waist 4 years of our time and tax dollars “KICKING A DEAD HORSE” Here’s to a bright future! Cheers!!!