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WalMart Admits Profits Depend Heavily On Corporate Welfare
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
It appears that Walmart has admitted the potentially severe adverse impact a reduction in food stamp payments could have on its bottom line. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who reads this site, as I have written about this many, many times. Most notably in the very popular post: McDonald’s Math: You Can’t Survive Working for Us.
Well now we have further evidence of this disturbing economic trend straight from the horse’s mouth: Walmart.
The LA Times reports that:
Wal-Mart’s annual report, issued late last week, puts a different spin on things. Buried within the long list of risk factors disclosed to its shareholders–that is, factors “outside our control” that could materially affect financial performance–are these: “changes in the amount of payments made under the Supplement Nutrition Assistance Plan and other public assistance plans, (and) changes in the eligibility requirements of public assistance plans.”
Yes, that says “materially impact.”
Wal-Mart followers say this is the first time the company has made a disclosure like that.
I’m not sure if that is the case, I think they have mentioned it before, but I’m not sure. Either way…
Wal-Mart says it gets more than half its sales from its grocery departments. Since low-income shoppers are a big part of its clientele, it’s unsurprising that that squealing you hear is coming from its annual report. There’s no indication that Wal-Mart executives stepped up to the plate during the debate in Washington to warn Congress off these cuts in assistance to its customers.
One interesting sidelight of Wal-Mart’s disclosure is that it doesn’t actually discuss how the company benefits from public assistance programs by sticking the U.S. taxpayer with the bill for keeping its workforce fed and clothed.
Who’s paying for Wal-Mart’s addiction to paying its employees less than a living wage? You are.
Having fun yet serfs?
Full article here.
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You will be by the end.
Walmart is very very successful USSA company. See, socialism is working!
... until run out of other people money.
All Are Welcome at the Wall-Mart
The old prosperity is gone.
That was when kids and entry level folks did those jobs for a while and then moved on or up.
Nowadays, stock boy or burger flipper is a career and life’s work for the lower and immigrant class that requires a “living wage”.
The college kids today build a nest pineapple (think grenade, not egg) of student debt and drink their way through to a hospitality industry degree.
So, thanks to the libs, we are just stuck growing and nurturing an underclass in a nation that has shipped its real growth overseas.
Of course all of the above is generalizing, but you get the idea.
Oh, and of course the moral and ethical decay of the nation does not help matters at all.
Don't forget inflation and run away living costs, with the housing bubble as major contributor. If it wasn't for those problems, $5 an hour for entry level jobs and $15 an hour in a factory would be livable, while still keeping companies competitive with overseas businesses.
Now, you need to pay $25 an hour to flip burgers and $75 an hour to make cars, once you add in payroll taxes, benefits, etc.
Need more pressure on China to implement MaoCare, People's Retirement program, Affordable Housing, etc to keep things competitive.
inflation, poverty and moral decline are funded on the back of Fiat(fraudulent money).
"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work instead of living on public assistance."
Cicero, 55 BC
EXCUUUUSEEEE Meeeeee !! Another damn quote
"... every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. We can give but a faint idea when we say it means the loss of all we now hold most sacred ... personal property, lands, homesteads, liberty, justice, safety, pride, manhood. It means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the War, will be impressed by all influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, our maimed veterans as fit objects for their derision, it means the crushing of Southern manhood ... to establish sectional superiority and a more centralised form of government, and to deprive us of our rights and liberties."
Gen. Pat Cleburne C.S.A. ... 2 Jan 1864
+ 1MM I Need Another Beer, the next round is on me.
General Cleburne was a brilliant on the field general, and even stronger in his approach to the war. He was dead on when he wrote the South needed to separate itself from the Issue of slavery.
At least I get reminded of his work almost daily when I drive past the Pickett's Mill Battlefield.
Dont be mad at me asshole. You guys should have never brought them over in the first place. Did you really think you could just make em do all your work forever. Fucking idiots..... you and them...
They sold their own to us.
When Fiat runs dry, what will generations of Section 8 and Habitat for Humanity dwellers do? The Democrat 'Useful Idiots' will probably sell themselves into slavery.
I was liking this line of thinking until I saw the red team, blue team division. Sorry man, I have to discard the whole package at this point. If you can't see and understand divide and conquer, someone with some obvious critical thinking skills, this will enable the charade will go on.
The USA should just be change to, The EBT.
IMO, we ran out of other people's money long ago. If you eliminate the money from entitlements, government employees and companies that are classified as private but make their living on dot.gov the picture becomes much more dire. CNTL-P is the only thing keeping the USS Ponzi afloat.
They ran out of my money, I don't fucking shop there.
When I explain that government shouldn't be in the business of charity, libtards always retort, "Well what about corporate welfare???" As a libertarian, I say get rid of state controlled social welfare AND the corporate welfare. Libtards justify stealing money from the tax payer for social issues because according to them, corporations do it too. What a bunch of fools.
WalMart Admits Profits Depend Heavily On Corporate Welfare
WalMart Admits It's A Fascist Soup Kitchen
No, McDonald is soup kitchen, Walmart is homeless shelter. No soup for you!
Downvote solely for the use of the stupid term "libtard". You are not in 5th grade on the playground anymore, and as a reader of ZH you should have evolved past the faux left/right red/blue divide by now.
Downvoted because of your silly assumption. I don't recognize any major differneces in the two parties. However, there are superficial differences. And in many instances, they meet halfway to completely fuck us all over. So screw off pal.
Boris is suggest more descriptive term for USSA political party of two:
Republigoon - politician is pretend to have moral principal but is check at door in lust for power
and
Democracker - politician is pretend to care about citizenry but is only use wacko insane argument to satisfy lust for power
The term "mafia" is more than adequate.
Boris,
I laugh...and think you are correct.
What do they call crony statists in Russia? I really dont know.
Here they call the gangs...bloods and crips. The people jump around like they are 8 year olds with ADD on tweak supporting the taking away of their liberties by either mafia. For some reason, they dont like personal responsibility.
Sigh...
When you are independent from the system, the real villain denigrates you, resulting in waco or ruby ridge, etc.
Sorry..i know. My russians terrible.
RIPS
I recently settled on the term "ballot monkey" to describe congress and such.
Regards,
Cooter
An assumption based upon the evidence at hand is hardly silly. I think the point is that you shouldn't use the barbed words of either side if you do not support them, as it cannot be helped but to be seen as a bias (or do you believe we all are clairvoyant?).
kthxbye
RINOs don't support social welfare. Libtards do. Therefore I did not include RINOs in my statement regarding social welfare. No need to be clairvoyant. Just use your brain a little. Stop picking a pointless fight with someone who obviously has similar beliefs as you just because they didn't equally trash both parties. "Kthxbye"
I'm sorry, how was it obvious again?
Oh, and who's picking a fight?
Do you always get this wound up on the internets?
I mean, think about it. Someone saw you use the word libtard, and you get all defensive claiming it's their fault when they call you on it.
If I say that I hate Apples, that must mean I LOVE oranges. Right? You make excuses like the last guy makes assumptions.
I take it you're wholly unaware of the polarization of politics, then?
Whatever, Mr. Cannot See Anyone Else's Point Because You Didn't Appreciate The Label.
Fine. If I say I hate democrats on the issue of gun control for example, that means I love republicans? His assumption was made using that EXACT reasoning. He obviously agreed with my comment. Why trash it over something insignificant or a silly assumption that I play the left-right game?
Sure, it's the same reasoning. Thing is, this example uses appropriate labels rather than loaded buzzwords used by the lefty-righty zealots. THAT is the only point I've been trying to make with you.
And yes, some people will still make that assumption even with the appropriate labels. However, it is far less likely than when using weaponized words.
Why did I engage you over it? Because you acted like a dick in your initial response, when it was not warranted. You told someone to "screw off" all because you chose to use a loaded word then deny it as a legitimate basis for someone else's observation.
Oh, and I didn't downvote any of your posts.
Welcome to the internet.
You didn't get the libtard memo that only libtards are allowed to use derogatory words towards others. ;)
You haven't graduated to libertarian yet, you are still a recovering conservative/Republican.
Ha, spoken like a true liberal.
Boris is not speaking of english language, but is quick easy understand term of "libtard" - is liberal enjoy frolic in dancing tight, no? Why is hate on woman active wear!?
especillay the see through kind on the right derrire, not to mention the camel toe feature.
All the 'Libtards' I encounter have a gov. paying job. Usually school teachers. They get their paychecks from Big Bro.
I'm no fan of Wal-Mart, but this shit about a living wage is a display of ignorance.
Is this guy really too thick to understand that the real problem is the destruction of the currency?
Oh, and my favorite WM fact? They too want a higher minimum wage as it will hurt their "Mom and Pop" competition.
Yeah, there are myriad government policies that result in higher prices. Let's look at those first before.
Like say, the genocide that is ethanol-induced corn riots?
I boycott every ethanol welfare queen that I know about.
who are these ethanol welfare queens you speak of? Id seriously like to know, no sarcasm, cuz that whole situation infuriates me
MFA Oil and Archer Daniels Midland come to mind in the "political heavyweight" category.
Here's a list of producers (all of which receive a $0.50 per gallon subsidy, AFAIK).
http://www.ethanolmt.org/plants.html
And of course, the lobbyists.
http://www.taxpayer.net/images/uploads/downloads/Political_Footprint_of_...
He might be referring to anyone who benefits from subsidies while producing it.
So, I should expect that with a stronger dollar that the income disparity between wallmart workers and its ownership will materially decrease.
When the employee's welfare is dependent upon a corporation we have Fascism.
The problem is not Walmart but an economy in which employees have no other options.
Bingo!
The entire system is not what we have be told/taught it was. Some people are better at dealing with that and moving on to living outside of that system as much as they can. Others will not allow the reality to penetrate their beliefs and will spend countless hours blaming welfare queens and the usual suspects because it's easier.
The system has become a lie at nearly every level.
And when a corp. welfare depends on government we have....?
Abe Lincoln was a mediocre lawyer and lobbyist, the reason he is worshipped in DC and hailed in history books is because he above all perfected crony capitalism between bouts of boot stomping the bill of rights.
Understanding the true history of Lincoln was an epiphany for me. It brought down a lot of curtains, and exposed the lies that pass for schooling in our society. My understanding is Lincoln was hated by both the South and the North, and he was working towards expatriating every black in the country when someone ended his run with a bullet in the head. Doesn't really jibe with what I was taught when I was gullible schoolboy. Fuck, I still am at some level. There is still a part of me that wants to believe.
fuck me. I spend about 20.00 per month there on avg.
yep. Sorry, but as long as they are still charging pre-freakout prices for ammo, im still going there for that. You gotta get lucky and go right after they get it in, cuz it doesnt last long.
When you operate with a mere 3% profit margin, nearly anything could have a material impact.
Stop shopping at Walmart.... assholes! If not, enjoy your lead baby toys and malamide dog food. I should add... don't expect me to foot the bill for your kids medical problems and retardation down the road.
Deleted
"Living Wage" = Socialism
Who gets to define it? Such BS
WMT is just grabbing money (yours) that the government carelessly throws out of windows.
Cutting the SNAP payments in the Farm Bill is going to bite the Elites in the ass.
They've already doubled down on killing the middle class and growing the dependency class.
If they don't provide enough bread and circuses the New Rome may have barbarians at the gate sooner than they think.
This is all about leverage for mid-term elections, nothing more.
Divide,
Conquer,
Rinse,
Repeat ad infinitum...
thats the problem right there. while your average republican may speak out against the huge and growing amount of money spent on various forms of welfare, they are more than willing to allow it to continue, so long as their favorite MIC company or military base in their district stays open. So we get "bipartisan compromise" which the media applauds as signs of progress, but which is really just both parties agreeing to continue screwing as all. Same as it always was
The EBT crowd is getting ripped off. Big MIC takes the lion's share, and calls it's handout patriotism.
I assure you it is not sooner than I hope!!
And if they come with their relics, they may be welcomed.
I buy 2 things at hellmart: oil filters, and jelly beans.
The rest of their shit aint worth shit. Total outlay there is abou $40/year.
Since when is a job at McDonalds supposed to be a "survival" job? It's a part time job for high-schoolers, right? Oh, I get it......shut the fuck up.
When we have a nation of fucking retards who think it is their god-given right to be provided a good living for writing poetry or flipping burgers or facebooking at the office .... oh just shut the fuck up, ok?
Yes, that's the problem. Just too many lazy people. It's not the completely corrupt system that has offshored all good manufacturing jobs to low wage countries to line the pockets of oligarchs, coupled with a banking system that is rewarded for gambling in the stock market rather than doing quaint things like writing loans to small businesses that could otherwise employ people. The middle class is shrinking rapidly and the top .01% is getting richer because of too many poets.
I'll play along.............
So what IS the Solution then?
Re: So what IS the Solution then?
Take the loot from the sociopaths, don't give it to the government (who are just a different flavor of sociopath), and pass it directly to the "citizens". It's called the "End of season, we want to keep the Free-Enterprise competative system going without having a violent reset" program.
It can't work (of course), but what we've got is only working for the highest evolved humans who are sociopaths.
Is there any system where the highest evolved sociopaths don't eat the dumbasses alive?
I don't think so. But, regardless, my TBTF bank has pumped more debt into the dumbasses today and I'm heading home after a hard day's work supporting the Elysium class in their quest to get all the loot.
Cya.
"the highest evolved humans"...Are you serious? 'Intelligence' is the highest form of 'Being'. These 'clowns' you speak of are not intelligent in any sense. They are 'clever', 'deceiving', 'conniving', 'greedy', et. al, but surely not 'evolved' or 'intelligent'. The 'Intelligent' human perceives what is 'True', and from that perception---acts (behaves). That behaviour is 'righteous', 'holy' and 'pure'. What these degenerates are doing is the antithesis of what I just postulated. If you think they are 'highest evolved', then you are one of the many that follow the blind and fall into the ditch...
I don't disagree with what you say, and the US was told this will happen, Ross Perot laid it all out for people with NAFTA, and people didnt listen. And yes, this set up is unjust. However, at some point, you also have to acknowledge that there really are a lot of lazy, stupid people out there. I believe the education system in this country sucks on purpose, and that it is designed to churn out drones, capable of performing menial tasks, but not critical thought. And this stacks the deck against many people, but most of us here are products of public schools, and have managed to figure this all out any way. So while I agree with the point you make in your post, personal responsibility still has to be acknowledged, and it does have to exist even in the system you describe.
Don't forget rules, taxes, regulations to make barriers to entry so most people cannot be self-employed.
Oh man, if could upvote to the moon. I had a great career in electronics manufactoring. There was work all over America. The globalists took it all to Mexico and then to China and then to Indonesia. Shit, it was super high tech, huge capital investments, keep thousands in the middle class, and provided me an outlet to use my STEM skills. I'm serious, when they closed the last plant I worked at, thousands of middle class jobs in middle America exported, the few line workers I recognized that had gotten jobs, well, you guessed it, at fucking Wal-Mart. So fuck off with your lazy bullshit queer studies, art studies crap. The banks, the globalists, the Rothchilds, the Rockerfellers, all of them have fucked this country, and they are desperately trying to get you to still believe it's the fucking victims fault. It's the central banks, and their corporate servants. You wonder how these corps get capitalized and why you don't own any? Hmmm, let me print up some money, and buy the vital industries, offshore them, and watch this country die on the vine. Yeah, I'm pissed, and I sick of the trolls, the blind, the ones who can't let go, who can't face the truth. Excuse all the language, everytime I think of it I blow another fuse in my head reliving the bullshit.
Im sliding/slouching into 60years still climbing roofs, in the winter, and I feel bad for fast food workers. It looks like it really sucks, with no prospects, pride, skills learned for near no pay.
Crony Colonial Capitalsim at its finest!
An interesting thought is how things would look if Walmart collapsed. They've cleaned out the main street businesses and the moms and pops shops nearly everywhere in this country. Sure those places would would come back to fill the vacancy, but it'll likely be a crappier replacement for what was in place before the Walmart locusts came to feed.
Once again, I'd say the true problem here is the Fed's ballooning of the money supply. Small scale cannot compete against near infinite money.
Or in other words, all of that "cheap stuff" isn't really cheap so much as it is merely borrowed value from the future, bankrupting it. A future which gets ever closer to the present.
As I told all of the die-hard Budweiser drinkers who didn't like the sale to Ambev, "Bankers stole your beer!"
Selling what exactly? Walwart destroyed domestic manufacturers by refusing to sell anything made in the US.
Once again, yet another consequence of a depreciating dollar. WM actually helped keep US manufacturing alive longer than it would've otherwise by making their domestic suppliers competitive with overseas suppliers.
Of course, this was not appreciated by employees at these suppliers (loss of benefits, etc...) but the fact is, labor costs WILL equalize around the globe, regardless of unions, et al.
And yes, governments of all stripes added to the problem in an effort to "protect" their industries, but I would claim that this too, is but a "necessary" political reaction addressing the imbalance caused by central banks.
Jefferson feared central banks for a damn good reason. They destroy economies while enriching the very worst people.
So then, this whole system of consumerism, banking, finance, government, corporations, industry, waste, ideology, etc is unsustainable and we're just watching the death throes? I can buy into that.
If your name is Greenspan/Bernanke/Yellen and you have a magic checkbook that never bounces, what can't you corrupt?
"If your name is Greenspan/Bernanke/Yellen"...you have a whole set of other terribly disturbing problems to deal with when TSHTF....
Thanks for adding the point that was eluding me as I wrote that.
Maybe we'll be back to handcrafted items? Not so bad, but labor intensive. But then, that might be where all of this is going anyway in the long run.
"Who’s paying for Wal-Mart’s addiction to paying its employees less than a living wage? You are."
chump change compared to what i'm payin the tbtf.
:)
true but it all adds up. the chump change argument is crap.
As is the living wage argument. It's polluted, wishful thinking that completely ignores the crux of the issue. It's the equivalent of putting a band-aid on someone having a heart attack.
A living wage implies stable purchasing power. Now, who exactly is responsible for the destruction of that?
Cheaper than gov't pensions.
Insanely:
no argument.
just facts.
"It appears that Walmart has admitted the potentially severe adverse impact a reduction in food stamp payments could have on its bottom line."
also just facts.
:)
Wal-Mart's days are numbered. With profit margins so thin they not only have to cater to the Free Stuff Army, they have to be one of its generals, how much longer can Wal-Mart last? And, when they JC Penny's themselves into a shambling retail zombie, what takes their place? Freakin' Bartertown?
Bartertown would be a huge improvement. There would be an actual exchange of value for value in such a system.
Who runs #BarterTown??
MasterBlaster run bartertown
Power back on
Pigsit man its all pigshit............
Eventually, I'm betting they'll be quasi-nationalized just like the airline industry. There's no way that a centralized distribution network of this scale will be allowed to fail.
Eventually, I'm betting they'll be quasi-nationalized just like the airline industry. There's no way that a centralized distribution network of this scale will be allowed to fail.
You make an interesting point there, it sort of goes along with my idea that if we ever have internal "resettlement" camps inside the US, the food will be Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut -- why not have our corporate friends help out in our time of need? Just imagine standing in line with your battered aluminum serving tray being watched over my the beneficent face of the Colonel. Bon apatite!
I'm assuming they'll be put in charge of ensuring lead-free products from China someday, or something like that.
You know, for the children.
I'm assuming they'll be put in charge of ensuring lead-free products from China someday, or something like that.
You know, for the children.
Yea, with UPS and FedEx for the shipping infrastructure, and Wal-Mart for localized distribution, every hungry kid gets a Homeland Happy Meal!
That is some funny material. You know how to shop at Wal-Mart, steal less than $50 dollars worth of crap and walk out. They will not pursue, lol. I wonder what it is like to shop at a Wal-Mart in Detroit. Heck, it would be fun as a white man to walk out of the Wal-Mart's in Detroit with $50 bucks worth of Chinese shit, and tell the old geezer asking for receits to fuck off. Wal-Mart is hell on Earth.
Do you really think Walmart is one of the cheapest places to shop?
Doesn't look that way to me...their profit margins are going to be in trouble if they aren't already. Most no frills superstore-type food stores are cheaper...
Do you really think Walmart is one of the cheapest places to shop?
Not at all, but the multitude that shop there on a regular basis do. Wal-Mart, however, is useful if you need a 5-quart jug of a specific brand of synthetic motor oil right the fsck now. Unfortunately, shopping there has turned into a lowest-common-denominator freak show. Wal-Mart of today reminds me of K-Mart circa 2000 or so.
It appears Wallyworld's afraid of the "F" word which doesn't make much sense; Wallyworld executives no doubt make the ghost of Benito proud.
Will JPM still get the same for handling the EBT?
Who in God's Creation ever claimed that EVERY FREAKING JOB must pay a "LIVING WAGE"?!?! WFT.
Part time, entry level jobs, like flipping chickens, stocking shelves, shoveling shit, should pay whatever it takes to get someone to do them. Period. If you can't live on it, then that's freaking motivation to get some skills and move up the job food chain.
I held down jobs left and right evenings after high school, not a one paid minimum wage. They really helped my situation. Of course, I never considered any of them a "career" possibility.
WTF Any Austrian Economists Out There? Anyone who understands how a freaking free market really works? Beuller?
Jobs don't create themselves. The biggest skill deficit is in job creation. They don't teach that skill-set in schrewl.
And how do jobs get created (well, used to be)? By capital accumulation in the form of savings.
Well, that and the private prison system.
Job Creation is much more difficult when you have 10,000 pages of rules. You have to be an accountant, lawyer, human resources specialist, on top of the skills to actually run your business, just so you don't violate untold numbers of rules, regulations, bylaws, etc.
Would be much easier if people could just use a generic template and contract other people out for work at a flat rate in dollars an hour or dollars per day. Waive all payroll taxes and insurance requirements for under 10 employees, probably get things going pretty good.
Free market, really, are you kidding me. Seriously, free markets, come on man.
Wallmart reminds me of the late 19th and early 20th century mining and logging industry, where the serfs got paid with company chits.
Wallmart just needs to issue it's own currency to pay employees with, so they continue to be forced to shop at the company store.
They already kind of do that. I believe an employee gets a %10 discount, so, if you are working there, you almost have to shop there at that point. You are trapped in the company store. All hail Christy and the Wal-Mart clan for all they have done for America.
Thank you for stating (or admitting) the obvious.
It doesn't take a genius to see who is footing the bill since half of the months sales occur in the first 4 days around EBT recharge time.
Why blame Walmart? I too would take advantage of anything so ridiculous. Blame the governments and their freebie social welfare systems...
Re: I too would take advantage of anything so ridiculous. Blame the governments and their freebie social welfare systems
Of course. But what came first: the jobs that can't pay a living wage or the social-welfare programs to support the working below average peasants?
Maybe if companies gave more loot to the below average peasants we wouldn't need social programs, but - or course - I wouldn't give the below average peasants anything either.
I think you'll find the social welfare state dates from the New Deal interventionist state and even predates that, to the Progressive era pre WW I.
Don't you think, too, that living standard have been naturally falling for decades - perhaps since Nixon closed the gold window in 1971 or the Great Society spending era?
The question is: why should we innocent taxpayers (and future generations, via inflation) be forced to subsidize anyone's earnings at all?
Think Whale-Mart may have had a lobbyist or two in shaping the snap/farm bill just like JPM?
I'm afraid the relationship is symbiotic.
coporate welfare, trickle down on my head.
funny how, 'what-goes-around-comes-around'?
Walmart sends all US manufacturing jobs to EM's and the big honcho China-- outsourcing labors jobs and now those laborer's can't afford even outsourced/ (insourced) priced De`inflation.
working for the companys'store is back, but will a hollowed wooden token or a bit-stamped-coin-property-of-? do???
All they ever saw was the next quarter.
They were not alone, and now comes the reckoning.
There is no gradual decline like the UK had.This will be sharp and sudden.
the new age of Marx's nightmare now coming true.
Two decades after the fall of Berlin wall and the end of Communisim heralded as "the end of history" we find that iconic nation of Capitalism triumphant-- under Reaganomics-- now sinking into the mire of the most dire crisis of capital known to man, precisely as Marx had predicted and for the EXACT reasons he had identified in Das Kapital :
A crisis of over production; a crisis ot wealth inequality; a crisis of NO buying power of the proletariat; a crisis of financial wealth accumulation with NOWHERE to invest their money. SURPLUS VALUE that is all electronically generated in a bubbleonomics environment that spreads its own cancer....
Well done Oligarchs you have paid the greatest posthumous tribute ever paid by a ruling class to its greatest critic; two and a half centuries after his demise.
PS : the irony of it all : The Economist that backed Thatcherism to the HILT now has a front page about "crony capitalism"....
hahaha! Some boomerangs hit hard ringing a bell that is long overdue!
Re: a bell that is long overdue
Be careful when the doorbell rings. It's might be a manly "Conservative" selling (aka creating bullshit about) more manly crony-capitalism to fix the problems caused by girly socialism. The Economist is "funny" that way.
about girly socialism : I suggest you contact Putin or the chinese....
State socialism is now acquiring a new kind of muscle to face the Oligarchy challenge in dire fiat-deflation jeopardy.
Action and reaction...given that the US led Oligarchs have shot themselves in the foot THREE times :
1° By losing their reserve hegemony thread thru financialisation blow out.
2° By losing the conventional asymmetric wars in MENA; its now roll back time as money has run out and nobody wants to die for the Sauds.
3° By having a divided political system at home which spells no resolution and dire crisis down the road, as budget deficits and consumer spending on credit is now irreversible or it means end of Reserve.
Looks like Columbus's ghost is saying : Fellas I'm heading East!
Is there a US Welfare Index ETF that one can invest in? The index should include WMT, MCD, JPM et al.
Everyone is on welfare now. It's just called something different depending on who you are.
For the poor, welfare is called food stamps/EBT.
For the rich, welfare is called QE/ZIRP.
For corporations, welfare is called subsidies/bailouts.
Well... there's manly Big-Gov which isn't socialism because it has cool manly toys: Big-Ag, Big-MIC, Big-Road, Big-Water, Big-Airport, Big-Energy, Big-House, Big-AntiDrug (pickup truck are cool too), & Big-PoliceState (so are computers).
And there's girly Big-Gov which IS socialism because it's not manly: Big-Ed, Big-Fin, Big-OldFart, NEA, and Amtrak.
Special note: REAL manly-men like Big-Airport, but NOT Big-Train. Something about trains turns REAL manly-men into girly-men, so they are against Big-Train.
Corporate welfare = slavery
For those that understand how the dynamics of trade between people, economics, comes about, they will understand that the central banksters' 'printing,' theft, morphs a non-zero-sum 'game' into one that is zero-sum. I.e. they wish to consume by living off of our labor and production creating a 'game' of theft and hiding from theft.
Walmart is a symptom.
"It's all a zero-sum game until guillotines show up."
As much as Gerald Celente can be annoying sometimes, I hope he is right about America eventually returning to quality and localism. Atleast at the old school general store or fresh bread shop there was some semblance of dignity, something decent to eat and a blender that would work longer than two months.
'Sticking the U.S. taxpayer with the bill for keeping its employees fed and clothed' does not follow from the quoted disclosure.
Changes in SNAP affect Walmart's grocery sales, just as changes in defense spending materially affect Raytheon.
Neither Walmart nor Krieger cited how many of WMT's employees get SNAP benefits. No evidence is offered that taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart's employees.
Poor showing for an author who usually doesn't stretch this desperately.
Shhhhhh, this is the dirty little secret of social welfare programs. Who benefits the most, large chain and franchise operations who are able to pay low wages which still allow their employees to quality for various benefits. The other big group sucking up the bucks......elderly white people on social security and medicare.
Hey all you folks who don't happen to care for these programs.......step one, talk your elderly relatives into going it alone and give up SS and Medicare............yeah, I didn't think so.
Just more class warfare from communists who hate Merica, and the troops.
Walmart can raise their prices and pay higher wages whenever they feel like it. However their cheap Chinese junk that breaks after a few uses isn't worth more and I won't be shopping there if they raise prices.
If you don't like what you are paid then get another job and start your own business. I knew Sam Walton. He started from nothing and drove a beater truck until the day he died. Fuck off.
Goodnight John Boy and family...You greedy twats
twat is a great, way underused word. it allows you to see exactly what the person is.
Wal-Mart manager speaks out about his store’s ugly reality.
http://www.salon.com/2014/03/25/exclusive_wal_mart_manager_speaks_out_about_what_we%e2%80%99re_going_through/
This is just an effect of a debt based monetary system with fiat currency, nothing to see here, move along ... serfs.
'The Economist' has a lot of nerve bitching about crony capitalism when they are partially owned by the Rothschids and Financial Times.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist
It's like a bad record that keeps playing over and over again with someone desperately wanting us to think it's a new song.
Wal Mart and McDonald's are the poster children of American Capitalism.
This is what you wanted. Land of the free, home of the brave, and it has NOTHING TO DO with fiat currency or anything else. It has to do with the capitalist mentality that capital is more important than human beings.
This is why the U.S. has the worst income inequality in the developed world. This is why 90% of the financial wealth in America is held by the top 5%. This is why every CEO in America wants to open the floodgates and allow millions more poor people into the country -- because poor people are glad to be slaves, they'll kiss your hand and thank you, they'll suck your cock before they gratefully work their fifteen-hour shift in the mines.
We should be asking serious questions about an economic system that requires a constant influx of poor people in order to function properly. What this article documents is that we need more poor people not only as workers, but as consumers.
I call bullshit on this one.
Nobody obliges you, yet, in Merika to continue to vote for more of the same.
To be lazy, stupid, to go voting with minimal knowledge of what candidates really stand for, voting as if it a football game, falling on MSM propaganda.
It is not the problem with 1% but with 99%.
i find it hard to believe that wal mart and the other minimum wage employers are so out of touch with money flow and their own personal accountants measure of the % of business derived from welfare programs that they did not remind congress that welfare needed to be raised not lowered. in fact, welfare would still be a great vehicle for the bernank's helicopter drop of cash to stimulate the economy. i can only think walmart did not want anyone to know how many billions in indirect subsidies the tax payer donates to their bottom line.
So just make EBT cards only good at WM. Then mom and pop can be shut down for good. They cant compete with a company with no proffit margine. Wallmart is TBTF so they should open a leanding arm like GMAC.
Can I have my peace prize in economics now.
I hate the term living wage. Fuck it, let's have a deflationary environment and have prices fall and people will buy more shit. Stop punishing the savers; instead, .gov and the Fed continue to hit ctrl-p and causing the prices of everything to rise. Prices and wages in terms of dollars are completely arbitrary. Prices and wages should be a reflection of how many goods and serices can be bought and not the actually value in USD. People are less likely to shop at a store that have a sign that says, "Everything at a 50% mark up." I think more people are willing to buy at a store that says, "50% off all items." It's all bullshit.
Walmart is the PX for the Obama Free Sh*t Army.
no food stamps walmart is bankrupt which is not going to happen
More Leftist Walmart hate. Never mind that every other store in the nation accepts food stamps. Must. Hate. Walmart.
Never mind that food stamps = inflation (the real definition, which most of you don't know). Inflation is the increase in the money supply. Since food stamps spend like money, it's an increase in the money supply. All else being equal, this causes prices to go up.
Every single grocery store, whether mom and pop, chain, dollar, mart, or otherwise, is taking advantage of this.
IT HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT WAL-MART PAYS ITS EMPLOYEES.
The author just threw that in for fun at the end, and you idiots lap it up.
It is increasingly painful to see the morons taking over the comment section of ZH. It used to have such intelligent people who knew how to discuss facts and economics. Now it's an emotional leftist bitch fest.
And yes, there is a huge difference between the left and the right. It's such a lazy cop-out to say otherwise. You guys think you're so smart, and you don't know half of what you think you know.
^^THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DRUDGE LINKS TO ZH
It's not conservatives that have infiltrated ZH.
You're projecting.
So clue us in with your take. Expline it for us simpletons.
Sure, I'm happy to explain my take on this. The Left hates Walmart because Walmart doesn't allow unions, it began in the South, and it has a conservative-leaning group of shareholders.
For example, the article states that Walmart gets half its profits from its grocery sales. Well, what about the thousands of grocery stores around the nation that get 100% of their profits from grocery sales? What about Costco? What about Target? Those are Leftist organizations that the media leaves alone.
The truth is that all grocery outlets are taking advantage of food stamps. It is not Walmart's fault. The author conflated two different topics. He started out by talking about food stamps being part of Walmart's bottom line (true enough, but like I said above, ALL grocery outlets are doing this). Then he started talking about what Walmart pays its employees. COMPLETELY different topic.
Oh your a discription of inflation is rather simplitic. Kind of missleading too.
VWAndy,
My description of inflation is the ONLY true definition of inflation. It is a simple concept, but it is not always easy to understand. It is absolutely not misleading. Everything else you read about inflation is misleading.
Inflation = an increase in the money supply. That is the definition. Period.
We call that M.
Other factors are:
Demand = D
Supply = S
And, of course, the outcome....Price = P
So if M goes up (with real wages, credit, or food stamps, it doesn't matter), and S stays the same, then D will go up, and then P will go up.
The media tells you that every price increase = inflation. Not true. Some price increases are due to supply shortages or demand increases that have nothing to do with the money supply. The media has no idea what they are talking about 99% of the time.
This is very basic economics.
My view differs.
Inflation of the amount of money in total is debasing the currancy aka counterfitting. Inflation of the price we pay for goods and services is effected by many factors. Mostly market factors like over regulation and other price controls such as Ocare, osha,epa,energy taxes and on and on. So for us regular folks when you say inflation I atomaticaly think in terms of higher prices. Now if you had refered to monatary inflation I would not have been misslead. These are two very different things. Supply and demand fluctuates up and down due to several factors. Like seasonal crops havests. Wheras inflation due to the other factors like fuel taxes is permanant.
In the future I would be greatful if the trem inflation was not used in what I concider a false fashion. The only definition of inflation statment is missleading without the context. Price inflation and monatary inflation are not the same thing even thou the term inflation can be used in a blanket fashion. Just like the media does. So sure debasing the value of a dollars effect the price we all pay. But it is only one of many factors causing prices to increase permenantly. The use of that word inflation as a catchall then claim a very narrow view definition of it?
Context matters.
Your concepts are correct, so I don't want to argue with you. However, when you say price inflation what you really mean is price increase. The media has corrupted the use and definition of the word "inflation" to have different meanings and contexts. But it only has one definition, one meaning, and one context. Inflation = increase in the money supply. That's it.
Sometimes, price increase is DUE to inflation, but that's not always true. Therefore, price increase does NOT = inflation.
I can tell by your post that you inherently understand this. You just need to use the correct terms. I understand how hard it is....nobody else uses the correct terms, so why should you believe me?
For clarity I will stick with debasement and or counterfitting and or QE.
Just to be clear.