Joined: Dec 22 2001 Posts: 17134 Location: Johannesberg, South Africa
El Barbudo wrote:Which means what? It doesn't tell us how good an employer they are, whether they are good for the economy or anything other than the fact that Wal- Mart are enormous.
It probably tells us more about the NHS than anything else.
Richie wrote:Would you rather deny the public the choice?
Steady there fella, part of the Wal- Mart methodology is to remove choice ... I.e. undercut until the smaller opposition goes under and then revert to pricing as Wal- Mart sees fit. This has been observed across the US.
Stagecoach did much the same in the UK to expand into new local bus service areas.
Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice. Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.
Joined: Dec 22 2001 Posts: 17134 Location: Johannesberg, South Africa
El Barbudo wrote:Steady there fella, part of the Wal- Mart methodology is to remove choice ... I.e. undercut until the smaller opposition goes under and then revert to pricing as Wal- Mart sees fit. This has been observed across the US.
Stagecoach did much the same in the UK to expand into new local bus service areas.
Consumers can always choose not to shop there.
By the way, I have only been to the US three times (NYC twice, and a trip around Texas) and saw plenty of alternatives to Wal-Mart there.
Joined: Dec 22 2001 Posts: 17134 Location: Johannesberg, South Africa
El Barbudo wrote:You''ve lost me there.
All the businesses, armies, health care providers, and various forms of employer, across the whole world......You don't think it stands out that the British NHS, when counting all those, is the third largest employer?
Joined: Mar 08 2002 Posts: 26578 Location: On the set of NEDS...
Richie wrote:All the businesses, armies, health care providers, and various forms of employer, across the whole world......You don't think it stands out that the British NHS, when counting all those, is the third largest employer?
Either being a big employer is a good thing or a bad thing, you don't get it both ways
Joined: May 10 2002 Posts: 47951 Location: Die Metropole
Big Graeme wrote:And if Wal-Mart wasn't around there would still be stores selling the same goods to the same people.
Wal-Mart and stores like them syphon money out of local areas where local businesses they have put out of business put money into the local area.
Absolutely.
Fishman was astonished to find that, where Wal-Mart opened a store, then jobs were hit and, within five years, poverty levels in that area had increased.
He also talks of the impact on quality – particularly citing a major brand of jeans (can't remember off the top of my head) where quality had been cut in order to reduce the price, as demanded by Wal-Mart.
Just to say (not directed at BG), Fishman is not anti-Wal-Mart or anti-capitalist. He clearly started the project with a massive admiration for the compnay and found himself increasingly disquieted by what he discovered. And would still love to be able to see it as part of the 'American Dream'.
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Richie wrote:All the businesses, armies, health care providers, and various forms of employer, across the whole world......You don't think it stands out that the British NHS, when counting all those, is the third largest employer?
No, that fact , on its own, is not informative. For it to be informative I would need to know how many people it treats, and how successfully, compared against other developed nations.
Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice. Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.
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