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Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'

Perhaps you guys saw the television report the other night in which jobs are coming back to the United States. Why? Because as China's wages are rising (those greedy Chinese workers!!!!) their low productivity coupled together are making it cheaper to do business here in the US. According to the report the average Chinese worker is only 1/3 as productive as their American counterpart.

And as to the assertion that people can change their circumstances, just read the article on CNN money or any other financial magazine, the "American Dream," is dead for most people. Credit is near existent for the poor, GOP wants to slash student loans, and the economic upward mobility in this country is below that of Great Britain at this point. Not to mention most of the new jobs being created are service sector jobs not professional, or have you all been blind to the numerous reports of college grads who cannot find a job?
 
tlmorg02 said:
Perhaps you guys saw the television report the other night in which jobs are coming back to the United States. Why? Because as China's wages are rising (those greedy Chinese workers!!!!) their low productivity coupled together are making it cheaper to do business here in the US. According to the report the average Chinese worker is only 1/3 as productive as their American counterpart.

And as to the assertion that people can change their circumstances, just read the article on CNN money or any other financial magazine, the "American Dream," is dead for most people. Credit is near existent for the poor, GOP wants to slash student loans, and the economic upward mobility in this country is below that of Great Britain at this point. Not to mention most of the new jobs being created are service sector jobs not professional, or have you all been blind to the numerous reports of college grads who cannot find a job?
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LOL, and you actually believe that?

And by the way, graduating from college has become so ridiculously easy with the liberal grading standards of today that it's no more valuable than a high school dipoloma from 1980. Most college grads couldn't pinpoint the start of the Civil War within 10 years or find Wyoming on a map.
 
Erod said:
LOL, and you actually believe that?

And by the way, graduating from college has become so ridiculously easy with the liberal grading standards of today that it's no more valuable than a high school dipoloma from 1980. Most college grads couldn't pinpoint the start of the Civil War within 10 years or find Wyoming on a map.
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I am 65, and fairly well off.
my daughter is 38 and doing far better than me. She owns half a small internet business that generates almost $250K in taxable income per year. She and her partner can do it from their homes. It is an affiliate marketing business.
My career was technical, and paid well. Hers is a service oriented business.
I was Navy trained and above average in smarts, she has a degree in economics and more smarts than me.

MY knowledge base would never have gotten me to where she is.
She told me once, after I said something inane to her, that I am a wealth of useless knowledge. It is true. Useful knowlegde has to be relevant to the era, and a lot of what we use to think is important, just plain isn't anymore....
 
Erod said:
LOL, and you actually believe that?

And by the way, graduating from college has become so ridiculously easy with the liberal grading standards of today that it's no more valuable than a high school dipoloma from 1980. Most college grads couldn't pinpoint the start of the Civil War within 10 years or find Wyoming on a map.
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So now college is worthless? What should the nations youth do then?
 
today:

New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, but a rise in the four-week moving average to a six-month high indicated the labor market recovery will remain painfully slow.

The four-week moving average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, rose 1,250 to 439,000 - the highest level since mid-November.

Despite the fall, claims held above the 400,000 mark for a sixth straight week, indicating payroll growth will only be gradual. The four-week average has now been above that level, which is normally associated with stable job growth, for four weeks in a row.
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News Headlines

seeya at the polls, pals
 
today:

Sales of existing U.S. homes unexpectedly declined, manufacturing in the Philadelphia region slowed and consumer confidence dropped, pointing to an economy that is struggling to regain momentum following the surge in energy costs.

Purchases of existing homes decreased 0.8 percent to a 5.05 million annual pace in April, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index fell in May to the weakest reading in seven months, and the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index slumped to a nine-month low, other reports showed.

Gasoline prices hovering close to $4 a gallon and rising grocery bills may discourage American households from taking on big purchases like houses just as manufacturing cools after leading the economy out of the recession.
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Home Sales in U.S. Drop, Manufacturing Stalls in Sign Recovery Is Flagging - Bloomberg
 
j-mac said:
We have that already, its called minimum wage law, and these people in those thankless jobs as you put it, are they locked there? can they not do things to change their circumstances?

Oh, you also said determined by state, by whom?


j-mac
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The problem with min wage is it is not a living wage in a lot of places. In case you have not noticed the job market is crap right now. The best thing would be pay a living wage and you would get more loyal workers.
 
Kali said:
The problem with min wage is it is not a living wage in a lot of places. In case you have not noticed the job market is crap right now. The best thing would be pay a living wage and you would get more loyal workers.
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I agree that minimum wage is not a living wage, but that's only a small fragment of the problems...

As for loyal workers... there aren't many companies that are WORTHY of giving any loyalty to any longer. Most every company now treats it's employees as a number.

A bigger problem in the job market is that we are keeping these "too big to fail" institutions from collapsing under the weight of their own corruption. Now, let's say those MAJOR manufacturers and banks all folded... well, now there's a vacuum for local ingenuity to force the creation of new fresh businesses that will replace those dinosaurs that should have already been extinct for some time.

That would START to scratch the surface of the economic troubles the country... and much of the world, is facing.
 
usa today:

Nearly two years after the economic recovery officially began, job creation continues to stagger at the slowest post-recession rate since the Great Depression.

The nation has 5% fewer jobs today — a loss of 7 million — than it did when the recession began in December 2007. That is by far the worst performance of job generation following any of the dozen recessions since the 1930s.

In the past, the economy recovered lost jobs 13 months on average after a recession. If this were a typical recovery, nearly 10 million more people would be working today than when the recession officially ended in June 2009.
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Job creation limps along after recession - USATODAY.com
 
Kali said:
The problem with min wage is it is not a living wage in a lot of places. In case you have not noticed the job market is crap right now. The best thing would be pay a living wage and you would get more loyal workers.
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That is up to the person being hired to determine. But you ignored my questions. Who determines what is a living wage? You?

j-mac
 
j-mac said:
That is up to the person being hired to determine. But you ignored my questions. Who determines what is a living wage? You?

j-mac
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The people of each state or county/city. Let the peeps vote on it and majority wins. And of course I am talking a living wage that is within reason. How does that sound? Who do you think should pick? I admit that is the one part I am not sure about:)
 
wapo today:

Senate Democrats have adopted a minimalist agenda. They have blocked bills from the GOP-led House but proposed few broad ideas of their own — hoping to keep vulnerable incumbents from having to make controversial decisions before the 2012 elections.

Now, they are trying to do next to nothing and still have it look good.

House Republicans have reacted to that situation by passing a flurry of bills, trying to repeal the health-care law and expand offshore drilling. They have then blamed Democrats for letting the measures fizzle in the Senate: House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has made a habit of bashing “the Democrats who control Washington.”

The Senate’s votes this week on energy proposals were only the second and third to deal with legislation in the previous month.

Down to 53 votes on their side of the aisle, from a high-water mark of the filibuster-proof 60 in 2009, Democrats know that their majority status is very much in jeopardy. Next year, 23 of their seats will be up for grabs, including those from conservative-leaning states such as Montana and Nebraska [and north dakota and missouri and virginia and florida and ohio and pennsylvania and wisconsin and michigan...].

Democrats have decided to try to shield those lawmakers from the usual weeks-long debates and instead await for compromises to be reached behind closed doors. Reid’s approach is a bet that doing nothing looks better for them, so long as their arguments resonate with voters in 2012.
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With narrow majority, Senate Democrats adopt minimalist agenda - The Washington Post

leadership, anyone?
 
Kali said:
The people of each state or county/city. Let the peeps vote on it and majority wins.
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So then we would do away with our current form of governance? What you are talking about is a direct democracy, and would fail. Remember what Ben Franklin spoke of in terms of the people voting themselves money. Not to mention how many businesses that would put out of business all together.

The beauty of this country is that if you work hard, and have the drive you can change your current circumstance. Your premise seems to be predicated to the lot in life never changing.

How does that sound? Who do you think should pick?
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I think it sounds like chaos, and the end of a free market. Who do I think should set the wage? That would be the business employing you. If you don't like the terms find a different job.

I admit that is the one part I am not sure about
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So you type about a living wage what ever that is, knowing not how to achieve it? Great.


j-mac
 
I gave you my idea and was open to yours. I am fond of allowing the people to vote on issues and sorry you are not:)
 
"living wage"? why would you abuse poor people like that?
 
cpwill said:
"living wage"? why would you abuse poor people like that?
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So it would be worse than min wage or are you being sarcastic:confused:
 
Kali said:
I gave you my idea and was open to yours. I am fond of allowing the people to vote on issues and sorry you are not:)
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No ma'am you didn't. You gave me a talking point sound byte, cooked up by Union hacks, and poverty pimps without the slightest clue of how that would work. then to make matters worse you don't want to name a price, just leave it up to pure one man one vote circumstance. Jesus, we can't agree in this country on what energy should cost, what makes you think that open vote on wage would be any less like herding cats?

j-mac
 
I can't imagine why these people are running out of money...

2741.jpg
 
today, gao:

Thousands of companies that cashed in on President Barack Obama's economic stimulus package owed the government millions in unpaid taxes, congressional investigators have found.

The Government Accountability Office, in a report being released Tuesday, said at least 3,700 government contractors and nonprofit organizations that received more than $24 billion from the stimulus effort owed $757 million in back taxes as of Sept. 30, 2009, the end of the budget year.

The report said the tax delinquents accounted for nearly 6 percent of the 63,000 contractors and grantees examined, and it cautioned that the real number might be higher because the known tax debt does not measure such factors as income underreporting.
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The Associated Press: Tax cheats among recipients of stimulus money
 
j-mac said:
No ma'am you didn't. You gave me a talking point sound byte, cooked up by Union hacks, and poverty pimps without the slightest clue of how that would work. then to make matters worse you don't want to name a price, just leave it up to pure one man one vote circumstance. Jesus, we can't agree in this country on what energy should cost, what makes you think that open vote on wage would be any less like herding cats?

j-mac
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I did not say one man. Did you even read what I said? I said that the majority in each state should be able to vote on it:(
 
Kali said:
I did not say one man. Did you even read what I said? I said that the majority in each state should be able to vote on it:(
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actually, Kali, people do vote, with their feet....if they don't like the wages they are getting, they should be working on educating themselves for a better job. Low skill jobs will always pay low wages as long as there are more workers than jobs. Exceptions, dangerous low skill jobs, where people would rather be unemployed than do something like mine coal.

People can be stubborn, very stubborn. Even when they are offered a trade school to improve their chances at getting a living wage, some will refuse school and go to work just anywhere. But at least they work.....I have one sibling who was trained to be a welder by the Navy, but once he got out of the Navy, he just went home and llived with mommy rather than move to where the jobs are.

All this is colored a bit by the current recession, jobs are just not plentiful at the moment. Smart people take temporary joblessness as an opportunity to go back to school and beef up thier skills, or train for a new skill, again, to enhance their employability.

We don't get to set the wages for most jobs, but we can improve our odds at getting the better jobs.
 
Kali said:
I gave you my idea and was open to yours. I am fond of allowing the people to vote on issues and sorry you are not:)
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I'm not sorry at all that he's not for allowing people to vote on issues, and that he believes in a republican form of government.
 
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