First off. Anyone who tries to compete against Walmart head to head is an idiot.
Walmart is the largest grocer in town, but I still shop two smaller local stores because 1.) They carry things Walmart does not. 2.) I like their meat selections and quality better!
I do not buy everything at Walmart simply because they do not carry everything and I can beat them at other stores on items. They are not a be all to end all.
Also note. Check out how much cash, I.E. Grants the local stores hand out each year!!! You will be surprised. They hand out a lot of cash to different causes and activities and they tend not to discriminate about it either! In our community we can always trust Walmart to allow us to solicit in front of their store. Can't be said about all.
When I lived in Wisconsin, there was a local medical outfit owned and run by the doctors (Minimum pay for the Doctors was over $200,00 per year 7 years ago.) This was a lot larger in income than the Walmart store. They were tax exempt due to state law. They started buying Doctors clinics throughout the northern part of the state and when they bought them, they immediately became tax exempt! Each community w0ould have a meeting with the local clinic and arrange a payment to take the place of taxes due on the property (Wisconsins Property Taxes are quite heavty.) One year the city did not like the amount that was proposed by the local clinic (The main one which generated 8 figures of income a year.) So when it came time for some roads to be redone around the clinic the city declared it had no money and those improvements would have to be put on the back burner. The clinic reopened their talks and a newer higher amount was made to the city in lieu of property taxes.
By the way not very Walmart in every location is not paying taxes. In many locations they pay their fair share of property taxes. Only in cases where they negotiated to locate a Walmart and get an abatement of Taxes are they exempt and many of those are for a limited time only. After so many years they must pay taxes and pay them based on their current value not the original value.
Stewart At 11:27 AM 9/24/2007, you wrote:
It's not just health care. As I see it, the underlying question is: do we, as citizens, want a system in which the highest ethical value is making more money, down to the last penny, no matter what else is lost in the process? Especially when some of the players who are doing the "down to the last penny" strategy already have vast resources and don't have to act like turn-of-the-century coal barons in order to survive and prosper. Quite apart from aesthetics (like, would you rather have a downtown in your small town or deserted storefronts and a Wal-Mart on the edge of town), there are real drawbacks for everyone in the "down to the last penny" strategy. For example, if you're a big-box store that doesn't pay its employees enough for medical care, doesn't include any medical insurance in the pay package, and doesn't allow employees to stay home when they are sick (all common practices), you're a major incubator site if someone walks into the store with pandemic flu, active drug-resistant TB, or bird flu (mutated for human-to-human transmission). In such a case, do you really think that the flu or the TB will stop at the end of the Wal-Mart parking lot? Especially if the local public health infrastructure is starved for funds because Wal-Mart and other major property owners have not been paying taxes. I might add in passing that, in most of human history, the ownership of large amounts of property--especially real estate--usually goes with large obligations. If Wal-Mart were in classical Greece, for example, they would be expected to pay for producing Euripides' latest play at the festival of Dionysus and buy a ship for the navy. This wasn't written law, but the penalties in loss of community prestige and influence--if they didn't pony up--were extreme. And the owners would be legally required to furnish horses, armor, and swords, and to be in the front lines if their city-state was at war with anybody. I wonder what would happen if Wal-Mart's major shareholders and corporate officers had to perform the equivalent functions today. They might have to underwrite part of Sundance film festival; build ships for the U.S. Navy; and personally go to Iraq as tank commanders in tanks they bought themselves (since, of course, a mounted, armored knight was the ancient and medieval equivalent of a tank). I'll bet if you gave the major shareholders of WalMart (and similar companies) the choice between going to Iraq and driving a tank and building (for example) nuclear submarines, in the classical Greek pattern--and paying taxes, slightly higher wages, and minimal medical insurance--they would unhesitatingly choose the latter. --Constance Warner ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
Rev. Stewart A. Marshall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Prince of Peace Ozark, AL SL 82 ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
