yes. private mercenaries do. no pesky geneva conventions for them

There you go a better example.

And for those that say fuck'em get a better job well the next person will step right in and again my/your tax dollars will pick up the difference.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business...ng-conditions/

Or since you are a good candidate for this: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=walmart+employe...lic+assistance

And my might-as-well-be-brother-in-law is being deployed to Afghanistan next year.

The world isn't limited to those you know.

Also, pull up to any base and see who is standing at the gate. Hint: It's NOT a contractor.

But this is the American dream at work right here.

When I got out of the Marines I was making $4/hour flipping burgers. I rented an apartment with two room mates and had a used car and still couldn't make ends meet. At one point I was working four jobs - I started work at 5am for a newspaper route, from 7am till 4pm at a restaurant, 5pm till 9pm at a fast food restaurant, and then working nights at Target on a push crew. This is what I had to do to make ends meet then.

If you want to work an entry level job at Wal Mart for the next twenty years, then it will suck to be you. But most of us want to do better in life and live the American Dream where they work harder and are well rewarded. They look for jobs elsewhere and new opportunities, their income rises, and eventually they make enough money to make ends meet and have some extra left over.

Fuck, I cleaned bathrooms for minimum wage at one company. It's crappy jobs that make you strive to do better in life.

Walmart is so ghetto.

Not talking about the bases here in the U.S.

I'm talking about all our military bases overseas. I always though our troops had shifts standing guard. Nope. It's outsourced companies protecting our troops!!!

When my brother told me that, I was shocked. He also told me that they don't even cook their own food anymore. :(

Rochard, I'm not talking about someone else's life or dream. I'm talking about why my tax dollars, and yours, should help underwrite the lives of those being employed by the nations largest employer.

.

Do you have a link that shows that people working at a company like Walmart are getting some kind of welfare? As I said earlier, I know a few people who work there. None of them get "public assistance".

The only base I used to go to semi-regularly was Ft. Meade, which of course houses the NSA (it's main building 50 feet from the highway... which I could never figure out... the base itself is HUGE but mostly empty) and there are nothing but MP's with assault rifles manning the gates.

I was fucking a guy assigned and living on the base pre-9/11 and there was a single guard at the gate when I'd visit him. Now it's a dozen. Trigger fingers ready. The message is clear: you're not wanted there. God forbid you end up there by mistake like I did one time when GPS threw me off and they refuse to believe that GPS lies (how many people a day must end up there with the same GPS software) and guns were trained on me the whole time I had to pull in the gate to turn around in case I tried to gun it further in.

So I just googled and that apparently is not the norm now.

This was particularly disturbing:

Afghans Linked to the Taliban Guard U.S. Bases - NYTimes.com

Robbie, check a few post down from your earlier request. Since it's your birthday I hopped right on your first request. lol.

That's what my brother was telling me. It's the same at all of our military bases.

I kinda wonder what the heck are soldiers are doing over there if they don't even guard THEMSELVES or cook their own food.

I grew up watching old war movies. I thought we had our own cooks and guards, etc.

Guess I was wrong.

http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/ccpd/repo...es/walmart.pdf
Here the average Wal Mart store uses over $400,000 per year in public social services.

That's only a couple billion a year. No big deal since we are swimming in budget surpluses.

I don't think our tax dollars are underwriting the lives of anyone else. Just because you make minimum wage and or live below the poverty level, does not automatically mean you are collecting benefits from the government. I worked for minimum wage and slummed it with room mates, eating top ramon, and driving a POS car - but I never got welfare or food stamps. All of my friends from 21-26 or so were the same - minimum wage, renting rooms or sharing apartments, and doing their best to get by... But none of us ever collected food stamps.

I would imagine the bigger problem is not the crappy wages, but instead the fact that Wal Mart doesn't hire people full time is the larger issue. I am also wondering about the demographics of their employees - I would be guessing most of them are either in their twentys and not qualified for a better job, work part time, or are retired.

Again, this is the American Dream in action. If you want to work less than part time for minimum wage then Wallyworld is for you. If you want to better yourself work harder and go to college.

Yeah, that's not biased at all.

Here in my community Wal Mart replaced a business that had failed. It didn't take jobs, it created them. If the store uses $400k a year in public social services, but pays tens of millions in taxes I am okay with that. We don't have a full Wal Mart here, only a "neighborhood grocery store", but the city estimates it will pay $3mil in city taxes alone in it's first year. I would guess that was more than the old store it replaced made in a year.

What we need to do is close loopholes. How about a new law saying if you have ten or more employees - even part time - you must pay healtcare for them. Hawaii has a similar law. Then close the other loopholes that Wal Mart is using.

Again, I don't mean to be defending Wal Mart. Their business practices are horrible. I avoid Wal Mart at all costs. But it's companies like Wal Mart that strive to make people better.

Facts arent biased You fund Walmart thru your tax dollars. They move in, they a get big tax break guess who pays for that? you. Those people who work for them make no money, have no insurance get sick and go to the hospital who pays for it? You They dont make enough for housing who pays for it again? you. Meanwhile Walmart makes 16 billion and you defend them for fucking you. lol They pay their people shit ,the plant is closed you got a family to feed or you're a single mom or not college smart. So you work at walmart, they dont give you full time. Once someone is in that hole they rarely get out because the hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

SubStandard???? It is more than Min Wage in my state. Lots of people willing to stand around, run a register, and stock shelfs slowly for that wage.....

Being melodramatic? Try living on $9 on hr and no insurance because someone around our age working at walmart are basically fucked if thats all they can get. Alot of those people would of been the people working at the plant making a decent living. And thats gone.

How does a walmart pay 10's of millions in taxes? I hope you aren't using sales tax for that figure. If so that means you think the food or merchandise wouldn't have been sold at all if walmart didn't show up? No one would have bought food or clothes or toys if a walmart wasn't there. I really doubt that.

The only actual net increase in your communities taxes would be a small amount of property taxes if any. The sales taxes are just collected by taking existing sales from other merchants.

.

So what if they Qualify. It is NOT walmarts job to make sure the single mom finds the dad. The single mom didn't get an education before she got knocked up.

Like to add GREAT... Now the Federal Subsidy program is only paying SOME of what it would if she didn't have a job at all!

Like to add GREAT... Now the Federal Subsidy program is only paying SOME of what it would if she didn't have a job at all!

Like to add GREAT... Now the Federal Subsidy program is only paying SOME of what it would if she didn't have a job at all!

And you are ok subsidizing their payroll with your tax dollars?

This is one thing I hate, the Big companies getting a Huge tax break to move in. Even move in and steal peoples land and houses....

YEP, better than Paying FULL benifits if they didn't have a job.

It isn't like they said Oh I don't want the $25 dollar an hour job, I am going to choose Walmart.

I don't know. They were hiring those people at the same time they had stopgap going full force. I know they still fix their own shit as my brother-in-law is a diesel mechanic

Correct! They do pay SS tax on the employees, but so would the mom and pop shops...

What are you a greedy walmart stock holder? The point is Americas largest employer, Americas largest retailer and one of the most profitable companies in the world purposely under pays their employees knowing taxpayers will pick up the rest. And that's ok with you ? Why?

Here's a good study you might want to read:
http://laborcenter.berkeley.edu/reta...ard_push07.pdf

.

LOL,
Just because they Make a huge profit you expect them to pay more than the other stores??

Should they YES, but make them NO.
Then all other stores including mom and pop stores should be paying higher wages also.

Want to know why they are the largest employer??? They can double a persons wages sure, then lay off half the work force... Want that??? Then your tax dollars are going to fund 100% of welfare for the fired person.

So, would you want to limit a % of what companies can make? You do know they get profit sharing also??

That's what I'm thinking. Either young or older married folks.

One of my sons has worked at walmart for over a year while he is going to school. Most hours he gets is 32 and even with the 95% profit share / bonuses he gets quarterly, he still qualifies for aid and is considered near poverty level. They cut almost everyone's hours last month to 24 a week so they would have enough in the budget budget to pay overtime this month. Now he is working crazy hours that will continue until new years. fuck walmart

Ok check this.

Walmart pays MORE than Min wage.
They have Quartly Profit Sharing. This depends on your store but the one that a friend works at she makes $1,200 - $2,200 a year Extra
You get a 10% discount on Items
They match your 401K
Health Benifits 80% covered
after 20 years you get 20% discount for Life.
Most employees are not working to hard...

Seems fairly good to me since they already start at more than Min wage!

So a company cuts hours, because there isn't enough work, then works them overtime when there is, and you have a problem with this? The Company should just pay set hours even if there isn't enough work?? But now the employee is making 1.5 X for the extra hours worked... Man I tell you...

Get USE to this cutting of hours. Kroger is Hiring like crazy and cutting peoples hours so they do not have to pay health care... Thanks Obama!

They match your 401K, How much match 100%?
After 20 years you get 20% discount for Life. Dam, 20% off a Walmart price is dam low!

2 competing problems... Competitive advantage and globalization.

Basically, globalization drives down the price people are willing to pay for manufactured goods - shipping those low paying, non-technical jobs overseas where wages are lower. Forcing workers currntly employed in those jobs elsewhere.
If a country had a strong competitive advantage in certain sectors/economies, (eg: China/India has labour, Canada has natural resources, America *used* to have science and technology), then jobs should flow into those economies producing more goods and services in which it has a natural advantage in, allowing trade for the cheaper goods.

This ideally generates jobs in higher paying sectors, driving up average pay elsewhere.

The problem stems from losing your competitive advantage.... You can't just 'raise wages' without people having to pay more... And if you suddenly have to pay more for your goods, you'll find other ways to buy them... (EG: with globalization increasing, you'll order your new clothes straight from china, rather than off the shelf in walmart, you'll get your gadgets from dealextreme rather than bestbuy/circuitcity..)

it's a downward spiral to just try and 'raise wages', you need to fix the economy by focusing on areas in which your country/county/state has a natural competitive advantage in.

lets see you make shit to begin with and now they cut your hours. So what do you do that month? take a few payday loans now you are in the hole that gets deeper and deeper. Yep thats a good plan.

Actually to raise everyone up at walmart to 12 an hr costs a customer 30 cents. Maybe you can still stay competitive but you only make 10 billion instead of 16. Is that so bad? So a ceo makes 50 million a year instead of 100 million. Costco pays a good wage and wallstreet fought the ceo on it and he told them fuck you. Its all about greed I got mine fuck you.

Is it safe to say that average wallmart employee is not very bright when it comes to matters of how business and economy works?

Really how is that? When the costco employee can be paid a living wage.

LOL at people wanting it both ways. You are fine with companies not paying a living wage but are then appalled when people not making a living wage need supplemental government assistance.

There is a huge different between minimum wage and a living wage. In some areas a living wage is more than twice the minimum wage.

The same could be said for a forklift operator or laborer making $16/hr.

Edit: whoops that was supposed to be a reply to mineistaken.

Walmart is reporting biggest black thursday/friday ever...

Well there's your answer... If people are willing to pay 30 cents more, then they'll start shopping at Border's, linens 'n' things, circuit city, etc....
Better service, higher class of people, less lineups...

borders was cheaper than barnes and noble but had awful management. There is more to running a company than fucking employees.

It is 100%, but up to what amount the person did not know...

Yes, after 20 years of "service" to walmart you are what they call vested, and get 20% the rest of your life. I believe that is even off Sale and clearance things..

Should Walmart be starting at $10-$12 yes, I believe a company of this magnitude should be able to...

Well, Kinda like sales on the adult sites.. Should manwin cover my Low months???? HAHA

At which point the Waltons transfer it to Chinese banks where they also conveniently run slave mills.

You must not know how supply and demand works.

Walmart employes like 4 million people. Twice as much as the second largest employer in the country.