Unionize Walmart

Walmart is a complete dump which is never getting a dime of my money.

I don't even know what this means. What is the opportunity for advancement in this hypothetical 4 employee mom and pop department store

You are looking at only a very narrow aspect of the good and wealth that Walmart creates. It doesn't only benefit s very small percentage it benefits a massive percentage. They are called consumers.

But when you start making arguments relying on your personal definition of some nebulous idea of the "good of society" you should be wary that you are wandering into dangerous territory.

Inheritance

Do the math. In a world with a higher percentage of lowest rung workers, there will necessarily be a higher percentage of lowest rung workers.

Dangerous territory like public schools, public hospitals, social security, child labor laws, worker safety laws, public health laws, environmental protection. ...

Social engineering is sooooooo dangerous in America.

I understand consumers benefit. Capitalism isn't perfect though and will ruin the commons if it's unrestrained and that's the path we're on, not just in the classic environmental sense, but for a large section of the population.

I don't get the anger at Walmart as in it's a special evil or something. It's just an outcome of the political economic system. If it's some X harm then do Y to counteract it. If Walmart employees are being paid subsistence wages then either increase their market income through mandatory minimum wages or unionization or increase their after market income through transfers.

Please explain how blaming people with no skills, education etc. who are constantly making stupid decisions improves things. My neighbor works at Walmart. He's fat, diabetic, and dumb as a rock. He barely survives through a combination of his paycheck, social services and family help. I'm pretty sure you could spend a couple hundred hours lecturing him about the quality of his life and at the end he will still be fat, dumb, and working at Walmart, where they treat him like ****.

Is there some particular solution to my neighbor you have in mind? Or do you just want to shame him even more than society already does so you can feel superior?

wat

are we actually arguing that government policy should be geared towards propping up mom-and-pop shops? Retail in general is a gigantic black hole of waste and ineffeciency. Explain to me why corporate welfare that benefits a mom or a pop is any better than corporate welfare that benefits millions of shareholders.

I'm not angry at Wal-Mart and that solution may be fine. But just to play Devil's advocate, it's not all about money.

This is just musing about how the world is changing, in some ways for the worse, but a large rich population of cogs in wheels is still a population of cogs in wheels.

Again, there are advantages, but in some non-financial ways, a world full of box stores is far less pleasant than the kind of world that's not just in the past of small downtowns, but the present of every upscale or gentrified neighborhood.

Well you won't get disagreement from me that the historic brick downtowns are much more astetically pleasing than strip mall exburbia.

My plans as POTUS would really do a lot for small business, not just lip service.

My girlfriend couldn't find a parking spot cuz the Bernie rally is 4 blocks from my building. Every white socialist teen within a 150 miles has taken over my neighborhood. The weed smoke and self doubt is overwhelming.

warning

People are going all because Facebook appears to be trying to shutdown our Facebanking methods. People are getting blocked/banned from inviting people to our events, messaging people, making posts, and now even some are getting "shadowbanned" from making posts (their posts go through and everything seems normal but no one can see it). For the past 3 days there was a facebook-wide block on inviting people to "like" Bernie's page. It sounds completely ridiculous, I know. And this conspiracy article just popped up:

http://www.examiner.com/article/has-...me-clintonbook

Probably hitting some spam algorithm

Yeah that's what i'm 99.99% sure it is. I'm doubt many of the people saying it is a conspiracy actually believe it is, but I do think some do. I will say that the facebook-wide block from inviting people to "like" Bernie's page is a bit strange. I'm not sure why there would be a limit on that.

You really need to start ending your sentences with "to me." And then think about who exists on the margins, whose life is actually made better when global wealth increases, and imagine that when you are saying these things, thats who you are talking to.

I guess it depends on what you actually want to accomplish. But human beings respond to incentives. The way you describe him makes it pretty clear that he as an exceedingly high time preference and relative insensitivity to long-term consequences. So if your goal is to modify his behavior and decision-making in some certain way, the best approach is probably sharp, immediate consequences for his actions and choices.

Political action that has sharp, immediate consequences for dumb, fat lazy people is generally speaking not popular, and so has the tendency not to be passed (if its even suggested to begin with).

You need to start ending yours with: "me and all my rich doctor friends agree. "

You say you understand consumers benefit, but you said that Walmart benefits only a tiny minority of people. Its just not true. It HARMS a tiny minority of people, for the benefit of a much larger group (and the even bigger benefit of a very tiny group). For the "good of society" we should have a ton of Walmarts, but that would be bad for a small but sympathetic subset of society.

Happy to, doesnt really hurt my arguments much since I'm not the one telling people what to do or suggesting we need to start taking political action to conform to my aesthetic tastes.. But I'm easily the poorest person in the thread.

Where did I say it only benefits a tiny minority?

Get back on subject. The gentrification was an aside. Did you learn how to debate from Fly?

You mean Facebook is discouraging you from spamming their website? THE HORROR