An interesting use of Government Humor
I must admit, I despise Wal-Mart. I admit that they do have (some) quality goods at low prices, but the fact of the matter is that I'd rather spend a little more for a higher-quality item at a locally- or regionally-owned business, pumping more of my money back into the economy that I'm most directly involved in. I think Bentonville, Arkansas probably has enough money running around, thank you very much. Wal-Mart made its name in liberal business America by opening up, cutting costs to much lower than what mom and pop were able to sell stuff for, and then raising prices again when the competition went under - leaving me with no place to buy my clothes than a cinder block box.
Another reason that I truly despise Wal-Mart is the fact that they have a tendency to classify employees as "managers," and then force them to work overtime. There are several class-action lawsuits pending against the company now, and several more that have been settled, for doing this, which is an illegal activity (hence the lawsuits). The firm has also been fined millions of dollars in several states for altering timesheets so that employees would not get overtime pay. One such judgement, later reduced, fined the company an amount equivalent to 10% of its total liquid assets.
And now a new reason to dislike the company has come up: hiring illegal workers.
As part of "Operation Rollback," a recent series of arrests in 21 states netted 300 illegal immigrants, who were employed as contract cleaning workers by Wal-Mart. Now, generally, a company is not wholly liable for the hiring practices of a contractor, unless the company knows that the contractor is hiring illegal immigrants as workers. Tape-recorded conversations indicate that several Wal-Mart executives did, in fact, know about this practice, and have been called to testify.
The best part about all this is that it stemmed from two earlier investigations, in 1998 and 2001.
People in Arkansas, especially those at Wal-Mart, tend to be fairly conservative folks, and despised NAFTA because they claimed it would take jobs away from hard-working Americans and send them to Mexico because a company could make stuff for less there than here. In reality, there are more jobs now than in 1994, when the agreement was implemented, according to the Heritage Foundation. One cannot complain that this is liberal bias, because the Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank, "whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies," according to their web site.
So despite the fears of NAFTA-haters, it wasn't really the agreement that's costing American jobs - it's companies like Wal-Mart, based right here in the USA, that are doing the job instead.
I must admit, I despise Wal-Mart. I admit that they do have (some) quality goods at low prices, but the fact of the matter is that I'd rather spend a little more for a higher-quality item at a locally- or regionally-owned business, pumping more of my money back into the economy that I'm most directly involved in. I think Bentonville, Arkansas probably has enough money running around, thank you very much. Wal-Mart made its name in liberal business America by opening up, cutting costs to much lower than what mom and pop were able to sell stuff for, and then raising prices again when the competition went under - leaving me with no place to buy my clothes than a cinder block box.
Another reason that I truly despise Wal-Mart is the fact that they have a tendency to classify employees as "managers," and then force them to work overtime. There are several class-action lawsuits pending against the company now, and several more that have been settled, for doing this, which is an illegal activity (hence the lawsuits). The firm has also been fined millions of dollars in several states for altering timesheets so that employees would not get overtime pay. One such judgement, later reduced, fined the company an amount equivalent to 10% of its total liquid assets.
And now a new reason to dislike the company has come up: hiring illegal workers.
As part of "Operation Rollback," a recent series of arrests in 21 states netted 300 illegal immigrants, who were employed as contract cleaning workers by Wal-Mart. Now, generally, a company is not wholly liable for the hiring practices of a contractor, unless the company knows that the contractor is hiring illegal immigrants as workers. Tape-recorded conversations indicate that several Wal-Mart executives did, in fact, know about this practice, and have been called to testify.
The best part about all this is that it stemmed from two earlier investigations, in 1998 and 2001.
People in Arkansas, especially those at Wal-Mart, tend to be fairly conservative folks, and despised NAFTA because they claimed it would take jobs away from hard-working Americans and send them to Mexico because a company could make stuff for less there than here. In reality, there are more jobs now than in 1994, when the agreement was implemented, according to the Heritage Foundation. One cannot complain that this is liberal bias, because the Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank, "whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies," according to their web site.
So despite the fears of NAFTA-haters, it wasn't really the agreement that's costing American jobs - it's companies like Wal-Mart, based right here in the USA, that are doing the job instead.
posted by Brian at 11:43 AM
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