Given this horrible recession and dire economy and while you wait around for Barack Our Saviour Obama to help, I thought it worthy pointing out that the much vilified and hated Wal-Mart has done more to help those of you suffering from the recession than our blessed government.
You can go to Wal-Mart and get the cheapest prices on practically EVERYTHING, which makes your dollars go further, but more importantly, INCREASES YOUR STANDARDS OF LIVING (those bastards!).
Now I know elite, faux-poor, trust fund babies will still rally against Wal-Mart, claiming they hurt the poor, while ignoring the fact the real poor go there for a reason, but just to show you the sheer power of a free, capitalistic entity such as Wal-Mart, I forgot to mention an interesting story.
The other day I went to Goodwill. Because Goodwill is cheap and proceeds go to help the poor. But when I couldn't find the particular picture frame I wanted, I had to go to Wal-Mart.
Thinking it would be more expensive, I was happy to find out that the management and business model of Wal-Mart is SO efficient, A BRAND NEW PICTURE FRAME WAS CHEAPER THAN A USED ONE AT GOODWILL.
Wal-Mart beating Goodwill on price.
Wow. That's really got to throw leftist religion for a loop.
They also have done more for the poor than Medicare/Medicaid combined: if I take a prescription to Wal-Mart, chances are (if I'm smart enough to realize that generic drugs are as good as the name-brand equivalents with the same ingredients in the same proportions) I can get just about any prescription filled for $5. That's without insurance, and without any government "fixing" the problem. If I take my insurance plan to another pharmacy and use that, I'm likely going to pay upwards of $30 for the same thing.
ReplyDeleteActually, I have seen several studies that clearly indicate that Wal Mart moving into town generally results in a better quality of life, and (suprisingly) higher overall wages across town.
ReplyDeleteGot nothing again Wal Mart. Not too keen on their average shopper, but the stores and prices are quite good.
This post is an instant classic. You should've taken pictures of the frames and their price tags.
ReplyDeleteI was astonished by the $10,000 per gallon eye drops I found in a store in Virginia.
Goodwill is a rip off now... try your local thrift store.
ReplyDeleteWalmart is awesome. I always go there to get my toiletries and cleaning supplies because they have the lowest prices I have ever seen. I only buy things at Goodwill if they are cheaper, except for coffee mugs. At Goodwill I can get a very used coffee mug that advertises for a dentist's office in Stratford, England. Or I can get a coffee mug with two cows playing soccer. To me, that shows character having those in my cupboard.
ReplyDelete"Wow. That's really got to throw leftist religion for a loop."
ReplyDeleteLeftist religion is unable to dissociate the price of something from the wages paid to the workers involved. They'll see Wal-Mart selling for less and take that as proof that Wal-Mart is using slave labor, thus reinforcing their whole incoherent trainwreck of a worldview.
What always gets me is these "living-wage" minimum-wage supporters. The amount of toxic stupid coming off of them sends me into dark and bloody thoughts.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to help the poor, lower the cost of living. If you raise the minimum wage all that's going to do is inflate the cost of living correspondingly, because now grocery stores and gas stations will also have to be paying that minimum to their workers. The poor will end up no farther ahead than before.
Lower prices. Better living.
Whoever came up with that slogan should be put up for sainthood.
"If you raise the minimum wage all that's going to do is inflate the cost of living correspondingly, because now grocery stores and gas stations will also have to be paying that minimum to their workers. The poor will end up no farther ahead than before."
ReplyDeleteThere's a problem with that argument. Workers making the minimum wage are a lot more rare than most people seem to think they are. Without a substantial increase in the minimum wage, relatively few workers would be affected. Higher labor costs passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices would be minimal without a substantial increase in the minimum wage.
The key to analyzing the minimum wage is to look at the people primarily affected: workers who are currently making less than the new minimum. Workers making more than the new minimum will be unaffected, while those making less than the new minimum are at risk of losing their jobs.
Would a minimum wage increase actually raise wages? Yes, for both the workers affected by the law and also the average wage, but not for the reason that minimum wage advocates believe. Hiring additional workers brings diminishing marginal returns, to the point where the last person hired is just about breaking even for their employer if the employer is managing their business well. If the employer is now legally required to pay higher wages, employees who are generating less revenue then the new higher cost of keeping them will be laid off. This means a slight wage increase for the remaining workers, since the supply of profitable labor is artificially restricted by the minimum wage.
A government dictate to fire half the workforce them would have the same impact in the long run as a minimum wage that makes half the workforce unprofitable employees. Sure it raises the wages of the ones who are left, and raises average wages even more because unemployed workers don't bring down the average, but it's still a terrible idea.
Minimum wages and other regulations that artificially increase the cost of labor will strike hardest the people who already have the hardest time finding work. France is a good example of this; labor's expensive there, and they have a sizable minority population of Algerians living in France. Unemployment among Algerians is over 20% even during normal years. The unemployment rate for ethnic French is still high, but nowhere near the level for Algerians. Advocates of racial equality would do well to oppose minimum wages, but this is usually not the case.
True, the typical incremental minimum wage hikes don't actually affect all that many workers right away. But they do cause inflation indirectly. The increased cost of labor will trickle up eventually. Increasing it gradually versus increasing it suddenly amounts to the same thing, except in the fist case it's just slower.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest problem with a high minimum wage is that it prices low-skilled people out of work, which serves to force them into the welfare system or into state-run schools on government financial assistance, either of which is, by an astounding coincidence, conducive to producing voters who are inclined to perpetuate and extend that system.
You want to cut into that, one would have to produce a school system capable of providing education as effectively as Walmart provides common necessities. I have some idea of how to do that, but no more patience to sit through the classes I'd have to take to become a certified teacher.