[extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[Jack Parkinson]

Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> said:
> Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

> Jack Parkinson wrote"
>> If you want to convince me (and maybe a few others) - then this is the
>> challenge: Demonstrate (don't just sneer or give me another side-stepping
>> opinion piece) exactly HOW Wal Mart is more efficient for America than
>> several thousand smaller stores would be.
>
> ### When I suggested thinking about Wal-Mart as a big truck, it wasn't
> just empty rhetoric. Wal-Mart *is* a trucking company, with outlets.
> And this is why it is possible to concretize thinking about its
> efficiency: A large semi is more efficient than a dozen vans when it
> comes to the transport of a large amount of goods from e.g. Minnesota
> to Florida. This is so not because it has "bargaining power" over the
> vans, or can physically push them off the road, but because it can
> fulfill the needs (e.g. having Land of Lakes butter in Florida) of
> more people at a smaller overall cost in terms of human effort (fewer
> drivers, less drag, more durability, less gas per pound of freight) -
> and that amount of effort finds its true measure in the relative
> prices of Land of Lakes butter delivered by semi or van.
>
Once again you have delivered an opinion piece without a shred of evidence. 
Using your logic I can be sure that elephants are more efficient than dogs, 
and maybe a big SUV is more efficient than a small car...
But you did not answer the question at all.

I put it to you (several times) that Wal Mart is a less efficient producer 
of national wealth - in overall financial terms -than the small business 
alternatives I proposed. But, you apparently cannot argue this point other 
than to give me one statement of belief after another.

Maybe you are just wrong?


> Once Wal-Mart becomes a government creature, I will be its implacable
> enemy but until then, I am proud to say:
>
> "I am a friend of Wal-Mart"
>
You are indeed a good friend of Wal-Mart but why?

This quote via a private email from Mike Lorrey: "This company has, as a 
corporate policy, an employee handbook that specifically teaches employees 
how to apply for welfare, medicare,
section 8 housing, and other government entitlements, AS IF SUCH THINGS ARE 
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS. Walmart is thus externalizing its labor costs onto the 
taxpayer."

Wal Mart is directly subsidised to the tune of perhaps US $1.5 billion - it 
exploits welfare payments as a matter of course to compensate for it's poor 
recompense of employees - and you call this 'efficient!'
Wal-Marts political links and political activities are well documented. If 
obtaining this level of support is not being 'a government creature' then 
what is?

Jack Parkinson