What or Who Do You Boycott With Your Dollars? (Obama, how much, Denver)
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So, you expect everyone to believe that you don't have a television, a dvd/blue ray, or a cell phone? You don't even own a pair of athletic shoes? It's even odds that the computer you are using was manufactured overseas.
But I take you at your word. If you say there are no foreign made merchandise in your life, I can't dispute it, though I find it MOST DIFFICULT to believe.
I could careless if people believe me or not. While I am sure there are those who come to message boards and lie and tell a bunch of bs, I have no desire to do so. It would serve no purpose.
I don't participate in boycotts. If you dig deep enough you find that no matter what you think you are doing to "hurt" a corporation, you are unknowingly doing something else that "helps" them. Either way it's all a wash and not even worth the effort it takes to consider it.
But I realize that many people feel better doing "busy work" like taking lists to grocery stores and NOT buying whatever it on it.
I don't participate in boycotts. If you dig deep enough you find that no matter what you think you are doing to "hurt" a corporation, you are unknowingly doing something else that "helps" them. Either way it's all a wash and not even worth the effort it takes to consider it.
But I realize that many people feel better doing "busy work" like taking lists to grocery stores and NOT buying whatever it on it.
when one stops spending their hard earned dollars in a store that in no way will help them.
BOA hasn't raised your interest rates on your card yet?
I just have a debit card, I don't have a credit card with them. As long as they aren't taking money out of my account for silly fees and such, they're fine with me.
when one stops spending their hard earned dollars in a store that in no way will help them.
Except when you buy something else instead that belongs to a subsidiary company owned by the company you are boycotting or by a "competitor" who really isn't.
Except when you buy something else instead that belongs to a subsidiary company owned by the company you are boycotting or by a "competitor" who really isn't.
That is why buying American is so important. These days many US made products
and the companies who make them fly solo. They haven't been swallowed up by corporate america and greed.
They DO have a boycott of American workers. Those that lost their jobs due to their greed. But also there very own employees.
In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. The 2001 poverty line for a family of three was $14,630. ["Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?", Business Week, 10/6/03, US Dept of Health and Human Services 2001 Poverty Guidelines, 2001]
A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of only $11,948. ["Statistical Analysis of Gender Patterns in Wal-Mart's Workforce", Dr. Richard Drogin 2003]
Wal-Mart reported in January 2006 that its health insurance only covers 43% of their employees. Wal-Mart has approximately 1.39 million US employees.
Wal-Mart Only Spends 77 Cents an Hour Per Employee for Health Benefits
In 2004, Wal-Mart spent $1.5 billion on its health insurance. This amounts to an employer contribution of around only $0.77 an hour per employee. This accounts for approximately a half-percent of Wal-Mart's $285 billion in sales in 2004. [Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart Internal Memo, 2005, Wal-Mart Annual Report, 2005].
One 200-employee Wal-Mart store may cost federal taxpayers $420,750 per year. This cost comes from the following, on average:
$36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
$42,000 a year for low-income housing assistance.
$125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
$100,000 a year for the additional expenses for programs for students.
$108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs (S-CHIP)
$9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.[The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart, A Report By The Democratic Staff Of The Committee On Education And The Workforce, 2/16/04]
Shall I continue? Go ahead and keep supporting that cess pool. They care nothing about the American worker nor this country. It is all greed. But you do your own little test when you are there next and see exactly what is made in the US. Few and far between.
But hey, it pads your purse huh?
edit to add this info for you:
Wal-Mart and China
Download the Wal-Mart and China flyer - PDF (http://wakeupwalmart.com/downloads/factsheets/wmt-and-china.pdf - broken link) Wal-Mart buys much of its merchandise from China
Wal-Mart reported that it purchased $18 billion of goods from China in 2004.
Wal-Mart was responsible for about 1/10th of the U.S. trade deficit with China in 2005. ["U.S. Stock Investors Wary of Analyst `Yuan Plays': Taking Stock, Bloomberg, 7/1/05]
If Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would rank as China's eighth-biggest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada. [China Business Weekly, 12/02/2004]
Many of Wal-Mart's "American Suppliers" actually manufacture most or all of their products in China
An example of an "American Supplier" is Hasbro, headquartered in Rhode Island. Today, Wal-Mart is the largest purchaser of Hasbro products—accounting for 21 percent of all Hasbro goods or more than $600 million in sales. But Hasbro reports, "We source production of substantially all of our toy products and certain of our game products through unrelated manufacturers in various Far East countries, principally China." Hasbro specifies that "the substantial majority of our toy products are manufactured in China." [2004 Hasbro 10-K filed with the SEC]
Wal-Mart's Chinese factory workers are treated poorly
Workers making clothing for Wal-Mart in Shenzhen, China filed a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 claiming that they were not paid the legal minimum wage, not permitted to take holidays off and were forced to work overtime. They said their employer had withheld the first three months of all workers' pay, almost making them indentured servants because the company refused to pay the money if they quit. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
Workers making toys for Wal-Mart in China's Guangdong Province reported that they would have to meet a quota of painting 8,900 toy pieces in an eight hour shift in order to earn the stated wage of $3.45 a day. If they failed to meet that quota, the factory would only pay them $1.23 for a day's work. [China Labor Watch, December 21, 2005]
Elsewhere workers producing goods for Wal-Mart also face appalling conditions, despite Wal-Mart's factory inspection program
Workers from Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Nicaragua and Swaziland brought a class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart in September 2005 asserting that the company's codes of conduct were violated in dozens of ways. They said they were often paid less than the legal minimum wage and did not receive mandated time-and-a-half for overtime, and some said they were beaten by managers and were locked in their factories. [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
A female apparel worker in Dhaka, Bangladesh, said she was locked into the factory and did not have a day off in her first six months. She said she was told if she refused to work the required overtime, she would be fired. Another worker said her supervisor attacked her "by slapping her face so hard that her nose began bleeding simply because she was unable to meet" her "high quota." [New York Times, September 14, 2005]
In 2004, only 8 percent of Wal-Mart inspectors' visits to factories were unannounced, giving supervisors the chance to coach workers what to say and hide violations. Wal-Mart claimed it planned to double unannounced visits by its inspectors but that would still leave 80 percent of inspections announced. [CFO Magazine, August 2005]
A former Wal-Mart executive James Lynn has sued the company claiming he was fired because he warned the company that an inspection manager was intimidating underlings into passing Central American suppliers. Lynn documented forced pregnancy tests, 24-hour work shifts, extreme heat, pat-down searches, locked exits, and other violations of the labor laws of these Central American countries. [New York Times, July 1, 2005 and James Lynn to Odair Violim, April 28, 2002, www.nclnet.org]
Wal-Mart and Imports
70% of the commodities sold in Wal-Mart are made in China. [China Business Weekly, November 29, 2004]
Just because Wal-Mart bought goods from suppliers based in the United States does not mean that they were actually manufactured in the United States. In fact, Ray Bracy, Wal-Mart's vice president for federal and international public affairs, was asked, "Do you have any idea what percentage [of non-grocery, domestic sales] comes from overseas?" He responded, "What we don't know is the numbers of products that come from distributors or from manufacturers that they [sic] decide where to manufacture." Wal-Mart fails to track where their products are manufactured. [Frontline, 11/16/2004]
so walmart purchased 18 billion dollars of goods from china in 2004, yet their net sales were 256.3 billion in 2004. guess how much unemployed workers cost the taxpayers every year?
i am not here as walmart's defender since, again, i am not happy with their decision to support obama's health care plan, nor am i happy with their support of la raza.
i will say that when we had our hurricanes in florida, walmart was the only corporation that set up in our area and distributed free ice when our electricity was down for several weeks. no company is 100% good or 100% bad.
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