What's the deal with WalMart?

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

The war is what it is. It was manufactured, and Congress fell all over itself (both major parties) cooperating with that.

Sure. Whatever you say, dude.

 

[skippy]

Yup, you're believing what you want to believe.

[/

QUOTE]Like it or not, what you are advocating is a very large scale experiment based on a large set of wishful-thinking extrapolations. And the results of that experiment probably won't be even slightly palatable.

The assumptions of the flat-taxers have been tested several times, and they simply don't work in the real world. Look back at tax receipts, and you'll find that the claim that deficits go down when tax rates are lowered has never been realized despite large scale attempts.

And if you want to bring unnamed "university economists" into the discussion like you did last time around, you have to explain "stagspansion." 'Cause it's impossible if we believe Harvard.

florida and texas already have a similar system,they seem to be alright.

 

[Bent Bolt]

I was joking with my parents today at lunch that I shop at K-Mart because the lines are short since no one goes there (it's also much closer to my house). Went to Wal-Mart afterward to get oil for my mom's car, walked in, looked at the lines, turned back around and went to K-Mart. Cost a little more but I saved a bunch of time.

That is what I do -- I don't go to Walmart -- any store that I go to. I refuse to stand in a long, slow line up for anything. My time is worth a hell of a lot more than the $0.50 that I'll save by standing in line for 20 mins.

 

[MAKG]

florida and texas already have a similar system,they seem to be alright.

Interesting. Florida and Texas have abolished the Federal income tax?

State and Federal governments are very different, and what an individual state does with its tax system has far less effect than what Federal taxes do, simply because state taxes are quite a lot smaller than Federal even in high tax states. States don't have the same big ticket budget items. Not in the same ballpark.

As for "similar," Florida has substantial property and estate taxes, as well as a corporate income tax. That's not consumption. Several states don't have personal income taxes, but to say that this makes their tax system "fair" by itself is wrong. It's not similar to what you are advocating.

 

[skippy]

so,if it works at the state level,it can't work at the federal level.i see what your saying,and i say bullshit!corporate taxes are a myth,all corporations incorporate their tax burden into the goods and services they provide to the consumer,meaninig you and i pay it.the states that don't have income taxes,9 in total have realized what congress has not,the undergroud economy is a very real source of revenue.just one example,millions of illeagal aliens buy goods and services and would be taxed along with the rest of us.what,11 million as i've heard the media report,probably more.you and i still pay our fair share,we don't get out of it at all.we just redistribute the burden fairly and capture hidden revenue,and eliminate all loopholes.yes people will cheat,they allways have,13% of owed revenue is uncollected and it falls to the honest folks to make that up.

 

[JohnnyO]

Paul Krugman is a liberal economist, but this was in today's paper and I can't say I disagree.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07363/845132-109.stm

 

[Evan]

Paul Krugman is a liberal economist, but this was in today's paper and I can't say I disagree.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07363/845132-109.stm

Interesting read, thanks for sharing that.

One thing he mentioned was outsourcing of high tech jobs to India. This has been a popular path for many large companies during the past several years. The percieved low prices drew them right in.

Many of the companies who have been doing that are getting burned....bad. They outsourced much of their enterprise software programming and fired or layed off all their U.S. employees. The guys in India had a good understanding of computer programming but completely lacked business-area knowledge. In addition there were horrible communication barriers. The result was software with incorrect business logic which is useless or even harmful to a large company.

So now many companies are rebuilding their IS and Application Development areas back in the U.S. They've lost a great deal of money, they have enterprise software riddled with errors, and many of the experienced guys they had have moved on and can't be rehired.

Kimberly-Clark is a large company that outsourced most programming; it blew up in their face and they're moving back to the U.S. Roehl Transport is another company that's experienced an outsourcing disaster. The list is endless...

 

[racsan]

what "kills" me about wal-mart is that when they appeared on the scene XX years ago their marketing slogan was "products proudly made in the u.s.a." now its mostly china garbage, what i hate is theres really no other alternative, meijer aint much better and they dont always have what i need, k-mart went out-of-town some time ago. the local mall is nearly a ghost town (marion ohio) and its a pretty fair drive to columbus or mansfeild. i did manage to not christmas shop at wal-mart this year, mainly because i had such a limited budget that all i could do was get a couple of candles and cards from krogers. doesnt it just floor you that walmart/meijers have like 30 check out lanes but only 3 to 5 are ever open at any given time. i currently work at a packaging place, one of our products was a 12-count donut box (for wal-mart) in feb. we are done with it, its been outsourced overseas. there is so much worry over the middle east, maybe we should worry about other "threats" also.........
________
how to roll a blunt

 

[JohnnyO]

One thing he mentioned was outsourcing of high tech jobs to India. This has been a popular path for many large companies during the past several years. The percieved low prices drew them right in.

The guys in India had a good understanding of computer programming but completely lacked business-area knowledge. In addition there were horrible communication barriers.

I wonder if Dell will move tech support back to the U.S. and hire people who speak understandable English?
My son can do a brutal impression of Dell tech support.
"Hellooo, tang you por calling Dill, my name is Beely Bob. How can I asseest you today?"
I mean, I know they're trying but sometimes it just isn't happening.

My wife IS a software tech support person here, has to deal with them a lot. Often she'll simply ask to speak to someone whose English skills are better.

 

[Evan]

I wonder if Dell will move tech support back to the U.S. and hire people who speak understandable English?
My son can do a brutal impression of Dell tech support.
"Hellooo, tang you por calling Dill, my name is Beely Bob. How can I asseest you today?"
I mean, I know they're trying but sometimes it just isn't happening.

My wife IS a software tech support person here, has to deal with them a lot. Often she'll simply ask to speak to someone whose English skills are better.

Now...Imagine you need some enterprise software developed, and you have to explain to these guys all the business rules behind a milti-million dollar project. Even if you overcome the langauge barrier, the Indian programmers just don't have the conceptual understanding of the specific industry and business. Not that it's their fault; sometimes you just need to be on-site and have face to face resources available.

Upper management tried to view lines of code as a commodity item, when in many cases it no longer is. That's why companies now really look for programmers with a strong business background, as well as people skills, hence all the "Programmer/Analyst" positions that have been created.

 

[Evan]

doesnt it just floor you that walmart/meijers have like 30 check out lanes but only 3 to 5 are ever open at any given time.

1. At a glance, having limited checkouts doesn't make any sense, but there is a logical mathematical reason for that.

2. Have you ever seen a big distribution warehouse with 50 docks for semi trucks, yet there are only two or three trucks there at a time? I'm sure most people have.

I won't explain the "why" to the two concepts above, I'll see if someone can figure it out.

Hint for #1: Linear Programming, queuing systems
Hint for #2: Operations Management

 

[COPPERHEAD85]

1-cattle gate
2-bullshit artist

sam walton is spinning in his grave like the blower drive on a john force funny car..........

 

[Ranger Dave (B25)]

I wonder if Dell will move tech support back to the U.S. and hire people who speak understandable English?
My son can do a brutal impression of Dell tech support.
"Hellooo, tang you por calling Dill, my name is Beely Bob. How can I asseest you today?"
I mean, I know they're trying but sometimes it just isn't happening.

Dish Network is the same. And their 'customer service' reps get snotty when you ask for an English speaker.

In a similar vein:

http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html

 

[skippy]

Yup, you're believing what you want to believe.

Like it or not, what you are advocating is a very large scale experiment based on a large set of wishful-thinking extrapolations. And the results of that experiment probably won't be even slightly palatable.

The assumptions of the flat-taxers have been tested several times, and they simply don't work in the real world. Look back at tax receipts, and you'll find that the claim that deficits go down when tax rates are lowered has never been realized despite large scale attempts.

And if you want to bring unnamed "university economists" into the discussion like you did last time around, you have to explain "stagspansion." 'Cause it's impossible if we believe Harvard.

lets try again,the research was conducted by"highly reguarded" economists fom harvard,mit,stanford and members of the cato institute and the heritage foundation.the bill was written by david burton and dan r. mastromarco of the argus group.the bill was introduced by congressman j.linder of ga.the book was written by neal boortz and john linder as a guide to the fairtax,and all procedes from the book are given to charity.don't care what harvard thinks about the idea.if i introduced a piece of legislation of this magnitude in the house of reps i'd be shouting from the mountaintops to get the word out,screw impartiality.just to go the extra mile,i've querried one of the authors and the website to gain the names of the highly reguarded economists,don't hold your breath.frankly,with the support of 55 members of congress,2 pressidential candidates and an increasing amount of grassroot supporters,who needs ya.

 

[JohnnyO]

Look back at tax receipts, and you'll find that the claim that deficits go down when tax rates are lowered has never been realized despite large scale attempts.

You're ignoring the fact that it takes two to tango. When tax rates are cut (to a point) tax revenue goes up. This is well-documented despite the Democrats best efforts to ignore it. The fact that deficits increased is a result of the government continuing to spend more than what comes in, even though (and maybe because) more money is coming in.

The Laffer Curve really does work. Be interesting to see what happens here. Allegheny County (i.e. Pittsburgh) enacted a 10% drink tax as of today to fund mass transit. Philadelphia did the same about 10 years ago and I've read that they have about 150 less liquor licenses now than they did then, i.e. establishments went out of business or moved.

There is no perfect tax system that will make everybody happy, but I'd take either a flat tax or national sales tax over the convoluted train wreck of government and lobbyists picking winners and losers that we have now.

PA has a "flat" income tax of 3.07%. Some years it takes me as long as 5 minutes to do my state taxes. I don't see why the Feds can't do the same.