http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/11/19/the-new-arkansas-legislature-money-is-bipartisan Comments On: The new Arkansas legislature: Money is bipartisan by Max Brantley en-us Copyright 2013 Arkansas Times. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Arkansas Times readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Arkansas Times. robert@arktimes.com (Arkansas Times Webmaster) Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:01 -0500 Thu, 23 May 2013 15:45:00 -0500 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Try telling that to the 12.5 million people the Bureau of Labor Statistics says are “officially unemployed.”
Posted by Durango]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:57:29 -0600 Arkansas Times
I think hatred is too strong a word, Durango. It's more like dread that I feel about them. It's just not healthy for one family enterprise to have such a pervasive influence in so many aspects of America's life. Especially when that influence is almost always about the bottom line.

I am not able to imagine what the world would have been like without Walmart, but I think those 1.4 million people would be employed doing something else.
Posted by the outlier]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:21:08 -0600 Arkansas Times
Everything that happened in Wisconsin will happen here only they'll only be about 2 dozen picketers standing in front of our Capital building. We can expect to pee in a cup before we can cash a check. We can expect a lot of school teachers to be fired, a lot of people on food stamps to be kicked off, ERs with poor people scanners at the front door....you name it. It will be more tax cuts for the rich and the door for the rest of us.

Expect a big rock with the 10 commandments at the front door of every Arkansas courthouse. And soon every legislator will own their own state funded child care center with a picture of Jesus over the front door. A renewed "Ship Them Back To Africa" movement will be launched. And Joe Arpaio will soon head up our state troopers.

Yes, Virginia, there are Republicans in charge now. It's 2002 in Arkansas and hell will be paid before our voters wise up and vote the Republicans out in 2 or 4 or 12 years. In the mean time practice your Hunkering. Most of us can outlast them. Though it will take 2,486 years to outlast the Wal-Mart heir's money...so sorry about that.

I'm painting a big WE LOVE WAL-MART sign for my front yard for the same reason people used to wear garlic in Transylvania. And nailing a Bible to your front door might not be a bad idea either because for the foreseeable future we're all Anne Frank now.
Posted by DeathbyInches]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:58:31 -0600 Arkansas Times
It is galling to only be allowed to work one or two hours below the full-time schedule for years alongside full-time workers doing the same job who are getting full pay and benefits.

The high unemployment rate has been a bonanza for employers, allowing them to tell employees to be grateful for what they have, while finding new ways to "get more for less" from their employees.
Posted by YossarianMinderbinder]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:52:46 -0600 Arkansas Times
Argument? What argument, outlier? I said I think Herbert’s notion of $12.25 an hour ($25,000 a year) as minimum pay for retail employees is a great idea. And I do. You don’t? You've not said.

I also said it shouldn’t be that difficult for Wal-Mart to set its minimum pay at $12.25. Ditto Sears, Penny, Target and all the rest. They, too, pay considerably less than they could. And you think otherwise?

Bob Herbert did not limit his excellent hourly-pay hypothesis to Wal-Mart, outlier. Neither did I. Neither should you.

“Unseemly” of you to ask how many shares of Wal-Mart I own? Not at all. I’ve posted here a number of times that several years ago I replaced my Wal-Mart stock with Wal-Mart bonds. Which are currently paying 4%. Not bad, considering that the average national CD rate was 0.29% the other day.

Ah HA! So that relatively good Wal-Mart bond rate is why I “always jump to their defense”? Notta. If I “jump to their defense,” it’s because I appreciate the fact that Wal-Mart provides jobs for 1.4 million Americans who might not otherwise have jobs at all. I also appreciate what the company has done for northwest Arkansas.

A pity that your obvious hatred of the company precludes any appreciation of it whatsoever, outlier.
Posted by Durango]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:19:11 -0600 Arkansas Times
The average full time barely makes what the Herbert fellow states as a minimum pay.

That pretty well says 1/2 the WalMart workers don't make what Herbert claims is a minimum.

NOW filter out the Non-full time and that greatly drops Wally World's performance.

Also, related I expect is the stat on your link that WallyWorld has 1.4 million workers in US and last year 180,000 received promotions.
That stat could be seen to mean it takes 8 years per promotion.

Was that promotion from part time to full time?

If so 8 years on average into WallyWorld employment one can become fulltime and then finally enter into a group that averages 1/2 that 8 year plus group not making a minimum livable wage.
Posted by Citizen1]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:34:31 -0600 Arkansas Times
Missing from the equation are the employees relegated to the vagaries of part-time employment and without health insurance. Also, who is considered a full-time "associate" - a pharmacist making $50/hour?

Take a look at an outside view of salaries:
http://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Walmar…

Unless you subscribe, you can't get the whole list of salaries, but you have to wonder how that $12.57 rate is reached with so many positions getting sub-$10 averages.
Posted by YossarianMinderbinder]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:25:06 -0600 Arkansas Times
Also, would you further break down the statistic that Walmart so generously provides on their website. I would need to know what percentage of employees are full-time associates as opposed to part-timers.

Now, if I may be unseemly myself, I can't help wondering how many Wally shares you own and how much $ they have earned you over the years. You always jump to their defense.
Posted by the outlier]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:00:43 -0600 Arkansas Times
Great idea. Shouldn’t be that difficult for Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, J.C. Penny, et. al. to pay a minimum of $12.25 an hour.

In the U.S., the average, full-time hourly wage for Wal-Mart’s associates is already $12.57.

http://news.walmart.com/walmart-facts/walm…
Posted by Durango]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 11:50:58 -0600 Arkansas Times
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-herbert/…
Posted by the outlier]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:37:21 -0600 Arkansas Times
Doc, as long as economic injustice is with us, as long as the wealth gap remains a chasm (abyss?) there is not a whole lot that public education can do for most failing students.

It's ironic that those responsible for the chasm are now convinced that they have the solution.

Memo to Sam, Alice, Christy, Jim, Nancy, and Ann: pay your workers a liveable wage and see how fast their children's educational performance improves.
Posted by the outlier]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:27:52 -0600 Arkansas Times
Oh, are the traditional public schools finally getting that message? Hope it's not too late.
Posted by Doc]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:12:54 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 09:12:16 -0600 Arkansas Times
Owning school systems (just like owning media) which continue to fail to teach these truths is icing on the cake. Why teach society to shoot itself in the foot when you can get paid to teach society to shoot itself in the foot?

These people are worse than parasites.
Posted by Eureka Springs]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 08:59:14 -0600 Arkansas Times Posted by Verla Sweere]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 07:29:42 -0600 Arkansas Times