<div id="RTEContent">Setting aside Joan Opyrs morbid behavior of launching person retribution at those that disagree with her by publishing what medication they or may not be taking on a public website, as well as posting a joke about the medication, I would like to address her remarks regarding her complains of factual data not being presented regarding the Super Wal-Mart Store issue. <div class="MsoNormal">Joan wrote:</div> <div class="MsoNormal">You airily dismiss (without citing any data whatsoever) that all anti-<br> Supercenter arguments, from WalMart's depressive effect on local wages to its <br> workers' dependence on public services and state-subsidized health care to the <br> company's proven use of illegal labor at home and sweatshop labor abroad. You <br> say that these arguments are irrelevant. Irrelevant to whom?</div> <div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal">Let me correct your misinformation !
with
facts and sources Joan:</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">1)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Poor working conditions at Wal-Mart factories</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: Wal-Mart does not own factories it distributes goods, it does not make them. They contract with manufactures; the same manufactures that are used by ShopKo, Kmart, Target, Dollar General, Dollar Store, Family Dollar, Sears, Dillards , TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--!
><span
style="">2)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart forces its competitors out of business.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: No shoppers do, and they should have to support higher prices because of bad business practices. (http://www.ou.edu/class/econ3003/book/area1c4.html) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_%28economics%29)</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">3)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: non!
e;
font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart hires illegal aliens.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: No it does not, it cannot hire anyone that does not have a social security number. Wal-Mart has contracted with independent companies that on their own violated the law. Wal-Mart also contracts with Pepsi, is it responsible for the laws it violates too, or any of the 60,000 businesses in the Unites States it contracts with? (http://www.walmartfacts.com/newsdesk/article.aspx?id=1012) </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">4)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch:
normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart pays low wages</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer:<span style=""> </span>Wal-Marts starting pay is 40% over minimum wage. If you have a problem with Wal-Mart wages, you obviously have a problem with minimum wage which is even lower. Maybe you should work on raising the minimum wage for every company, not just Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is also in favor of raising the minimum wage. (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Labor/wm899.cfm)</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">5)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch:
normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart forces people on Government Welfare</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: No it does not. Wal-Mart does not decide the standards for government programs. In addition, Wal-Mart hires many part-time workers that are on disability. Wal-Mart does more to reduce poverty conditions then government programs. <span style=""> </span>http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed052005d.cfm</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">6)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch:
normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart will reduce consumer choice</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: It does not.</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: dcr10;">No effect can be seen on retail sectors in which Wal-Mart does not compete directly:<o:p></o:p></span></div> <div class="MsoNormal">(http://economics.missouri.edu/Working_Paper_Series/2002/WP0215_basker.pdf)</div> <div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">7)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adju!
st: none;
font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart does not provide Health Insurance to its workers</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;">Answer: Not true. Wal-Mart offers health insurance for only $11 a month to any employee that has worked full-time for more than 6 months or $25 a month for their entire family. </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="">8)<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Concern: Wal-Mart encourages its employees to seek government benefits</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:
0.5in;">Answer: No it does not. It has a system set up so that when employees that are on welfare, food stamps, SSI, are employed by Wal-Mart they can easily report the employment number, income, family information etc to the proper government agency as required by law. Many large companies have these services. In fact, companies are required to have employment numbers to give to government agencies, Wal-Mart just set their system up to be efficient and easy to use for people on government assistance. 30% of Wal-Mart employees where on government assistance when hired. </div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;">I encourage people to read this research about Wal-Mart:</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><a
href="http://economics.missouri.edu/Working_Paper_Series/2002/WP0215_basker.pdf">http://economics.missouri.edu/Working_Paper_Series/2002/WP0215_basker.pdf</a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><o:p><br> </o:p></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Idaho</st1:place></st1:State> Wal-Mart FACTS:</div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><a href="http://www.walmartfacts.com/community/article.aspx?id=152">http://www.walmartfacts.com/community/article.aspx?id=152</a></div> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;">-DJA</div> <br><br><b><i>Joan Opyr <joanopyr@moscow.com></i></b> wrote:<blockquote class="replbq" style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"> Donovan writes:<br><br>> If I want a Wal-Mart because it is blue, that should be<br>> reason enough. It is my choice as a consumer to sh!
op
at<br>> only Blue stores when Elizabeth is the Queen of England.<br><br>If you want to shop at WalMart, Donovan, then for God's sake, shop there. It <br>seems to have escaped your notice that we already have one here in town. High <br>on a hill was a lonely WalMart, lady-oh, ah-lady-oh, ah-lady-hoo! The <br>question at hand is not whether a WalMart Supercenter would be good for you, <br>Donovan Arnold, or good for me, Joan Opyr; it's about whether a Supercenter <br>would be good for Moscow's overall economy. The evidence on this point is <br>overwhelmingly against, not for, WalMart. <br><br>You airily dismiss (without citing any data whatsoever) that all anti-<br>Supercenter arguments, from WalMart's depressive effect on local wages to its <br>workers' dependence on public services and state-subsidized health care to the <br>company's proven use of illegal labor at home and sweatshop labor abroad. You <br>say that these arguments are irrelevant. Irrelevant to whom!
? To
you? Who <br>gives a flip about you? These arguments are important to Moscow. We're <br>talking about the future of our community, about the retail health of <br>downtown, and, like it or not, this debate is about something more important <br>than ensuring that you and Dale Courtney save a few cents on toilet paper and <br>Monoxidil.<br><br>Take a clue from Gallileo. The earth orbits the Sun; the earth does not orbit <br>Donovan Arnold. Not yet, anyway. Not so long as you take your Leptropril and <br>keep eating at Subway.<br><br>Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment<br>www.joanopyr.com<br><br>PS: When is a diet pill worth $153 a bottle? When it gets rid of a fat head.<br><br><br>---------------------------------------------<br>This message was sent by First Step Internet.<br> http://www.fsr.com/<br><br><br>_____________________________________________________<br> List services made available by First Step Internet, <br> serving the communities of the Palouse sinc!
e 1994.
<br> http://www.fsr.net <br> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<br>ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ<br></blockquote><br></div><p>
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