Thread: Walmart is Evil

From the way the story is presented it seems to me that the problem is not walmart.
They were awarded 1,000,000 which I assume is supposed to cover short and long term medical care.
Walmart paid for the short term care, so they are entitled to recover their cost. The problem seems to be that after the legal fees the original award is not enough anymore.
Of course if they hadn't hired any lawyers they might not have gotten 1,000,000, but to me it looks like these lawyers didn't do a very good job.
In retrospect the net result is these folks spent their time on walmart's behalf, getting them back from the trucking company the money walmart had spent on short term medical care. Plus the lawyers who ended up working on walmart's behalf got paid.
It seems originally these people did the best thing they could - purchased a health insurance.
They just didn't get enough money in the lawsuit. Of course their lawyers want to place the blame on walmart, but the blame in this case is not walmart. Well, may be they are for providing low wages and crappy health plan, but not for trying to recover the money.

And yes walmart is a business like any other, and them tearing communities is just the natural result of free market. Bribing a public official is a very high cost risk - clearly it's a decision that a business can make and I'm certain they didn't make it w/o considering the cost and the risk. I'm sure walmart has their model of a community - it may not be the idylic picture a lot of us may want to live in, but nevertheless I'm quite certain it's an economically viable one. Some communities could fight it, others won't be able to.
Here we didn't have a walmart up to until 3 years ago. The locals fought for decades to prevent it, but eventually lost. We didn't have a starbucks either - now we have 2 and last month a much nicer (imho) coffee shop closed. Clearly enough people preferred the convenience and the mainstream comfort of starbucks to the better tasting beverage and the community atmosphere of the local shop.

Originally Posted by JMS

Gugi will be posting any time now!

see things like that make me wait for few more posts

Yes, again I did a poor job choosing a story to illustrate my point... I suppose when I heard this story on AM radio I did not think much about Walmart's rights but more about how much I already hate them.

I feel that outsourcing has severely hurt this country, and especially other countries whose citizens are forced to live in factories and work for 18 hours a day to make $1.50. I also feel that Walmart exploits their own American employees as well, at the benefit of paying their ridiculously wealthy upper management outlandish salaries. Outsourcing itself is an unethical practice (assuming that sweatshops are involved) and it is being utilized by more and more companies in recent years. Overall, I (as a middle class citizen of the U.S.) feel that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because of the selfishness of corporate big-wigs. Another thing I scoff at is their dedication to being devout Christians... I do not wish to bring this discussion to religious theology but I have a few words to describe the upper management of these companies: Greedy, ruthless, and the cause of much suffering for those they employ.


On a final note for me tonight, I would like to thank you all for your opinions and thoughts. All views are valid and contribute to our understanding of these situations. Thank you again

On the outsourcing Vietnam is the only country I look to buy from as they have great fair labor practices as a result of our trade act with them in 94 (I think) sadly that recently expired and they're having a hard time finding buyers now because they aren't a sweatshop nation.

I also object to the squeezing out of small business, I know it's legal and freemarket and all, I probably wouldn't object to it if they allowed consignment sales. then there's also the predatory employment practices &c. They're quite good at pushing the laws to the limits but not stepping over the line.

On some level I'm impressed with companies that can do this (I was always amazed when I worked at disney) as so many just blatantly disregard the line. But the minimum rights and all aren't enough for me to make me want to support a company. Especially when I have an entrepreneur just down the street struggling to live thier dream.

Thank goodness Walmart hasn't taken over the restaurant business, I'd hate to eat American food made in China

Originally Posted by mvforza

I feel that outsourcing has severely hurt this country, and especially other countries whose citizens are forced to live in factories and work for 18 hours a day to make $1.50. I also feel that Walmart exploits their own American employees as well, at the benefit of paying their ridiculously wealthy upper management outlandish salaries. Outsourcing itself is an unethical practice (assuming that sweatshops are involved) and it is being utilized by more and more companies in recent years. Overall, I (as a middle class citizen of the U.S.) feel that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because of the selfishness of corporate big-wigs.

Outsourcing sometimes hurts, but what do you suggest then?

Take Norton. They moved their waterstone factory to Mexico.
According to Howard, they are now better than they used to be. Where is the evil?
Norton made those decisions because those are the best in a capitalist system.
A lot of Americans here abhorr socialism and subsidizing. Well, then this is what you get.

I know several software companies that outsource to foreign countries.
The company I worked for has a daughter company in Poland. I've met the employees. I am a pretty good programmer and software engineer, but these guys could code circles around me.

And they worked for less than I did. A good chunk of work was offloaded to them because we were too expensive. That is life. In the end, we both profitted because we could keep the regional market thanks to their work.

Work does not 'belong' to someone. We are not entitled to it. My Polish colleagues could do my work just as well for less money. What should I have told my boss? 'You should hire local programmers for more money, and potentially go out of business, but they are OUR jobs'?

I make an honest effort to buy Canadian-made products, but these days, just about everything's made in China. Labour outsourcing will hurt us in the long run, but there's nothing we can do about it. The lowest common denominator votes for the sellout with the best commercials and they're all financed by companies that outsource anyways.

Wlamart isn't evil because of the insurance thing. Wlamart is evil because it has done some illegal things and violated the rights of Americans to own their property.

As far as part time employies and Walmart, they aren't evil there either all grocery stores and discounters do it the same way. There are even computer programs designed to write the employes schedule to meet customer demands and those programs and all the consultants suggest a part time work force for flexibility and cost savings. Its standard retail practice and its spreading.

Frankly I'll admit that most of the hard goods I buy are made in china. Usually purchased at a discount store, though rarely walmart. Thats mostly because they are to far from my house and I'd have to pass three other similar retailers to get to them. The reason: American made goods in most classes are more difficult to find, more expensive and no better quality.

Originally Posted by Nickelking

It's standard practice for any insurance to prevent double dipping. I'm more concerned about the fact that they paid about 600k in legal bills and their lawyer tries to foist the bad guy title on wal-mart.

Sounds like the lawyer should have read a few contracts before starting a lawsuit. That sort of incompetence is not excusable for a licensed lawyer.

Wal-Mart is evil, but maybe not because they recouped in this case. I'm speculating, but they're reinsurer or the underwriting of their health plan may require that they pursue such funds.

Now, there is no reason they couldn't have turned around and made a corporate donation to a family in such need who sacrificed their son in the service of the country.

Wal-Mart is evil - as is Disney. To me, they represent a very negative side of America. And they're just plain bad for the general quality of life here.

Jordan

I fail to see how it is Walmart's fault that the woman did not read the TOS for her insurance and then violated them. Such a clause is not uncommon, and is the reason many of us purchase supplemental insurance.

I'm not defending some of Walmart's other actions, but I really don't have a problem with what they did here. Using lots of emotional terms to describe the woman in order to evoke sympathy is also a dirty trick.