Wal-Mart hushed up Mexico bribe network

Who cares?

Graft and corruption is the way things work there. They're just playing by the local rules.

I guess that means that 209,000 people who probably didn't have a job before Wally World moved in have one now. Terrible thing.

Actually,I care.
Wal-Mart has helped destroy the American middle class.

But going by your logic,the thousands (no, no exact numbers for you,sorry) that organized crime employs is ok because without them they would be jobless. :rolleyes:

(But you could insert any illegal activity,after all,they do provide work for some).

Dave, I understand what your saying but that isn't the way it worked nearly everywwhere I live that got a Wal-Mart.
Almost every area they came in where I am was very opposed to thier presence but the local governments pushed them trough anyway.

If you haven't seen it I recommend you watch this with an open mind.

WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price

I don't think Walmart destroyed Mexican middle class because the places where the stores were placed ( at least where I was) didn't have a middle class to begin with.

For tourist, Walmart is best place to shop Mexico. You can get your liquor, souvenirs, bus tickets and snacks under one roof. Plus there are street merchants outside of the store offering the things that Walmart doesn't carry. I hate to admit it but I was so happy to see a Walmart in Acapulco.

My Spanish es muy mal and a familiar shopping experience was welcome after 15 hours of travel. As horrible as it is for street merchants, when your economic base is built on tourism, you'll do anything to make visitors feel comfortable and encourage them to stay.

I was talking about the American middle class,in Mexico I saw basically both sides of it,the tourist side and the poor side.
I spent time on both sides.
As a tourist every thing was nice.
As a gringo being in the real Mexico was not a very welcoming situation.
But this is getting off topic.
Call me elitist,but I refuse to give Wal-Mart any of my money.

A major corporation did something less than honest? go figure.

On one hand, it is people shopping at the damned stores that allow them to exist at all - a corporation can only exist with the cooperation of the population. On the other hand - they were crammed down throats of a lot of communities.

You can't really feel sorry for a community that has a walmart they don't want -- if the "community" doesn't want it there, all they have to do is refuse to shop or work for them. Those buildings cost money to run and stock. How long are they going to stay somewhere that they can't get workers or customers?

So sick of people crying over being victims when they have the power to kill a corporation just fine and dandy all by their little old selves.

One of the few times I have to disagree with you Sal.

I would have thought you would have already seen that film,but if not,watch it sometime .

One of Wal-Marts tactics is to come into a depressed area and offer the population ,that has had all the major areas of employment closed and or layoffs,so they have been living below poverty level and offer them jobs,both construction and minimum wage employment.

Of course they are going to take it and in the process that makes Wal-Mart able to undercut the few surviving small businesses and make them shut down.
Of course at the same time, Wa-Mart gets a majority of their good from China,which is a whole another story.

If the people alone really had that power Monsanto would already be gone.

Sorry,wasn't implying you didn't already know the results.

Yeah, money talks and Wal-Mart has lots.

I honestly wouldn't be so against them if they paid decent wages and had good insurance benefits, didn't knowingly employ so many illegal aliens, and actually stocked American made goods.

Of course,lets not forget the actual thread topic too, graft and corruption.

Kim - I never said it was easy. But if people aren't willing to do what it takes to defeat them - then they are going to take over. Plain and simple. Do you think it's right for someone to go work for Monsanto just because they need a job - or could we maybe save ourselves if we just pretended they weren't there? Might be less comfortable in the short-term, but in the long term we'd all be better off. Organic farms need workers, too. Think of how many would be employed by them if MONSANTO weren't around? Even if people signed pledges not to work for or buy from a company and turn them in to their reps beforehand it could stop quite a few of those plague boxes.

It's devastating to be unemployed -- I have fought tooth and nail to keep a roof over my head and food on my plate because I refuse to work for companies that are NOT GOOD for the communities they hijack. It's no fun .......especially when everyone else sells out at the first hint their cable TV is at risk.

We've got to make a choice. Government is NOT going to do it for us. We HAVE to do it ourselves. What if everyone in a community with a Monsanto plant decided to shut them down? It would take having members of the community willing to give a room to an employee that quit until they can find more work -- it would take a community fund to help workers that walk out pay bills for awhile. It would take local farmers and other local businesses willing to hire workers that walked out of their jobs or well to do community members giving people work even if just cleaning and yard work. It would take a WHOLE community to pull together -- but it can be done. And where a business that is going to eventually kill a community is involved -- communities SHOULD be working together to stop it.

If people aren't willing to do that, they can bitch all damned day every day and it's not going to make one rat of difference. I know one thing. I'm done doing the right thing and sacrificing my own comfort when everyone else does nothing but whine and sell out. Screw em. If my community wants to make an actual effort at stopping something - I'm in, but I'm done standing on the front line by myself. I already know what I get for doing the right thing instead of what will make me more comfy for the present time -- and mind you.......it is just for the present that people sell out. In the long run they get royally screwed over.

3M,
gotcha, I did misinterpet then. My apologies.

Sal ,
I'm saying that if I have a wife and kids at home that are starving because I was laid off at a textile factory or a mine or the local restaraunt or whatever, I would do whatever it takes that was legal to take care of my family.
Or if I was a single parent of either sex I would do what I needed to to take care of my family.

And these corporations prey on people in exactly such situations.
Monsanto, Wal-Mart, you name it,it probably uses the exact same tactic.

I think you know that I am with you and all about trying to make not only America but the world a better palce for the generations that are coming behind us,but sometimes people are forced to do thing that really don't want to do.

I've been unemployed a few times in my 40 years in the work force,and you're right,it is hell.
It's a blessing that I got my kidney, and I was luckily able to draw disability,which is far below what the governnent calls poverty level,and I never would have made it this far without the help of you and others.
But the fact is getting this kidney is also a curse. I will lose my disability soon,and I am 58 yrs old, even with all my skills do you think I can go out in the work force and find a decent paying job at my age?
On top of that I have to take drugs for the rest of my life or as long as the kidney lasts,which I pray will be for the rest of my life. I posted in another thread that just the cost of two of these drugs is over $2K a month without insurance. I don't know how I am going to do it.

As far as what you say people need to do , it's never going to happen. You and I and Thom and Dave and the others,even if we numbered in the millions, can do all we can,but the fact is most of the rest are sheep. Not nice,but its the truth. I think the best we can hope for is enough to get fed up to the point that actually start voting in people that will start thinking about us insead of catering to the corporations.


And you are right, they are sacrificing their future for the comfort of the present. You get no argument there from me.

But I still say I can understand those that I was talking about earlier in the thread accepting what they have to to feed their family.

Trust me, I understand how you feel, But I also see how the general population can be coerced into taking those crappy jobs. They may be acting selflessly just to take care of their own.

Hopefully, if they are doing something illegal, then they will be caught and exposed.

Old Sam Walton used to try to promote American made products, but since his death they seem to sell 95% of things made in China. They didn't used to sell alcoholic beverages either and now they do.

If I DO go to WalMart I always dress up in my favorite spandex and a nice, clean Jim Dandy t-shirt...

Oh yeah, and sandals....with socks.

Don't forget your drinking hat, Dave! Or are you going to Walmart to buy a new one...

Looks like you are looking for more "storage space"

May we suggest our 'executive' model?