All Hail Walmart Again!

Re: [spiers] All Hail Walmart Again!

I agree, Tammy, but some points...

Way to go Linda Hall!!! I wish more people would be proactive in making their
communties a better place to live.

LINDA HALL wrote: It is easy to make these price
comparisons, however, we have to remember:

In the USA, our standard of living is much higher than the Vietnamese. Our
salaries and benefits are better. Our homes are nicer. All this costs $,
and we get it from our salaries. If companies drop prices, what else
happens: they cannot afford to give us the salaries we need or the
benefits.

***Not so quick... companies drop prices, more people can afford their goods
and services... we have not all gotten as rich as King Henry the VIII, just the
cost of all the material benefits he enjoyed are withing the reach of every
american today. Dropping prices is exactly what we need more of...

Drug company jobs will go overseas in spite of the protections...well, because
of the protections... people being paid $30/hour making medicines in USA will
lose their jobs to foreignors, because foreign management does not cozst as much
as usa management costs. USA manavgement costs so much because the cost of the
bloated unnecessary drug biz superstructure has to be tacked on to every
pill.... we mustn't blame the consumer or the entrepreneur o verseas for
relieving the USA consumer of abuse in USA by drug biz... or auto biz..or any
other biz.***

In my state, teachers salaries in my county have been one of the worst. And
nation wide, my state was at the bottom of the list in a study done on
comparing retirement salaries. ...Think about the long term of what we are doing
by all this. There are people loosing jobs while a few get rich....r Capital
building.

I informed students of where they should not apply for a job, where they
would be taken advantage of by low salaries, and even lower retirement
package. Did I get results? Yes, this new school year, and for the next 2
years to come, our salaries are increasing 6% each year. Our state office
revamped our retirement in the last legislature session, and now we are
ranked in the middle of the USA, rather than last.

***Well, the problem with education is the govt is involved... like drugs, if
the govt gets out, and ed is deregulated we'll get more better cheaper faster...
and teacher will get paid more. Where the govt is not involved, the teachers
are paid very well... I get $100 an hour for teaching, and I am not a
teacher..but I work strictly in non-credit ed. As in medicine, the only field
with no subsidies and restrictions is cosmetic surgery. What I love about this
example is in the real world of cosmetic surgery, doctors perfect their skills
on the vain wealthy and commonly take in poor patients pro bono to fix some
kid's cleft palette or other problem. In a free market the rich are guinea pigs
and the poor are beneficiaries, as opposed to social democracies like usa where
it is the other way around.

There is nothing to support the claims that teacher salaries, classroom size,
physical plant conditions, head start, breakfast or any other factor (beyond a
minimum that we have surpassed anyway) has any effect on educational outcome.
There is only one single factor shown to be valid and reliable in student
success, and that is parental involvement. There is nothing that can be done by
a school to improve that.

Teachers dig their own graves by lying to parents:" we will take your children
and educate them and make them critical thinkers and good citizens...etc..."
when that is what parents do. Schools charge too much to claim too much...

Education is big biz, and wide open for a renaissance. Reform is not possible,
because you cannot reform something that is not education to begin with...on the
other hand, a rebirth of education is possible, if the govt gets out of the way.
Where it is out of the way, say in homeschooling, the results are dramatically
improved.

The most radical thing one can do is open one's own school, and then fight the
power. My school would be open noon to five pm and I'd hire college kids at
$12/hr, no benefits, and teach grammar school. My school would outperform all
other schools, govt and Catholic, and make me a ton of money. University of
Phoenix does essentially this at the college level, and the part time, community
college contiuing education teacher who started U of P became a billionaire.

US educational-industrial complex is designed to absorb every reformer, and
destroy them. So don't try to reform it, renaissance is the thing.***

Where the supply comes from is important. Not China or Phillipines, but
from the USA

***Linda, I could not agree more, the trick is re-establishing free trade in
education....***


John




Compete on Design!

www.johnspiers.com

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