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Chris

Member since: Oct 20th, 2006

Chris's Latest Comments

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Recent Comments:

6th Grader Gets $6.5m to Fund Game Company (Switched)

Sep 20th 2007 12:20PM Wow. Some 6th graders can't even afford a winter coat to go to school in, some go to school and have to share textbooks becuase school funding is shot. This kid gets 6.5 million in funding for a GAME company that hasn't even lifted off of the ground yet. And we wonder why this world is going down the tubes. What wonderful priorities we all have.

Wal-Mart's (WMT) new strategy: Low prices? (BloggingStocks)

Sep 19th 2007 4:16PM Their slogan should be "Wal-Mart, Fall Apart". You get what you pay for and if anyone thinks that their lives are better due to saving money by buying below-standard merchandise they need to revisit the thought process of a penny-wise and a pound-foolish.

Wal-Mart is slipping due to their practice of supporting over-seas manufacturing for cheaper goods. Drive the American worker out of work and it isn't going to matter how cheap you make your stock. Most of what Wal-Mart carries are sundries that are non-essential to daily living. When it does come to the essentials, Big Lots, Dollar Stores, Save-A-Lot, and smaller grocery chains are just as competitive if not cheaper. The added bonus, is you can still get decent customer service at the other locations.

Wal-Mart helps its bottom line in Mexico with unpaid teen labor (BloggingStocks)

Aug 2nd 2007 11:30AM I should be considering Wal-Mart as a benevelont entity becuase they allow children to provide a customer service to Wal-mart's customers where Wal-Mart receives the greater benefit and where the consumers pick up the entire cost (tips) becuase this is a cultural practice? Do I understand that correctly?

Hogwash! You have a multi-million dollar corporation engaging in nothing more than cultural exploitation.

Just becuase a cultural practice develops out of poverty and necessity it does not make it right to see the continued practice of it by companies that clearly can afford to pay these children an adjusted wage -- even if that adjusted wage worked out to be something like 0.50 per day. Wal-Mart isn't your struggling grocery store or mom and pop shop that can't afford to pay the kid but is trying to help the kid in any way that they can.

People need to quit painting halo's on corporations. Corporations are not "nice". They have no heart and they have no conscience.

Left lane drivers of America want you to move over. You know who you are (Autoblog)

Jun 14th 2007 9:15AM Wow. My heart goes out to all of the speedsters of America. How blatantly rude of those going the speed limit to have forgotten that the world clearly revolves around your need for speed and your selfish view of damned be the safety of others around you. Those going the speed limit are causing a speed differential that is unsafe? If you were going the speed limit also, there wouldn't be such a speed differential.

I don't cruise the left-lane, but I will move over into the left lane should I encounter someone in the right lane going slower than the speed limit. I'll complete my passing at the speed limit and then move back over. If it pisses you off that some of us actually go the speed limit, take it up with your lawmakers and get the speed-limit increased. You're desire to break the law is not my problem nor is it my concern.

Facebook's free classifieds, a bad day for newspapers (BloggingStocks)

May 13th 2007 8:44AM While I haven't seen Facebook's site, I would offer up that as with most things like this, the real revenue doesn't stem from private individual classified ads. The main revenue source is in adertising dollars. The more people that you can get to gravititate to your site, the more clout you have in selling banner ads and setting higher prices for those banner ads. With the cost of hosting services being a very economical solution, it doesn't take many banner ads to move the site into the black.

I would also counter that newspapers' main sources of revenue were never found with private individual classified ads. Newspapers mainly rely on business advertising dollars along with subscriptions.

Newspapers will either have to adapt their business model just like everyone else or get left behind due to increasing internet usage.

The real challenge for newspapers and magazines won't be found with the competition of internet sites offering up free advertising opportunities to the private indidivual or other similar free services. It will be found in competing with the fact that the internet offers lower operating costs overall. No paper costs, no ink costs, the utilization of revolving banner ads that makes use of the same page space, lower staff requirements, no distribution costs (postage or route carriers), etc.

On the other hand, newspapers have access to the same technology that Facebook is using and thay have access to the same low operating costs for an interenet line of business. The only difference is that they still think they can use the same business model on the interent as they do with their hardcopy product and they're finding that not all consumers are as stupid as they thought. Comparison shopping is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse and free services are cropping up everywhere. If the newspaper industry refuses to adopt a business model to handle their online operations, then they deserve to be left in the dust.

Three dollar gas? You know you'll pay it (BloggingStocks)

May 7th 2007 10:08AM While Bush was campaigning to win his first term, I told my co-workers two things: 1) He'll have us in war with Iraq and 2) gas prices will soar. Both ended up being correct. Was I correct becuase of some mystical power to see into the future? Only if you think common sense and paying attention are mystical powers.

There are those people who will always buy into the propganda being provided to them and who will always beleive that our government has our best interests at heart and would never engage in activities that put the bottom line over the value of the citizens of this country. These people need to have a serious reality check before their next trip to the voting polls.

It was no surprise that gas prices would soar when you look at the Bush family's affiliation with the Saudi's. It was no surprise that we would end up going to war with an oil rich country and eventually see Haliburton move it's HQ to Dubai.

Is there government involvement in this price soaring? Of course there is. Just like there is government involvement with every other large industry who lobbies the government successfully. That involvement can be just as simple as not investigating blatant price fixing. The government is successfully gambling that a large portion of Americans would never believe that their government would sell them out. Wake up folks, we were sold out a long time ago in exchange for corporate quarterly reports. Don't think so? Then you haven't been paying attention to the oil company quarterly reports and their record breaking profits.

Want to blame the pricing on environmentalists? Yes, environmental measures have added to the cost of gasoline and that is a cost I'm more than satisfied to pay. Americans have seriously got to drop this "as long as it benefits us here and now" mentality when it comes to the environment. Those who support wrecking tomorrow's environment in exchange for today's lower pricing are no better than the government officials who have sold us out. Until the American public fully embraces that there are things in this world more important than the bottom line, we can't possibly expect our government to act any differently as we will continue to elect the same type of political candidate. Energy costs will continue to soar, we'll continue to enter into conflicts with countries with resources that we covet, American companies will continue to offshore jobs, the NAFTA superhighway and the Amero will become realities, and the American people will continue to pay the tab with our tax dollars.

Hillary Clinton calls Wal-Mart 'mixed blessing' (BloggingStocks)

Apr 29th 2007 9:18AM "Is Wal-Mart more concerned with the inventory turnover of low-grade, Chinese-made goods than with "helping the everyday American family"?"

Yes and as a corporate entity, they are legally bound to do so. All corporations are federally mandated to put the good of their share-holders as their top priority and are required to continually strive for higher profits. This isn't necessarily a Wal-Mart issue and it most definately is not a political party-line issue. It's a corporation issue. Americans need to pull their heads out of the sand and realize that neither Republicans or Democrats are going to be able to solve this problem -- only the American consumer holds this power. You choose to support and encourage these corporate beasts everytime you give them a dollar.

The corporate animal is one that has been designed to be a taker rather than a giver (unless you're a stock holder). Wal-Mart is under fire as often as it is becuase it has done very well in meeting its corporate obligations to its shareholders. Wal-Mart typically forces smaller businesses with higher quality and/or domestic goods out of business and they also tend to increase local unemployment as they simply do not hire all of the displaced workers they have helped to create.

I do not blame Wal-Mart for doing what they are legally obligated to do. I do, however, fully blame the Wal-mart shopper who sells out their community, their neighbors and their local economy in exchange for convenience and lower pricing for lesser quality goods. Buy quality American-made products! Stay away from the "Wal-Mart Fall Aparts!"

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Anarchy: Enjoy starvation (BloggingStocks)

Apr 29th 2007 8:50AM Mr. Sattler,

I'm confused on your points levied towards the new Hampshire couple.

Are you saying that they should be happy and willing to fork over tax dollars for:

a) The constant failure of individual states to actually apply the entire amount of the federal road subsidies to road maintenance and development, instead choosing to use it for pork.
b) The EPA's failure to actually apply strict air-quality control standards rather than caving in to the corporate demands that allow them to continue to pollute the air in exchange for cheaper operating costs.
c)The failure of water companies to remove toxins from the water supply and adopt "acceptable levels" of toxins.
d) The failure of the USDA and the FDA to protect the American consumer from posions, drugs and growth hormones by also choosing to agree on adopting "acceptable levels" of such toxins.
e)Allowing trade deficits to soar to record levels which drives up the need to pay for more port officials rather than supporting our own farmers or manufacturing companies who have yet to opt for moving operations to other countries. However, your port concerns should lessen once the NAFTA Superhighway is in place and all U.S. imports are delivered to Mexican ports and transported with Mexican trucking companies in order to further exploit the cheap labor pool that Mexico provides.

The only deadbeats I see around here are those who actually continue to endorse the wasteful use of our tax dollars for mediocre to failing federal services and fail to see the need for the American people to start standing up and saying "NO!" to tax dollar waste!

Why Iraqi Sunnis Don't Like Democracy (News Bloggers)

Apr 11th 2007 10:55AM "Only when the Sunni realize that force does not pay"

Of course force pays, just ask Bush. Or perhaps, ask Haliburton who is now able to move their HQ to Dubai.

Bush used the threat of terrorism and played on the fears of American to rally support for this war, and the Busheep followed blindly. Bush used the threat of terrorism to get re-elected and once again the Busheep followed blindly at the polls. Unfortunately, the Busheep were not prepared for the realities of war let alone the realities of war against religious groups who acheive religious glory by dieing for their beliefs. While Saddam's regime was indeed cruel, it also quite possible, if not probable, that it does indeed take a dictator in that country to keep the country stabilized with its different religious factions.

Bush now wants to hire someone that he can hold accountable as things continue to worsen in the region. The sad part of this is that if he actually finds someone to take the position, the Busheep will once again follow blindly when Bush says "There is the person to blame for our failure in Iraq" and Bush will be able to successfully sidestep out of the line of fire.

Immigration Reform Back on the Bush Agenda (AOL Elections Blog)

Apr 1st 2007 11:31AM It may simply be too late to think that our Government will actually take hardline steps to tighten down on illegal immigration to this country and any steps that they do take will be superficial in an attempt to appease the American people. We already have laws around illegal immigration, they simply are not being enforced. Any new restructuring around immigration is meaningless and shallow without the enforcement of the laws.
If anyone truly thinks that this government (Republican or Democrat)will truly enforce any immigration laws, then that someone has not been paying attention to the NAFTA Super Hiwghway, the Kansas City SmartPort (http://www.kcsmartport.com/) plans for the Amero, or the SPP. (http://www.spp.gov/)

The American people need to wake up and realize that this issue like so many other issues is not a Republican vs. Democrat or a Conservative vs. Liberal issue. This is quite simply an American People vs. Corporations issue. If the American People truly want immigration reform, then we must first recognize that our government regardless of party line has been bought lock, stock and barrel by Corporate interests and that we now live in a world of a "Government for the Corporations, by the Corporations". Second, insist on tighter laws governing corporate hiring practices and insist on the enforcement of those laws, insist on higher fines and possible prison sentences for CEO's of companies who violate those laws. You don't control immigration by solely controlling the border. You begin to control immigration by the American people taking control over the Corporations who our Government allows to run rampant so much so that it is the American people who ultimately pay the price.