[trebuchet03]

Originally Posted by Arminius

You shift the topic with every post. Now your compliant is that you want more expensive meals at places where people make less. That wasn't the original topic, and I wasn't addressing you in the original post.

If your concern is that someone is making too much, by all means pay as much as you want, and support companies that no one else wants to support. However, the original issue was that people were having to pay too much!

Whoa there - lets not put words in people's mouths - I mean what I say - if I didn't say it, I didn't mean it. I'm not shifting the topic - I'm taking my $1 to go buy a taco because a big box chain (with a CEO/business I don't like) hasn't put the taco stand out of business.

My concern is not when someone is making too much. My concern is with business practice. When comparable products are of acceptable quality - I'll support domestic production over Chinese production (that's a Walmart reference in case I need to spell that out).

When Walmart signed a contract with Rubbermaid - Rubbermaid was really happy, retooled and upgraded their factories for all the new volume they'd be getting etc... Then, when the key ingredient of Rubbermaid's product had an 80% increase in price (and Rubbermaid increased their wholesale price) - Walmart took away much of their shelf space and gave it to the cheaper counterparts. Rubbermaid, was forced to merge with their rival competitor - or go out of business (jobs were lost, etc. etc). That's just really bad business - that strikes my ethics nerve (and it's really hard to do that). I don't care how much Walmart makes - it's the business practice that bothers me.

I like business competition - in the case of Walmart (which has 200 million customers in the US alone - 100 million weekly), companies know that if Walmart doesn't like them, Walmart has the power to take them down. Solely worrying about CEO profits can be left to the idealists - there's plenty of other issues.

However, the original issue was that people were having to pay [I]too much!

You first said

In fact, you can decide to buy from someone else if you don't like what a company does with the money THEY earned or borrowed.

Which one is it? Or are we changing subject? I don't like what some companies do with the money they earned and I don't think the government can take all the blame for what these companies do - some companies have a global impact that can, if they choose, starve populations.

and I wasn't addressing you in the original post.

That's fine, I'm addressing you and everyone else. If you only want to speak to one person - use the private message feature to avoid confusion (but if it's in public - expect a response from anyone with something to say)