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ORIGINAL: kernsfamily

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ORIGINAL: rhippie

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Writerchick
There's a fine line between success and greed. We've been on the greed side for far too long. That's what needs to be punished to balance things out again.

Exactly who gets to determine who is greedy and who is successful? Is there a table somewhere that says if you make $XX.XX you're greedy by definition? Or maybe it says if your Gross Profit Margin is X% then you're greedy? Or maybe if your Net Profit Margin is greater than X%?

If it's net profit margins.....then neither wal-mart OR Exxon-Mobil are greedy (which, they really aren't)....

One would have to declare Texas Instruments (18% margin), ebay (22% margin), or MY company (25%+ margins)....as "greedy"....and leave those who earn "only" 10% margin (Exxon) and 3.38% (Wal-Mart) alone.....

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ORIGINAL: kernsfamily

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What sort of tax and regulatory concessions does Target expect from the local politicians? What sort of publicly-subsidized infrastructure development do Target & WM expect when they come to town?

When a Bass Pro Shop is built....or even a Cabela's.....they "expect" tax abatements, infrastructure improvements, etc..etc...

We have 2 bass pros and one Cabela's in the area....all built with the help of "local politicians".

BUT, since they are NOT Wal-Mart....no one gives a darn.

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ORIGINAL: stamper_ben

No, I'd wait if you're in the market. Prices are going to be tumbling really far really soon.

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ORIGINAL: Johnny_

Has anyone seen the new Black Friday Deals at Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart is selling a Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV for $798 on Black Friday. Should I buy it??? Could someone please give me some input because I don't know anything about Plasma TV's.

For more information:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/14/news/companies/walmart_blackfriday/index.htm?cnn=yes

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ORIGINAL: kernsfamily

Not 100% sure on this......but, isn't having a flat-panel LCD HDTV (like a Vizio), be better than getting a Plasma???

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ORIGINAL: Johnny_
Should I buy it??? Could someone please give me some input because I don't know anything about Plasma TV's.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/14/news/companies/walmart_blackfriday/index.htm?cnn=yes

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Name brand products, lowest prices in town, and a great 30 day no questions ask return priveledge; they should be taking over.

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As such, everything you've said above is nothing but a foolish assumption that has no basis in reality.

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All you can do is repeat what you have been trained to "think" in school. (I am a reformed liberal and renounced my training.)

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ORIGINAL: rlj

Since RC started talking nice about them I agree on the return policy and even the customer service when dealing with a problem. It is second to none.

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ORIGINAL: P31W
Marty,

My father was not a greedy man. In fact he had the spiritural gift of giving. He gave away in his lifetime hundreds of thousands of dollars, provided hundreds of jobs to people, helped educate an untold number of people and even more was able to help people live a better life through his connections and self sacrifice.

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He was not doubt about it a workacholoic (sp) for many years of his life. He worked 7 days per week, 16 hours per day. I remember him being hospitalized twice for exhaustion. But hundreds if not thousands of people "benefited" for his labor and our families lack of getting to spend time with him. However when he turned 55 he sold most of his businesses and hired others to run the ones he kept. He was from that point on able to spend ALL his time with his children, wife, inlaws and grand children.

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If we had it to do all over again I am not sure I would ask him not to help all those people. Sometimes a family suffering a loss of some sort is in the long run worth it.

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What I find lacking is not that people are "overworked" rather they are lazy in their ability to think ahead, use their resources wisely and in God's glory and to be content with what they have. I see people thinking they are suffering if they work over 40 hours per week. I see them using their "family" as an excuse not to work but then they spend a large portion of their free time on the computer, in the yard, in sports and etc.

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I agree with you. First we need to teach that greed involves wanting someone else to provide for your own family. Greed involved getting married without caring is you can provide for a family and expecting someone elses labor, purdence and sacrifice to provide for it.

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Greed does not equal a man/woman who is successful in their labor. In fact God's word tells us that if we see a man who is skillful in their labor they will stand before kings. A man who is lazy or lax will have poverty creep upon them suddenly.

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My husband and I live off about $35K per year. The rest of our money goes to the government, to our church and various Christian organizations and to hire more people so they can produce money for their own familes and give to their chruches and the gov. If someone steals from me my employees, church and the missionaries we support will suffer the most.

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ORIGINAL: martyfran

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ORIGINAL: P31W
Marty,

My father was not a greedy man. In fact he had the spiritural gift of giving. He gave away in his lifetime hundreds of thousands of dollars, provided hundreds of jobs to people, helped educate an untold number of people and even more was able to help people live a better life through his connections and self sacrifice.

I think one of the problems is that we, as a church don't have a good understanding of greed. Your father may not have been a greedy man, but the question is, how does an individual themselves determine whether or not they are greedy? Like I said, we tend to either ignore the whole issue, or issue broad platitudes that are not particularly helpful.

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He was not doubt about it a workacholoic (sp) for many years of his life. He worked 7 days per week, 16 hours per day. I remember him being hospitalized twice for exhaustion. But hundreds if not thousands of people "benefited" for his labor and our families lack of getting to spend time with him. However when he turned 55 he sold most of his businesses and hired others to run the ones he kept. He was from that point on able to spend ALL his time with his children, wife, inlaws and grand children.

The problem however, is that we don't know what would have happened if he only worked 8 hours a day. Perhaps someone else would have stepped up and became an entrepreneur and provided jobs as well.

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If we had it to do all over again I am not sure I would ask him not to help all those people. Sometimes a family suffering a loss of some sort is in the long run worth it.

Sometimes, but of course, not always. Like I said, the church talks very little about the problem of people being so focused on their jobs that they neglect the other important things in their lives.

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What I find lacking is not that people are "overworked" rather they are lazy in their ability to think ahead, use their resources wisely and in God's glory and to be content with what they have. I see people thinking they are suffering if they work over 40 hours per week. I see them using their "family" as an excuse not to work but then they spend a large portion of their free time on the computer, in the yard, in sports and etc.

I think both are problems. I have a friend who makes a lot of money. But the problem is, he uses it to help his kids be lazy. Perhaps he works so much because work is easier than dealing with his lazy kids? What is the harder thing for him is to kick his son out of his rental house (which he calls his lack of rental house) and put his foot down and make his kid sink or swim on his own. So in a sense, my hard working friend actually is quite lazy.

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I agree with you. First we need to teach that greed involves wanting someone else to provide for your own family. Greed involved getting married without caring is you can provide for a family and expecting someone elses labor, purdence and sacrifice to provide for it.

This is one component of greed. But not the whole issue.

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Greed does not equal a man/woman who is successful in their labor. In fact God's word tells us that if we see a man who is skillful in their labor they will stand before kings. A man who is lazy or lax will have poverty creep upon them suddenly.

True. But, look at church attendance in some of our higher income areas. If you neglect things like church, because you are too busy making money that you will never spend, then that is greed as well.

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My husband and I live off about $35K per year. The rest of our money goes to the government, to our church and various Christian organizations and to hire more people so they can produce money for their own familes and give to their chruches and the gov. If someone steals from me my employees, church and the missionaries we support will suffer the most.

I never said that others might not hurt from such a scheme. However, if the government takes my wealth, I will not be hurt myself, because the money I have was never mine to begin with. Believe me, I saved a bundle in taxes when George Bush was elected and marginal tax rates were cut. Personally I like that, but, in the end, how much money I have matters not a bit, because I don't need the big house with lots of land, I don't need the fancy car, I started poor and if I have to, I can do it again. I think one of the things you learn when you start out poor and become wealthy is how little wealth matters in the long run.

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ORIGINAL: P31W
Marty,

My father was not a greedy man. In fact he had the spiritural gift of giving. He gave away in his lifetime hundreds of thousands of dollars, provided hundreds of jobs to people, helped educate an untold number of people and even more was able to help people live a better life through his connections and self sacrifice.



I think one of the problems is that we, as a church don't have a good understanding of greed. Your father may not have been a greedy man, but the question is, how does an individual themselves determine whether or not they are greedy? Like I said, we tend to either ignore the whole issue, or issue broad platitudes that are not particularly helpful.

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He was not doubt about it a workacholoic (sp) for many years of his life. He worked 7 days per week, 16 hours per day. I remember him being hospitalized twice for exhaustion. But hundreds if not thousands of people "benefited" for his labor and our families lack of getting to spend time with him. However when he turned 55 he sold most of his businesses and hired others to run the ones he kept. He was from that point on able to spend ALL his time with his children, wife, inlaws and grand children.


The problem however, is that we don't know what would have happened if he only worked 8 hours a day. Perhaps someone else would have stepped up and became an entrepreneur and provided jobs as well.

quote:


If we had it to do all over again I am not sure I would ask him not to help all those people. Sometimes a family suffering a loss of some sort is in the long run worth it.

Sometimes, but of course, not always. Like I said, the church talks very little about the problem of people being so focused on their jobs that they neglect the other important things in their lives.

quote:



What I find lacking is not that people are "overworked" rather they are lazy in their ability to think ahead, use their resources wisely and in God's glory and to be content with what they have. I see people thinking they are suffering if they work over 40 hours per week. I see them using their "family" as an excuse not to work but then they spend a large portion of their free time on the computer, in the yard, in sports and etc.


I think both are problems. I have a friend who makes a lot of money. But the problem is, he uses it to help his kids be lazy. Perhaps he works so much because work is easier than dealing with his lazy kids? What is the harder thing for him is to kick his son out of his rental house (which he calls his lack of rental house) and put his foot down and make his kid sink or swim on his own. So in a sense, my hard working friend actually is quite lazy.

quote:

I agree with you. First we need to teach that greed involves wanting someone else to provide for your own family. Greed involved getting married without caring is you can provide for a family and expecting someone elses labor, purdence and sacrifice to provide for it.


This is one component of greed. But not the whole issue.

quote:


Greed does not equal a man/woman who is successful in their labor. In fact God's word tells us that if we see a man who is skillful in their labor they will stand before kings. A man who is lazy or lax will have poverty creep upon them suddenly.


True. But, look at church attendance in some of our higher income areas. If you neglect things like church, because you are too busy making money that you will never spend, then that is greed as well.

quote:


My husband and I live off about $35K per year. The rest of our money goes to the government, to our church and various Christian organizations and to hire more people so they can produce money for their own familes and give to their chruches and the gov. If someone steals from me my employees, church and the missionaries we support will suffer the most.

I never said that others might not hurt from such a scheme. However, if the government takes my wealth, I will not be hurt myself, because the money I have was never mine to begin with. Believe me, I saved a bundle in taxes when George Bush was elected and marginal tax rates were cut. Personally I like that, but, in the end, how much money I have matters not a bit, because I don't need the big house with lots of land, I don't need the fancy car, I started poor and if I have to, I can do it again. I think one of the things you learn when you start out poor and become wealthy is how little wealth matters in the long run.

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ORIGINAL: Kath

I am trying to figure out what any of this has to do with Walmart taking over.

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ORIGINAL: stamper_ben

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ORIGINAL: Kath

I am trying to figure out what any of this has to do with Walmart taking over.

WalMart is supposed to = greed.

Or sumtin like that...

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ORIGINAL: rcjames

I guess if folks do not like Walmart they can go somewhere else and pay retail.

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ORIGINAL: rcjames

I guess if folks do not like Walmart they can go somewhere else and pay retail.

And by the way I paid $1.84 per gallon for unleaded today at Wally World.

Thanks
RC

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ORIGINAL: uncabeeil

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I don't see why Wal-Mart should be singled out just because they are thriving.

They're singled out because they treat their employees like cattle (most hourly employees aren't even offered the option of benefits), they move in and purposely undercut local businesses in order to drive them into bankruptcy, they pressure their vendors into deals that are only profitable for WalMart, and they've completely forgotten that the original purpose of WalMart was to give Americans a place to buy things made in America.