Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Fallujah Casualites: Michael Moore asked Bill O'Reilly

host · 11-16-2004, 01:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kalibah

Ahh finally someone else who gets it. Most of our soldiers support what they are doing, and Michael Moore doesn't realize that. Nevermind the fact that no one decides to 'sign someone else up'. You know, or should rather, what your getting into- acting like 'we' have betrayed our soldiers? How? By sending soldiers to war- thats their job, and their duty- to follow orders from the elected Commander in Chief.

By bring race into it- most people just tone out. What would we have America do? If its a 'fact' that blacks or other minorities cannot afford to go to college other than by joing the military, what are we to do about it? Is that America's leaders fault?

Moore realizes that there is overwhelming economic power and the political
influence that it can buy, earnestly and methodically redistributing the
most of this nation's wealth into the hands of fewer and fewer entities......
......to the point that this transfer of wealth has been so damaging and
so successful, that a military draft is not even needed to "sign up" the
new recruits who are destined to be tomorrow's Bush regime's casualties.
In 1970, the wealthiest one percent controlled 13 percent of the nation's
total wealth. 3o years, later, the top one percent control 33 percent of the
wealth, and the wealthy are granted huge tax cuts, elimination of inheritance
taxes which were in effect when the top tier managed to shift an additional
20 percent of the total wealth of this nation from the rest of us, to.......
themselves......and our "all volunteer" military gets sent to fight "pre-emptive"
wars of choice. Most of America does not comprehend what the economic
impact studies and the wealth distribution trend data reveals.....and you
are convinced that 18 year old recruits can discern opportunity from
exploitation that has been ordained by the agenda of the political class's
wealthiest benefactors?

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THE WALTONS <a href="http://arkansasbusiness.com/news/headline_article.asp?aid=39021">http://arkansasbusiness.com/news/headline_article.asp?aid=39021</a>
Inside America's Richest Family
Forget Buffett and Gates. The heirs of Sam Walton control about 39% of Wal-Mart, America's largest company. Their $90 billion fortune gives the clan large—if quiet—influence over the American economy and society. An exclusive family portrait

Read the conclusions of the study "Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty"
linked in bold type in the box below (On or about page 12)

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Periodicals <a name="periodicals" id="periodicals"></a>
The Ecologist, Yes, and Orion Magazines
often run articles on issues related to community and business. Orion
 and The Ecologist both have featured
our work. In Business is a green business magazine that ran a feature story
on AMIBA and local IBAs.  Mass business publications like Forbes and Business Week now offer small business-specific issues. 

Studies <a name="studies" id="studies"></a>
Powerful proof of the benefits of independent businesses to
their communities. Great tools for community members and organizers to use
with planning boards, city councils and others! We expect this list to grow
substantially in the next few years. 
 <a href="http://civiceconomics.com/Andersonville/html/reports.html">Andersonville Study of Retail Economics</a><a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf"> 
</a><a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf"> This report, released on October 20, 2004, extends the study done in Austin, Texas in 2003.  </a>The study compares 10 independent businesses and 10 chains in retail, restaurant and service sectors.  The results further corroborate the local economic benefit of independent businesses, demonstrating that independents generate about 3 times the local economic activity as chains.  Further, the researchers make the case for community governments to create policy to protect their independent businesses.

<h2><a href="http://cecd.aers.psu.edu/pubs/PovertyResearchWM.pdf">Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty</a></h2> 
A study from Pennsylvania State University from October 18, 2004 that indicates counties with one or more Wal-Mart stores experience smaller decreases in family poverty than counties without.  Possible causes include the decrease in civic capacity due to local entrepreneurs being driven out of business--people who also tend to be community leaders. 
<a href="http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/pdf/wmtstudy.pdf"> 
Shopping for Subsidies: How Wal-Mart Uses Taxpayer Money to Finance 
Its Never-Ending Growth 
</a>This report by Good Jobs First documents over $1 billion in public subsidies and other forms of handouts that Wal-Mart has received for locating in communities. 

<a href="http://www.lacity.org/council/cd13/c13pfdc1c.htm">Rodino Report for the City of Los Angeles on the economic impact of Wal-Mart 
A compelling, comprehensive case for the multi-faceted impacts of this big box. 
</a>(The hyperlink will take you to a report index--the parts of the Rodino report are noted). 
<a href="pdf/Chicago_walmart_economic_impact_study.pdf">Wal-Mart: A Destructive Force for Chicago Communities and Companies </a> 
Economic impact analysis commissioned by the New School of Community Economic
Development, University of Illinois-Chicago, March 25, 2004 
<a href="http://edworkforce.house.gov/democrats/WALMARTREPORT.pdf">Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart 

</a>A report by the Democratic staff of the Committee on Education
and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives, February 16, 2004. 
<a href="pdf/economic_impact_study_santa_fe_11.03.pdf">Report
on Independent Business impact </a> in Santa Fe, New Mexico (Nov. 2003),
both economically and socially, and the threat the sector feels from chain
competition. Commissioned by SFIBCA, AMIBA's Santa Fe affiliate. 
 
Released in October 2003, <a href="http://www.ptvermont.org/publications/HomegrownEconomy/sprawl_book.htm">10
Reasons Why Vermont's Homegrown Economy Matters: And 50 Proven Ways to Revive
It </a> is the result of two years of collaborative research by Stacy Mitchell
of the New Rules Project and the Preservation Trust of Vermont on specific
reasons why locally owned businesses matter and practical ways to plan for
a homegrown economy, foster revitalization and unite independent businesses--no
matter where you live. 
 

<a href="http://newrules.org/retail/midcoaststudy.pdf">The Economic Impact of Locally Owned Businesses vs. Chains: A Case Study in Midcoast Maine [PDF]</a> 
by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Friends of Midcoast Maine, September 2003.  Findings of this study indicate that three times as much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services from locally owned businesses as with chains. This study tracked the revenue and expenditures of eight locally owned businesses in Midcoast Maine.
<a href="pdf/Economic_Impact_study_tx.pdf">Economic Impact
study</a> in Austin, Texas (2002) substantiating the economic multiplier--of
over three times--of two independent businesses, Waterloo Records and
Book People, as compared to a Borders Books & Music Corp. store (planned
for inclusion in a nearby--and publicly subsidized--development). 
<a href="pdf/barnstable_fiscal_impact_report.pdf">Fiscal impact analysis</a> in
Barnstable, Massachusetts (2002) that compares the tax revenue generated
by different kinds of residential and commercial development with the actual
cost of providing public services for each land use. Revenue gainers: community-based
businesses; revenue losers: big boxes, fast food chains and strip malls.

"Is it fair to give taxpayers' money to big corporations
that will then use it to help put existing firms out of business?"
question Dr. Kenneth Stone and Georgeanne Artz in their <a href="pdf/stone_home_improvement_center_study.pdf">study
of big box home improvement centers and their effect on host towns and
surrounding communities</a>. Published in 2001.

Findings: sales of hardware and building supplies grow in the host communities,
but at the expense of sales in smaller towns nearby. Moreover, after a few
years, many host communities experienced a sharp decline in
hardware and building supplies sales, often dropping below their initial
levels, as more big box stores opened in the surrounding region and saturated
the market. 
<a href="http://www.lawmall.com/rpa/rpashils.htm">The Shils Report</a> (1997),
entitled " Measuring
the Economic and Sociological Impact of the Mega-Retail Discount Chains
on Small Enterprise in Urban, Suburban and Rural Communities," was groundbreaking
research by Edward B. Shils, Director Emeritus of the Wharton Entrepreneurial
Center at the University of Pennsylvania. The report details the effect of
chains and big boxes on small businesses due to economies of scale and
governmental failure to enforce antitrust laws. Other studies have built on
Shils' work. Follow the link to the 250-page downloadable report. 
Dr. Kenneth Stone's (Iowa State University, 1977) landmark
study on Wal-Mart's effect on Iowa's rural communities 10 years after the
corporation's arrival, <a href="pdf/stone_10_yr_wal-mart_study_plus_tips.pdf">Impact
of the Wal-Mart Phenomenon on Rural Communities</a>,
provides strong evidence of how this big box displaces locally owned independent
businesses in the community and the surrounding area. It also provides Dr.
Stone's advice to locals on competing with chains. 

 <a href="http://amiba.net/recommended.html">http://amiba.net/recommended.html</a>

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<a href="http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w111/greedy.htm">http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w111/greedy.htm</a>
"The growth in the incomes of the richest one percent of Americans," observes the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, "has been so large that just the increase between 1980 and 1990 in the after-tax income of this group equals the total income the poorest 20 percent of the population will receive in 1990."