Reality is all perception

The first thing I thought about when I read the blog assignment was a book I read. I don't know if the book stole it from somewhere or if the author came up with this analogy himself. The setting is a young kid who has been bounced from foster home to foster home and lives in poverty. He is talking to an old man about one's goals in life. The sum of what he says is there is a wall 40 feet from them and that is the goal. The rock 10 feet from the wall is those with money and better circumstance. Then he says,"here is us"as he points to a rock 50 feet from the wall.
The point of the story as it relates to the assignment is that the majority those with money who have to do much less to achieve their goals perceive the world as that. But those who are not in that position perceive the world differently as a place where money is the answer to everything.

So where you are in the world whether in terms of social status or literal location. The culture and the society will influence your perspective on identity, society, and culture as a whole. Your feelings about what should be allowed publicly is gonna be different from someone's perspective all the way on the other side of the planet. It may even be different then someone 10 miles down the road from you. It one country it may be better to be fat then skinny because i means you have food. Everything about your location affects you as a person and how you percieve things.

Outline

When Wal-Mart comes to town.

I.               Introduction- Wal-Mart has its apparent good about it, but hidden beneath this instant gratification is a much larger problem. When Wal-Mart comes to town nothing but bad can soon follow.

a.     Talk about how Wal-Mart got started and give a brief background on the topic to get the reader up to speed

b.     How Wal-Mart gets into your town and the immediate effects. I’ll talk about the strategies Wal-Mart uses to get into small towns.

                                               i.     Barging in-talk about how Wal-Mart directly gets in to your town like buying land.

                                             ii.     Stealth-talk about the sneaky strategies Wal-Mart uses like getting put on a Ballot.

c.     Here I will talk about the effects that the town experiences. Bring in statistics and show some examples of towns this has happened in.

                                               i.     The loss of business and what it means for other people with job loss in the town.

                                             ii.     Empty downtowns and how the lead to crime.

                                            iii.     Low pay with jobs compared to what was lost.

d.     Spillover effect-go into detail talking about the effects that Wal-Mart has in other towns around it.

                                               i.    

e.     The indirect harm of blue-collar towns through exportation of jobs and squeezing of manufacturers.

                                               i.     They create dependencies with companies and then puts harsh demands which run businesses to the ground

                                             ii.     Overseas jobs and how we import way more than we export.

f.      Resistance to Wal-Mart and how towns don’t want them in their town.

                                               i.    

g.     The little good Wal-Mart has to it and how it helps America in some ways

h.     The effect that Wal-Mart has on the local government in terms of throwing its power around and influencing decisions in their favor.

                                               i.     How the town pays for the disaster once Wal-Mart is gone. The town pays for all the roads and accommodations needed for the Wal-Mart traffic and once the Wal-Mart leaves the town is left with all this extra expense and no money coming from the Wal-Mart.

i.      Talk about all the lawsuits against Wal-Mart and how they have been able to avoid all accountability for their actions.

                                               i.     Examples such as the Women harassment case or the low pay and illegal worker cases and illegal business practices

Annotated Bibliography

1. Stone, Kenneth. "IMPACT OF THE WAL-MART PHENOMENON      ON RURAL COMMUNITIES." Diss. Iowa State University, 1997. Print.

This article examines the effects of wal-mart when it moves into small towns in Iowa. The professor does research into the statistics of how many business go out of business. He also examines Job creation vs. job loss.

2. Useem, Jerry. "Should We Admire Wal-Mart?Some say, it's evil. Others insist it's the model of all that's right with America. Who are we to believe?." Fortune. 08/03/2004: n. page. Web. 14 Oct. 2011. <http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2004/03/08/363689/index.htm>.

This article will be used to show how torn people can be on the topic of Wal-mart. Many of us shop at Wal-mart or own stock in Wal-mart. But as well many of us hate Wal-Mart’s tactics and don’t want Wal-Mart in our town. The funny thing is that most of us have support for both sides. So which one is it?

3. The High Cost of Low Prices. Dir. Robert Greenwald. Brave New Films, 2005. DVD. <http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/wal-mart-the-high-cost-of-low-price/>.

The documentary examines Wal-Mart and the tactics it uses to drive out competition. It interviews Wal-Mart several times as well as examines certain cases where Wal-Mart performed illegal practices and what happened when it came to town. It showed factories being shut down then replaced with super Wal-Marts soon after. It did this as well as examine the globalization that Wal-Mart is creating.

           

4. Quinn, Bill. How Walmart Is Destroying America (And the World): And What You Can Do about It. 3 Rev Upd. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2005. Print.

The Chapter I am most focused on is What happens when Wal-Mart comes to town. It examines the negative effects on towns. Also it tells how they get into your town legally and illegally and what some of the false perceptions are about it.

5. Is Wal-mart good for America. Dir. Rick Young. WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION, 2004. Web. 18 Oct 2011. <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/>.

The documentary examines people’s contradictory views on Wal-Mart. How they need the bargains but are against the job loss that it brings. It looks at one example in particular, a RCA TV factory in which it bullies and drives out of business through demand. It showed how Wal-Mart eliminated high paying salary jobs with low paying wages.

6. Voros, Drew. "Who's afraid of the big, bad Wal-mart?." Contra Costa Times 11/2/2010`. n. pag. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=313958&sr=HLEAD(WHO'S AFRAID OF THE BIG, BAD WALMART?) and date is November, 2010>.

The article is about the protest of a Wal-Mart being built in the east bay area around Oakland. The Battle is being fought buy labor and environmental leaders. They say it will lead to bad things for the town. The author rebuttals this by saying that they already sell stuff to the town so what would the store change.

7. "Working with Wal-Mart." Ottwa Citizen 16/02/2001. Final n. pag. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=8363&sr=HLEAD(Working with Wal-Mart) and date is February, 2007>.

            The article addresses a small own just outside of Ottwa where the highway is drawing a new mall. Half of the allotted mall space is going to be a Wal-Mart. Since Wal-Mart has a reputation of killing small downtowns and leaving them empty for crime to grow there is resistance to this. Just another example of resistance to Wal-Mart in towns.

8. Caldwell, Christopher. "Capital Markets; Walmart, D.C. community organizer." Weekly Standard 17/01/2011. n. pag. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/lnacademic/?shr=t&csi=154608&sr=HLEAD(Capital Markets) and date is January, 2011>.

            The article talks about the resistance to Wal-Mart coming into D.C. Wal-Mart dominates all 50 states but has yet to be placed into our nation’s capital. The article talks about not just how Wal-Mart puts local business in bankruptcy but also how they enforce their will on local governments.

9. Green, Joshua. "The New War Over Wal-Mart." Atlantic Monthly (10727825) 297.5 (2006): 38-44. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.

            The article addresses one of the major labor issues with Wal-Mart, health-care. How a business who says to create well paid jobs only gives 1/3 of its employees good healthcare. This leaves 2/3’s employees with out health care and none of these people are the high pad CEO’s.

10. Entenza, Rachel, Hadley Leavell, and Balasundram Maniam. "Is Wal-Mart smothering small town America?." Entrepreneurial Executive. (2005): p1. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=clemson_itweb&tabID=T002&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|A166778413&&docId=GALE|A166778413&docType=GALE&role=>.

The article examines the effects that Wal-mart has on other towns. The authors did research and found various sources of people who had already done research and addressed each topic. Topics ranged from competition to the spill over effect and concluded with Wal-Mart doing more harm than good

11.  Condon, Mark. "The Wal-Mart Effect." Credit Union Magazine 73.2 (2007): 20. Business Source Premier. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct. 2011.

            This article talks about the strategies Wal-Mart Employees. How it squeezes out every last cent of their price and the effect it has on everyone.

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