What good tax cutting trickle down Republican wouldn’t see the following anecdotal evidence as reaffirming, perhaps proof positive Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy need to be extended or even made permanent?
So to those struggling to make ends meet or people whose unemployment benefits are about to end ,be of good cheer, the wealthy are shopping and paying full price!
Saks Inc. and Wal-Mart may not be the best measure, but their sales do indicate spending patterns in polar segments of the economy. It’s a pattern that indicates a widening gulf in the middle, between those struggling to stay afloat and those that are floating along quite nicely with hardly a ripple on their pond, thank you.
Reports show that Saks Fifth Avenue overall revenue rose 4%.They sold more at full price noting strong demand for jewelry, woman’s clothing and sportswear. A Saks spokesman remarked that “we feel much better about the overall tone of business”. Saks does caution that the increase isn’t due to wealthy customers mindless spending but because:
stores are starting to hold the line on prices and inventory and train customers not to wait for a big sale.
On the other side of the town
You have the Wal-Mart customers who are going to dollar stores toward the end of the month,observed a Wall Street Strategies analyst.
Total revenue at U.S. Wal-Mart stores fell as fewer customers visited and spent less when they did. Low end shoppers according to a Wal-Mart spokesperson: "are focusing on necessities and being practical in how they're spending their money,
The working poor (formerly known as the middle class) discount shoppers and those with jobs are scrimping and saving in an admirable fashion. Attention Wal-Mart shoppers boot-straps half off. Now they can start cutting entitlements.
how the rich are entitled to lower overall tax rates than working folks, but those who are truly needy are entitled to… nothing.
Sad story of how some people need to wait until the last day of the month and head to a 24 hour WalMart @ midnight so they can spend their Cadillac entitlement benefits.
http://www.npr.org/templates/s…
that was largely engineered by Walmart ultimately goes full circle to bite them squarely in the butt. Now that the “Walmart-consumer class” has been fully strip-mined for it’s cash, Walmart is losing interest in the U.S. and looking to other markets to fill its cash registers. In time, they may be back to strip-mine the old consumer class in their reduced circumstances as a cheap labor force to feed growing Walmart consumption in other countries.
So it goes…
Class #1: People who can afford to write $1,000 checks to political campaigns.
Class #2: Those who can’t. Comprising 99.85% of us.
It’s why bribery scandals always surprise me. The only people who have enough money to bribe members of congress already hand-picked 99% of congress.
That’s why 99% of the “We have to…” political statements leave me cold. The Saks/Walmart divide is going to persist and widen until a) the situation is so untenable that the country crumbles, or b) we get the big money out of politics.
Campaign money is the handle by which corporations and the wealthy who benefit from them direct our government. Take away that handle and our government becomes our government. Till then, it’s all empty rhetoric.