How is it just plain dumb to call Walmart greedy and apathetic when it's greedy and apathetic? The measures cited in the article always reduce crime wherever they're implemented. Best Buy, Target, Kroger, etc use them over here in high-crime areas. Even our Walmart does. The Walmart in article that started them back up had a big decline in calls. We can't blame them for the rest but it was clear they weren't doing their part before. All for some extra $$$.
Note: All these retailers have a risk management team that knows about effects of above practices. You can bet they voiced opposition to the changes since their headaches would go up. They were then ignored to see those numbers go up on the balance sheet.
1. A set of practices that cost some money but reduce amount of damagd to it and its customers. This is the baseline response it originally had plus what many competitors are currently doing.
2. Get rid of all of those, let crime increase dramatically, pocket the money, and foot the expenses to taxpayers.
I think eliminating 1 for 2 is unethical and damaging to locals, including customers victims of resulting crime. I support allowing them to do it but encourage police departments to make it cost them as in the article. That they did a 180 after that shows this is entirely motivated by profit.
The problem has always been people. That's why we have civilization in the first place: to create a structure where people are reasonably safe from the predations of other people.
People were still people 10 or 20 years ago, but Walmart didn't have the same crime problem. Asking them to return to previous staffing levels so that their stores are safer for customers and the community doesn't sound like a shocking burden to me.
You could blame Walmart for some of the economic woes, but they aren't the ones shuttering the auto plant, or the steel mill, or the shoe shop, or automating the old labor-intensive, natural-resource sectors so they require vastly fewer, more highly skilled people.
But is that actually a problem of Walmart's creation, or is it that the pressures that encourage shoplifting became higher among those that Walmart attracts and in the areas Walmart builds in the past 10-20 years.
Increasing staffing would probably benefit the people shopping there more than it would prevent shoplifting. And the greeters? They hired 60+ year olds for that, no one was dissuaded from shoplifting because of them.
Diagnose and solve the problem, don't treat the symptom of the problem.
In addition, lack of employment correlates (and presumably causes) and increase in crime, in drug use, in depression. These are all externalities that are borne not only by the former worker and their families but by taxpayers and society at large. Someone has to pay for the increased crime and protection, someone has to pay for the additional health care costs, and so on.
These negative externalities of exporting jobs to China, to Mexico, and soon possibly to other Asian nations through TPP are never part of the economic equation.
In order to address a problem, it must be fully analyzed. In this case, there is much finger pointing at the victims of a broken system.
So, when a company exports a worker's job overseas, who is supposed to pay the additional healthcare costs cost by the unemployment? Should us the taxpayers or should those that caused the problem in the first place? Someone has to pay and we shouldn't just let events decide but rather make a conscious choice.
H1-B visa abuse is used by firms (see Disney World in Florida and Abbott Pharmacueticals in Illinois for example) to drive down IT and STEM labor rates.
You might dislike Trump, but he is against H1-B Visa Abuse and H2-A and H2-B (blue collar) Visa abuse. Meanwhile Hilary has used H1-B Visas in the Clinton Foundation (I love patriotism :-) ).
So, instead of being emotional about an issue, be analytical. I assume that most of the people reading HN are analytical and just don't emotionally lash out.
Since most Trump voters are uneducated, this is my tip: Go to Stanford/MIT/Columbia, get a CS degree and then you won't have to compete with illegals for a job. And always remember:
"Of course foreigners steal your job, but maybe, if someone without contacts, money, or speaking the language steals your job, you're shit." ~ Louis C. K.
Trump has admitted it was a mistake for him to abuse the H2-A and H2-B programs and he is against increasing H1-B (STEM) H2-A and H2-B. Whereas Hilary is for increasing the H1-B program (her backers want it increased).
Sanders agreed with Trump's position of not increasing H1-B, H2-A, and H2-B Visa programs.
The truth is that the position of Trump and Sanders care more for the jobs of professional STEM and working class than Hilary.
Be analytical and not emotional.
"... you're shit." ~ Louis C. K."
Don't know Louis C.K. but he's a jerk.
The IQ curve is a normal distribution around 100 and it takes an IQ of around 110 or so to get into college and get a degree. Many people lacked the intelligence/intellectual endowment that readers of HN has. That doesn't mean they're shit. It means that they struggle in this world in ways that many here can't fully understand.
Looking at your history (African American access to the tech world in NYC), it seems you are a troll, so I'll leave it at this: http://blog.samaltman.com/trump
"However, Trump is a different story. “When politicians talk about ‘immigration reform’ they mean: amnesty, cheap labour and open borders,” his website states. “Any immigration plan must improve jobs, wages and security for all Americans.”"
[skip]
"Trump's plan is manifold but there are two points that specifically target H-1B visa holders. Trump states on his website that one way to curb unemployment is by increasing the prevailing wage for H-1Bs. This will force the companies to give the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) jobs to Americans, instead of hiring the no-longer cheap labour from other countries. That way, more women, blacks and Hispanics will get jobs in the STEM industry. He wants to introduce a rule so that companies that want to hire workers on H-1B will be required to hire American workers first, even before greencards (permanent residence status) are issued to foreign workers."
Instead of resorting to ad hominem (trolls?) attacks, you should admit the facts which are that Hilary as Senator said she wanted to create 200,000 jobs in NY State and for her it was "do as I say, not do as I do" when she Clinton Foundation attempted to hire foreigners instead of Americans.
The truth is that Trump's position is for employing Americans for STEM jobs and not importing foreigners.
Trump criticizes Disney for replacing American IT workers with foreign H1-B workers (Southern California Edison did the same as Disney). http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/donald-trump-just-took-a-...
Trump and Sanders criticize Carrier Air conditioners for exporting jobs to Mexico. http://fortune.com/2016/02/18/sanders-and-trump-give-union-h...
There are lots of young Americans and older Americans that want jobs and Trump (and Sanders) wanted to help them. Hilary, on the other hand supports increasing the H1-B visa program which will displace even more American jobs. Both the Democratic and Republican elites support importing foreigners to replace Americans. That is one of the reasons that the Republican elite truly hate Trump. In many ways, he is more for the workers than the Hilary Democrats and that makes them very, very angry that voters and not their elite money could nominate their candidate.
http://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-tech-policies-20...
"HP Enterprises CEO Meg Whitman has been outspoken on her position that Trump's trade policies would damage her company.
"I think his policies around free trade will be damaging to businesses as a whole," said Whitman, a Republican, in an interview with CNBC."
Instructive comments on Trump and H1-B: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskTrumpSupporters/comments/4umcm9/...
As for my statements on Black access and tech world in NYC, I assume you live in NYC and you've been to meetups so you know what I am talking about and can dispute it. Why don't you tell me from your own experience, what exactly is wrong with my statements.
Oh, and regarding Sam Altman and Nazi Germany, etc. I had family that came to the US in 1881 thanks to pogroms.
Walmart is Best Buy times 100. Blaming Walmart is just plain dumb as its a sign of something wrong with society. I wish we'd get over blaming things and get to being honest and admit the problem is people. People can have all manner of things fixed, and yes, its harder than demanding the victim of the crime pay for it. Charging Walmart more is going to up the prices and hurt a lot more people who really cannot afford another tax.