Many of Wal-Marts employees have spouses that carry the family insurance.

Dammit! - can't find the article!

Walmart has less insurance participation from it's employees per-capita than virtually anyother major employer...so much so, that there should be an investigation into their hiring practices, so much so that it looks very suspicious that they are unfairly hiring workers that will not require medical insurance because their spouses have the family coverage already.

China is a totalitarian state. I'm talking about other western nations such as those in Europe and Canada.

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Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic, religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. -Carl Sagan

No, I'm saying they should take care of workers. If they had a seat at the table then their buying power wouldn't be decreasing. If you call making capitalists follow rules that protect workers then I guess you are right. Then again you could use that definition any time laws are enforced.

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Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic, religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. -Carl Sagan

They are forced to work by the government. It is regulation in its most brutal form.

Sorry, but there is a huge difference between voluntary work and work at gunpoint. In a libertarian society, the "evil exploiting capitalists" have to purchase labor at market prices. In a communist society, the Glorious Bureaucrats can force people to work for no pay by sending out an army of secret police to round them up and stuff them into State factories.

Freedom is not exploitation. Wherever exploitation exists, it is a result of government.

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. - Ernest Benn
Truth is not the halfway point between two untruths. - Ludwig von Mises

Your claim, specifically, was that "Countries with more regulations have a high standard of living." To point out the absurdity of this claim, I mentioned China, which is one of the most regulatory and outright socialist states in the world, and its terrible standard of living. Now, you are moving the goal-posts.

And as for Europe, those countries have unemployment rates that would be considered psychotically high in America. Is that good for standard of living?

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. - Ernest Benn
Truth is not the halfway point between two untruths. - Ludwig von Mises

At gunpoint?

Evidence, please.

Thanks for conceding the point.

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy. - Ernest Benn
Truth is not the halfway point between two untruths. - Ludwig von Mises

So you are saying that laws are bad? Sorry but I really feel that we need laws.

The loss of buying power has been reported in many places. I believe the last report I saw about it was on MSNBC. Next time I see a report on it I will try and remember to tape it and mail you a vhs copy.

Here is a good chart on wage decline that was posted in another thread.

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Up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perception awaits us. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic, religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. -Carl Sagan

Simple ... it will be treated as an added expense and will be passed on to the consumer. This legislation will cost consumers more money.

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"I miss the days when they made toys that could kill a kid."
- Jerry Seinfeld

If they have to spend 8% of their payroll on heath care, all they have to do is reduce employee pay by 8% and divert it to insurance.

As for more regulations making for better off citizens, that's absurd. Does that apply only to business, or regulation of personal choices as well?

It doesn't even have the virtue of being empirically demonstrable. If you define better off as something like the human development index, yes, Canada is better off, although the US is still ahead of most of Europe. It should also be noted that Canada, while more regulated than the US, is less regulated than Europe.

There is more of a correlation between small Western countries and prosperity than a correlation between regulation. YOu know what that proves? That decentralization, smaller units, are more efficient. Smaller countries like Finland, Sweden, Canada, and Switzerland have better government than larger nations like France, Germany, Britain, and the US, nations with more than 50 million people.

That's the best argument for a weak federal government and strong state governments that one can find.