What do these Florida companies have in common

[Florida_Geek]

Disney World, Cape Canaveral, BellSouth, Blue Cross, Busch Gardens, Goodwill Industries, Bank of America, Best Buy, Dillards, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, Capital Regional Medical Center and the Tallahassee Democrat, Wal-Mart, Publix, McDonald

Take a guess before clicking on link

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/10450924.htm

[mcscajun]

1. Unbelievable?

"That is unbelievable. I would have thought it would be much less," said state Sen. Durrell Peaden Jr., R-Crestview, chair of the Senate Health Care Committee, when told about the number of employers who have Medicaid-qualified employees.

Ummmmmmmm...DUH! Isn't that ONE of the things the chair Ought to Know?

[BlueJazz]

4. I get into this subject at least one time per week when.....

...people start spouting crap such as "The low, low prices really save me money"
I point out (not so gently) that: "You're paying a lot more for these items than you think".... plus the fact that these employees are not able to purchase home-made items that help the local enonomy PLUS the fact that these same employees are stressed out to the max leading to more and more health problems that we, in turn, pay for....

It's just a lousy deal all the way around.

[EVDebs]

2. The Benefits Trap lays the scenario out...dump benefits and

outsource as much as possible. See "The Benefits Trap" at
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_29/b3892001_mz001.htm

As the article quotes below, the companies are doing it to turn US companies into third world corporations in order to 'stay competitive'. It's more of the RACE TO THE BOTTOM.

""Why are retirees being left out in the cold? An unsavory brew of factors have come together to put stress on the retirement system like never before. First, there's the simple fact that Americans are living longer in retirement, and that costs more. Next come internal corporate issues, including soaring health-care costs and long-term underfunding of pension promises. Perhaps most important, in the global economy, long-established U.S. companies are competing against younger rivals here and abroad that pay little or nothing toward their workers' retirement, giving the older companies a huge incentive to dump their plans. "The house isn't burning now, but we will have a crisis soon if some of these issues aren't fixed," says Steven A. Kandarian, who ended a two-year stint as the executive director of the PBGC in February. Kandarian is not optimistic about how that crisis might play out, either. "By that time it will be too late to save the system. Then you just play triage."

As industry after industry and company after company strive to limit -- or eliminate -- their so-called legacy costs, a historic shift is taking place. No one voted on it and Congress never debated the issue, but with little fanfare we have entered into a vast reorganization of our retirement system, from employer funded to employee and government funded, a sort of stealth nationalization of retirement. As the burden moves from companies to individuals -- who have traditionally been notoriously poor planners -- it becomes near certain that in the end, a bigger portion will fall on the shoulders of taxpayers. "Where the vacuum develops, the government is forced to step in," says Sylvester J. Schieber, a vice-president at benefit-consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide (WW ). "If we think we can walk away from these obligations scot-free, that's just a dream.""

[ClintonTyree]

3. These are the "jobs" * is creating........................

we export good paying jobs with benefits and the only jobs created by * are like this. The American taxpayer picks up the tab for the Corporations lack of a living wage and any type of health benefits.
Cheap labor Republicans at their slimiest. How long will it take for Americans to wake up? I'm losing faith that they ever will. Soon there will be no middle class, just rich and poor.
The Republican's wet dream. Our worst nightmare.

[lpbk2713]

5. Publix can't contribute to their employees health care but

they have plenty of money to contribute to the Smirky reelection campaign.

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=145x2316

[EVDebs]

6. Paul Krugman column on Social Security shows

they've done this trick before. Scared up the public with 'sky is falling with Social Security' in order to add payroll tax to SS...when public wasn't looking in '82-83...

Everybody forgot that Reagan's '81 tax cuts had to be paid for somehow...Guess who's in office now ? A bunch of jokers who pulled this trick in the early '80's and are now playing the same game.

Will Congress go along this time ? I sure hope not.