Who Leads in Socialism?
Submitted by Experience Not Logic Blog
Say what you want about the superficiality of rankings, but it sure is a lot of fun. And really, what else is there to talk about?
The other day a friend commented to me that some are arguing that the US is becoming more and more socialist by the day with the federal bailouts of Fannie and Freddie and IndyMac, plus all of the other banks. I chuckled and conceded Fannie and Freddie, but noted all the other banks are merely being bailed out by the FDIC which has had the mandate to do this since its inception under the New Deal legislation of the 1930s. We agreed, both on fact and the humor of the situation.
In an opinion piece in today’s Shanghai Daily, Rosy statistics mask not-so-pretty picture, Wu Jiayin expresses concern over the statistics purportedly indicating an increase in living standards for Chinese people, and concern that China is not spending enough on its citizens welfare.
The gist of the salary concerns:
The trick lies in the statistics themselves. The 18 percent increase refers only to the salaries earned by “urban workers,” a term that excludes migrant workers, self-employed business people, and anyone working in the private sector.
With CPI clocking a 7.9% increase in the year to date, Mr. Wu worries that the Chinese people not included in the salary study aren’t able to keep up with rising costs. Mr. Wu writes that this would be alright if China spent proportionally as much or more on its citizens medical health, social security and employment. But China spends proportionally less than the US, with medical health, social security and employment expenditures accounting for 15% of total expenditure, 2.4% of GDP, and expenditure per person accounting for 3% of the annual income of an average worker. In the US the respective expenditures are 61%, 11.5%, and 17%.
I like the way Mr. Wu ends his article:
It is just because China is not as rich as the US that the former should spend more of its income on the well-being of its people.
But, as of present the amount that the US spends on technologically advanced medical procedures, and the amount that the EU and US spend on pharmaceutical R&D means that US expenditures include subsidies of technologies that benefit the whole world, and not just its own citizens. And I would certainly argue that our relative wealth means that we should be spending more to improve the health of all.
August 1st, 2008 at 10:20 am
In the U.S. retail world of ’sociaism’ or social responsibility it is the Costco business model vs. the WalMart. costco providing at 90-92% health care coverage for its employees as WalMart is notorious for dumping their ‘associates’ onto the states for health care and the taxpayer suckers to pick up the tab.
Additionally the stocks ahve compared like this over the past 5 years…
“WALMART STOCKHOLDERS HAVE LOST MONEY OVER THE PAST 5 YEARS IN HOLDING ONTO WALMART STOCK”
WalMart (WMT) shares bought Aug. 1st 2003 at the best low 5 year price of $55.27
Dividends paid-
.18 (2003), .52 (2004), .60 (2005), .69? (2006), .88 (2007), .48(.96 projection) (2008)
Total dividends paid per share for cited 5 year time period $3.35
Best 52 week high to date in 2008 $59.95
Total price gain per share in cited 5 year time period $4.68 + $3.35 (Div) = $8.03
no splits for the cover time period
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Costco (COST) shares bought Aug 8th 2003 at the best low 5 year price of $29.22
Dividends paid-
.00 (2003), .30 (2004), .46 (2005), .51 (2006), .55 (2007), .30 (.62 projection) (2008)
total dividends paid per share for cited 5 year time period $2.12
Best 52 week high to date in 2008 $75.23
Total price gain per share in cited 5 year time period $66.01 + $2.12 (Div) = $68.13
no splits for the covered time period
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Difference of 8.48 times or 848 percent benefit in owning Costco shares over WalMart shares
Aug. 2003 through best recent high of 2008
Based on the 5 year time period cited and the $7.34 gain per share in stock value for WalMart shares you would have lost money due to compounded inflation even at the official Bush government low ball inflation rate declarations for 2003 -2008 (2003 - 2.27%, 2004 - 2.68%, 2005 - 3.39%, 2006 - 3.24%, 2007 - 2.85%, 2008 - 4-5%)
55.27 inflation loss = 1.25 (2.27% full year rate)
56.52 inflation loss = 1.51
58.03 inflation loss = 1.96
59.99 inflation loss = 1.94
61.93 inflation loss = 1.76
63.69 inflation loss = 2.86 (4.5% full year rate)
By the end of 2008 your WalMart shares would need to be priced at $66.55 just to stay even with official inflation figures over the past 5 years of holding WalMart stock. So far, even with the dividend per share from WaMart stock, you have lost money ( -17.27% after inflation and at$57/share [7/28/2008] not including the 5 years of total $3.35 dividend)
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Based on the 5 year time period cited and the $68.13 gain per share in stock value for Costco shares you would have made money even with compounded inflation even at the official Bush government low ball inflation rate declarations for 2003 -2008 (2003 - 2.27%, 2004 - 2.68%, 2005 - 3.39%, 2006 - 3.24%, 2007 - 2.85%, 2008 - 4-5%)
29.22 inflation loss = .66 (2.27% full year rate)
29.88 inflation loss = .80
30.68 inflation loss = 1.04
31.72 inflation loss = 1.02
32.74 inflation loss = .93
33.67 inflation loss = 1.52 (4.5% full year rate)
By the end of 2008 your Costco shares would need to be priced at $35.18 just to stay even with official inflation figures over the past 5 years of holding Costco stock. So far, with the dividend per share from Costco stock, you have made money (88.36% after inflation and at $61/share [7/28/2008] not including the 5 years of $2.12 total dividend)
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In the starting effort to learn and use Chinese Simplified and CIL (Chinese Internet Language) it becomes curious if the following would be blocked in China.
WalMart = 是妓院精神病患者 公司
Translation…
WalMart is the whorehouse psychopath company.
Perhaps this is already a cliche over there and the software word censor will just blink. It is something of a cliche already here in the United States as Costco has earned the title of anti-WalMart in their socialism “treat people well” model.