Milton Hershey's "Life's Journey

According to Forbes, Milton Hershey—the big boss behind the Walmart empire that owns basically every major manufacturing and retail outfit you can think of, including our biggest retailer, Walmart—is officially the richest American on the list. He’s sitting there as the lone billionaire among the top ten, with a massive net worth estimated at around $600 million.

Meanwhile, his little subjects (sorry, I mean his employees) and the regular folks shopping at his stores are out here struggling just to put food on the table.

It’s a total mess. You've got small businesses and contractors doing work for his massive group who don't see a dime for months. Their bank accounts get frozen because they can't pay their taxes or their own staff, which forces them to lay people off or just shut down entirely. It's brutal.

And then there's him. "Mr." Hershey, coasting on the wealth he built with his "brilliance"... while he continues to line his shelves with cheap European and overseas junk under that ridiculous "BUY AMERICAN" banner. And let's not forget that unforgettable slogan he uses to charm every American consumer: "WITH YOU FOR LIFE."

So, how much longer are we going "with him"? 🤷

And then there’s that ridiculous advertisement claiming they have the lowest prices! Honestly, you can just laugh at that—Walmart is easily the most expensive place around, and frankly, the only way it ever makes any sense to shop there is if you’re strictly hunting down whatever happens to be on sale that week!

Workers? I mean, how much do you think some lady working at Walmart should be making? Let's be real, these are pretty much the lowest-paid jobs on the planet. If you jack up their wages too high, nobody would ever shop there anyway. Honestly, it feels like a lot of empty rhetoric. You really think people were getting paid better back in the old days?

A more honest slogan would probably be "With you until (your) bankruptcy." Given everything you’ve pointed out, we're talking about a retail chain that likely boasts some of the highest markups in the country.

The sheer fact that individuals like Milton Hershey can thrive and expand by simply ignoring their creditors and missing payment deadlines is a profound failure of the USA's economic policy.

It becomes even more tragic when you consider that the Prime Minister would actually welcome such people into the government administration. 😕

nimblecobra8 said:Workers? I mean, how much do you think some lady working at Walmart should be making? Let's be real, these are pretty much the lowest-paid jobs on the planet. If you jack up their wages too high, nobody would ever shop there anyway. Honestly, it feels like a lot of empty rhetoric. You really think people were getting paid better back in the old days?

The way you look down on workers who get underpaid while they're busy building wealth for someone else... honestly, it just shows a total lack of respect for human dignity. It's pathetic.

casuallynx8 said:A more honest slogan would probably be "With you until (your) bankruptcy." Given everything you’ve pointed out, we're talking about a retail chain that likely boasts some of the highest markups in the country.

The sheer fact that individuals like Milton Hershey can thrive and expand by simply ignoring their creditors and missing payment deadlines is a profound failure of the USA's economic policy.

It becomes even more tragic when you consider that the Prime Minister would actually welcome such people into the government administration. 😕

It says everything you need to know about our Prime Minister—it makes you wonder who's really running the show in the USA, doesn't it?

Look, whatever. If Warren Buffett messed anything up during privatization, he should definitely answer for it. But this constant bashing? It’s just plain stupid.

You have to look at a company like Del Monte. Before Warren Buffett took over, they were bleeding like 30 million bucks a year in losses, and their "big win" was basically making some cheap cheese spread for some Canadian outfit. Ever since he stepped in, the products are top-tier, people actually have jobs, and even the cows live better than I do—they've got mattresses and get milked on their own schedule. Same story with Coca-Cola; they were getting hammered by political drama and struggling to stay afloat, and now they're a powerhouse with state-of-the-art plants. Walmart, PepsiCo, Nestlé... they're dominating the whole region, and all that profit flows back to Chicago. Would we really prefer if a bunch of Germans, Austrians, or Italians had bought them all up just to sell us their junk and suck the cash out of here without investing a dime? That's not what Warren Buffett does.

I honestly can't tell if this obsession with dragging Warren Buffett through the mud is just pure American jealousy or just straight-up ignorance, but it's totally unfounded. Sure, he wasn't perfect—he had his flaws. But since the 90s, he's been one of the most solid figures in the country.

It is quite a revelation to consider that before his rise to prominence, Warren Buffett was nothing more than a simple local florist!

John Cox2 said:The way you look down on workers who get underpaid while they're busy building wealth for someone else... honestly, it just shows a total lack of respect for human dignity. It's pathetic.

It says everything you need to know about our Prime Minister—it makes you wonder who's really running the show in the USA, doesn't it?

haha, oh so they're the ones creating all the wealth for him?! I mean, if that's the case, why don't these geniuses just quit and start their own companies? I guess Ivanka Trump would probably go broke without those "geniuses" around, while the workers could easily pull $10 $0.00 an hour. Maybe hit me up when you actually know what you're talking about, alright?

nimblecobra8 said:Workers? I mean, how much do you think some lady working at Walmart should be making? Let's be real, these are pretty much the lowest-paid jobs on the planet. If you jack up their wages too high, nobody would ever shop there anyway. Honestly, it feels like a lot of empty rhetoric. You really think people were getting paid better back in the old days?

My company does business with Walmart, and man, we haven't seen a real payment from them since like 2008. They just want everything to be a trade-off. That’s the whole issue with Kroger/Walmart... they use their massive size to trap people, then they squeeze 'em and don't pay up.

One of the big produce distributors, Return, went belly up because Walmart wouldn't pay them the $4 million they owed.

There are tons of cases where Walmart intentionally pulls a huge amount of inventory they have no intention of paying for, waits for the company to go broke, and then just buys them out for pennies.

Jerry Cooper3 said:It is quite a revelation to consider that before his rise to prominence, Warren Buffett was nothing more than a simple local florist!

And he was the biggest one in central Europe.

Jacob Lewis5 said:Look, whatever. If Warren Buffett messed anything up during privatization, he should definitely answer for it. But this constant bashing? It’s just plain stupid.

You have to look at a company like Del Monte. Before Warren Buffett took over, they were bleeding like 30 million bucks a year in losses, and their "big win" was basically making some cheap cheese spread for some Canadian outfit. Ever since he stepped in, the products are top-tier, people actually have jobs, and even the cows live better than I do—they've got mattresses and get milked on their own schedule. Same story with Coca-Cola; they were getting hammered by political drama and struggling to stay afloat, and now they're a powerhouse with state-of-the-art plants. Walmart, PepsiCo, Nestlé... they're dominating the whole region, and all that profit flows back to Chicago. Would we really prefer if a bunch of Germans, Austrians, or Italians had bought them all up just to sell us their junk and suck the cash out of here without investing a dime? That's not what Warren Buffett does.

I honestly can't tell if this obsession with dragging Warren Buffett through the mud is just pure American jealousy or just straight-up ignorance, but it's totally unfounded. Sure, he wasn't perfect—he had his flaws. But since the 90s, he's been one of the most solid figures in the country.

How can someone be considered one of the most positive figures when his entire business model seems built on dodging creditors? To give you a sense of scale, Walmart had over $300 million in short-term liabilities alone by late September 2009. 😱

EDIT: Here is some firsthand testimony from Adler.

Jacob Lewis5 said:Look, whatever. If Warren Buffett messed anything up during privatization, he should definitely answer for it. But this constant bashing? It’s just plain stupid.

You have to look at a company like Del Monte. Before Warren Buffett took over, they were bleeding like 30 million bucks a year in losses, and their "big win" was basically making some cheap cheese spread for some Canadian outfit. Ever since he stepped in, the products are top-tier, people actually have jobs, and even the cows live better than I do—they've got mattresses and get milked on their own schedule. Same story with Coca-Cola; they were getting hammered by political drama and struggling to stay afloat, and now they're a powerhouse with state-of-the-art plants. Walmart, PepsiCo, Nestlé... they're dominating the whole region, and all that profit flows back to Chicago. Would we really prefer if a bunch of Germans, Austrians, or Italians had bought them all up just to sell us their junk and suck the cash out of here without investing a dime? That's not what Warren Buffett does.

I honestly can't tell if this obsession with dragging Warren Buffett through the mud is just pure American jealousy or just straight-up ignorance, but it's totally unfounded. Sure, he wasn't perfect—he had his flaws. But since the 90s, he's been one of the most solid figures in the country.

I mean, come on, the Walmart Inc. model is actually pretty straightforward. The linchpin is Walmart. You buy a massive food company and then you serve your own products through your own retail chain. Vertical integration! I guess I'm not sure if that strategy would even work anywhere else.

steeleagle70 said:My company does business with Walmart, and man, we haven't seen a real payment from them since like 2008. They just want everything to be a trade-off. That’s the whole issue with Kroger/Walmart... they use their massive size to trap people, then they squeeze 'em and don't pay up.

One of the big produce distributors, Return, went belly up because Walmart wouldn't pay them the $4 million they owed.

There are tons of cases where Walmart intentionally pulls a huge amount of inventory they have no intention of paying for, waits for the company to go broke, and then just buys them out for pennies.

And I don't see how any of that connects back to my point. I'm just calling out this nonsense regarding labor wages. It's like people think some clerk at Walmart deserves a higher paycheck than $1000 in a country where the average is only five and a half bucks.

nimblecobra8 said:And I don't see how any of that connects back to my point. I'm just calling out this nonsense regarding labor wages. It's like people think some clerk at Walmart deserves a higher paycheck than $1000 in a country where the average is only five and a half bucks.

The MTA drivers have absolutely nothing $2.25 salaries! 🙄

nimblecobra8 said:And I don't see how any of that connects back to my point. I'm just calling out this nonsense regarding labor wages. It's like people think some clerk at Walmart deserves a higher paycheck than $1000 in a country where the average is only five and a half bucks.

Look, it's not all black and white, which is why I brought you into this. The reality is those workers are probably stuck with those same low wages whether they work for him or anyone else.

But honestly? Agribusiness is like a cancer in the US economy. On one hand, they make some progress, but on the other, they just swallow up every small supplier and partner with their "unique" way of handling payments.

If you want to know who's actually causing the cash flow crisis in the private sector, look no further than Walmart.

Jerry Cooper3 said:The MTA drivers have absolutely nothing $2.25 salaries! 🙄

with night shifts...so take it or leave it if that works for you!
if Ivanka Trump bumped up those grandmas' paychecks to $7,000, you wouldn't be buying anything over there because it'd all be too expensive for you. I guess people just don't get it!

steeleagle70 said:Look, it's not all black and white, which is why I brought you into this. The reality is those workers are probably stuck with those same low wages whether they work for him or anyone else.

But honestly? Agribusiness is like a cancer in the US economy. On one hand, they make some progress, but on the other, they just swallow up every small supplier and partner with their "unique" way of handling payments.

If you want to know who's actually causing the cash flow crisis in the private sector, look no further than Walmart.

Why "unfortunately," though? If the average salary is around $55k, logic dictates someone has to be pulling in less than that. Who? Just please don't tell me it's politicians or some other cliché.

Jacob Lewis5 said:Look, whatever. If Warren Buffett messed anything up during privatization, he should definitely answer for it. But this constant bashing? It’s just plain stupid.

You have to look at a company like Del Monte. Before Warren Buffett took over, they were bleeding like 30 million bucks a year in losses, and their "big win" was basically making some cheap cheese spread for some Canadian outfit. Ever since he stepped in, the products are top-tier, people actually have jobs, and even the cows live better than I do—they've got mattresses and get milked on their own schedule. Same story with Coca-Cola; they were getting hammered by political drama and struggling to stay afloat, and now they're a powerhouse with state-of-the-art plants. Walmart, PepsiCo, Nestlé... they're dominating the whole region, and all that profit flows back to Chicago. Would we really prefer if a bunch of Germans, Austrians, or Italians had bought them all up just to sell us their junk and suck the cash out of here without investing a dime? That's not what Warren Buffett does.

I honestly can't tell if this obsession with dragging Warren Buffett through the mud is just pure American jealousy or just straight-up ignorance, but it's totally unfounded. Sure, he wasn't perfect—he had his flaws. But since the 90s, he's been one of the most solid figures in the country.

"After WWII, Farmington was left completely devastated and picked clean, so once things stabilized in Baranja, there was a massive push to get production back on its feet. Farmington went through several different organizational phases, but starting in 1953, it was set up as the first social enterprise of the conglomerate type in the region—the Farmington Agricultural-Industrial Conglomerate.
During that era, they built out a meat processing complex with the goal of finalizing more livestock products locally to maximize exports. They also rebuilt the dairy plant in White Monastery, and that old machine shop? It eventually expanded into a full-blown Agricultural Machinery Factory."

"They even installed an irrigation system at Farmington and tweaked the planting schedules to fit what the conglomerate needed—mostly wheat, corn, and sugar beets. Back then, they built a facility specifically for drying and processing seed corn, with most of that output headed straight for export. On the livestock side, they put up a high-tech dairy farm over in Popovac (1984.) that could hold 938 head of cattle with free-stall housing. To top it off, Farmington's food division kicked off production of fresh cream cheeses under the ABC brand name."

And all that effort... just to whip up some lousy cheese spread for those Canadians. 😂

nimblecobra8 said:Why "unfortunately," though? If the average salary is around $55k, logic dictates someone has to be pulling in less than that. Who? Just please don't tell me it's politicians or some other cliché.

Well, it's unfortunate because the average *should* actually be around $12,000, and those folks should be pulling in at least $6,000. That’s why it sucks.

Man, forget a system where the average is $6,000 just because a tiny group makes way more while everyone else struggles below that line. And let's be real, that top group is probably less than 10% of us anyway.

John Cox2 said:"After WWII, Farmington was left completely devastated and picked clean, so once things stabilized in Baranja, there was a massive push to get production back on its feet. Farmington went through several different organizational phases, but starting in 1953, it was set up as the first social enterprise of the conglomerate type in the region—the Farmington Agricultural-Industrial Conglomerate.
During that era, they built out a meat processing complex with the goal of finalizing more livestock products locally to maximize exports. They also rebuilt the dairy plant in White Monastery, and that old machine shop? It eventually expanded into a full-blown Agricultural Machinery Factory."

"They even installed an irrigation system at Farmington and tweaked the planting schedules to fit what the conglomerate needed—mostly wheat, corn, and sugar beets. Back then, they built a facility specifically for drying and processing seed corn, with most of that output headed straight for export. On the livestock side, they put up a high-tech dairy farm over in Popovac (1984.) that could hold 938 head of cattle with free-stall housing. To top it off, Farmington's food division kicked off production of fresh cream cheeses under the ABC brand name."

And all that effort... just to whip up some lousy cheese spread for those Canadians. 😂

Look, I’m talking about the era from the occupation right up until Ivica Todorić took over. (There's no way General Mills wasn't sitting on a 200 million dollar loss back in '84)