Wal-Mart best symbolizes America, a new poll finds

[Kadie]

This is sad...



Wal-Mart best symbolizes America, a new poll finds
By FRAZIER MOORE, AP Television Writer

Sunday, September 27, 2009


(09-27) 17:24 PDT New York (AP) --

Half the respondents of a new poll say taxing the richest Americans by at least 50 percent is a great idea, while more than a third consider Twitter a fad that will likely fade.

Those are among the findings of a new "60 Minutes"-Vanity Fair Poll released Sunday.

Nearly half of the respondents chose Wal-Mart as the institution that best symbolizes America today, leaving in the dust runners-up Google, Microsoft, the NFL, and the banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs.

Dining out was chosen most often by respondents as a luxury they hate sacrificing in these tough economic times. And 5 percent thought the best way to fight obesity among patrons of fast-food chains is to equip each restaurant with scales for them to weigh themselves.

A politician taking bribes is considered by far the greater sin (chosen by 37 percent



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/09/27/entertainment/e170040D44.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0SMPzvt8A

[onehandle]

1. Twitter is a fad that will likely fade.

Wal-Mart is America. And it is sad.

[baldguy]

3. +1

Wal-Mart symbolizes everything that's wrong with America.

[Selatius]

2. I thought farms, small businesses, and Main Street USA used to best symbolize America.

This country has degenerated into a banana republic.

[izquierdista]

10. 60 years ago

Now it's strip malls, fast food, outlet malls, Wal-mart, fashion malls, agribusiness, and did I mention...malls.

[Kadie]

15. Baseball and Apple Pie.

Things have changed a lot.

[subcomhd]

4. that's about right. nt

[Obamanaut]

5. Half the respondents want to tax the rich more, and half the respondents

seem to like Walmart.

What is sad is we don't know if they are the same halves, and if so, isn't that confusing for the people here who hate both walmart and rich people?

[Skip Intro]

7. Wonder, of those who said Walmart, were a majority Walmart admirers or saddened realists.

[triple point]

17. What's sadly amusing is how many hate rich people...and buy lottery tickets at WalMart

hoping to become one...

[RKP5637]

6. I avoid Wal-Mart like the plague, so guess I'm not very American anymore.

I think of Wal-Mart as akin to a disease.

[bigwillq]

8. Wal-Mart is everthing that's wrong with America (nt)

[msongs]

9. walmart = cheap junk made in china by people who have what used to be YOUR job lol nt

[Kadie]

16. basically,

cheap junk made in China symbolizes America.

It is really, really sad.

[SheilaT]

11. I have not been inside a Wal-Mart in

about ten years.

Actually, I think a good way to fight obesity is to get weighed every single day. If you don't get on the scales for long periods of time, it's easy to convince yourself that maybe your clothes have shrunk in the drier, rather than you've put on however many pounds. And no, I don't propose doing it in public. I weigh myself every single morning after I get out of the shower, and I'm finding it a useful tool in keeping my weight to a reasonable point.

[Auggie]

12. "... a random sample of 1,097 respondents nationwide."

Doesn't seem like much

[marmar]

13. It is......tragically.

Rome is :nuke:

[HipChick]

14. you cant pay me to shop at Walmart

[Brickbat]

18. As I said in the other thread, of course Wal-Mart best symbolizes America. Made in

China for cheap, short-term personal gain in favor of long-term collective loss, and the belief that putting a flag and a cozy commercial on anything will make it all better. FWIW, that's what America is right now.