Balta1701

The head of PIMCO is out publicly arguing that anyone who thinks the U.S. ought to be focused on deficit reduction right now needs to come back out of "left field". He recommends a swift and substantial investment in infrastructure.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 05:37 PM) If out of 1.5 million there's only a "handful" of people with legitimate claims, then it's probably not some wide spread corporate policy. There are probably well over a million who have legitimate claims...they just will never bring them. You're just playing dumb now.

Lets put it this way...will you guys place a wager that there will be more than 100,000 claims, less than 10% of the plaintiffs, who file the exact type of discrimination suit against Walmart that you say they should be able to win with ease based on the data?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 05:31 PM) In the hypothetical he has a point. But in reality it's not a good one because everyday people get screwed in various ways. They could file suit if they want, but ultimately it's not worth the cost of filing a suit. So you eat the cost. It sucks, but it's life. Class actions don't deter companies from doing whatever they did wrong, so it's not like the system is some great savior to society. As I've argued before, in the long run it's probably more expensive to have to defend 100k small claims than to pay out a 1.5 million person class action. Of course its more expensive to have to defend 100k small claims....but it's insulting to our intelligence to say that 100k small claims would be filed. The correct number of small claims likely to be filed in the AT&T case for example is 0. The number in this case is probably at best in the teens...because you can't argue for systematic discrimination on the part of the company, rather you need to argue that you have strong evidence you were passed over in a specific case because of a specific person's discrimination. "It sucks, eat the cost" is not an acceptable answer. I'm going to remember that one whenever you complain about anything else done illegally, say, illegal immigrants. "It sucks, they're here, deal with it."

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 05:26 PM) The problem is that discrimination doesn't work that way. One person might have made .05 less per hour, another might have been passed over for a job that would have netted a 50k a year salary increase. Class actions work when you can say, here's a whole set of plaintiffs who are in the exact same position (or nearly exact same), and here's the defendant who committed the same wrong against all of them. There's no need to hold 1.5 million trials on damages, or heck, in this case whether any discrimination occurred at all. How exactly if you're an individual defendant in this case who got passed over for a promotion do you establish that you were passed over because of a weighted system and not because of an individual management decision? Can't all 1.5 million of these cases argue that the decisions were individual cases and nothing untoward happened in that specific case? The real problem appears to have been that this was an institutional policy that impacted everyone. How do you deal with it when it's an instititutional issue? And more importantly now what reason does Walmart have to correct it when it can, in every case, just push the blame for a lack of promotion/equal pay downwards to individual departments that no one would ever sue?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 04:56 PM) On the other hand if a few million people filed individual lawsuits for small amounts, that might change ATTs thought process here. Of course...the amount of paperwork required for a few million people to file individual lawsuits for small claims, for either of these cases, is prohibitive.

QUOTE (Cali @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 04:45 PM) I honestly can't remember anyone who signed a big/big-ish contract/contract extension ever getting traded in the first year of said contract. Is that even allowed by baseball? Usually after June 1, yes. PK14 of course has full veto rights as a 10/5 player.

It's probably also worth noting that Walmart could happily now include a mandatory forced arbitration clause in every employee contract.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 04:14 PM) Are they a WNBA team too? What does that make the team they beat yesterday?

QUOTE (bmags @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 01:33 PM) Last year I put a baby bell mozzarella cheese ball in the middle of my burger and grilled it. It was the best thing i've ever done. You...you're a Minnesota fan!

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:52 PM) Employment decisions regarding promotions or wages and the decision to ignore safety protocols are two entirely different things. Of course. Doesn't mean you can't process the metaphor man, come on.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:40 PM) Gordo out for back to back games now. And there is no one, not even me, complaining about this.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:39 PM) Yes they are. Go file a suit and use those statistics of corporate wide discrimination to your advantage. That happens in nearly every discrimination case. And in this case, the difference is what, a few thousand dollars per employee? Over 1.5 million cases? Having the class action status is the only way in which this would be dealt with. You've accepted that the statistics are a problem that would be something the courts would normally deal with, but once again you're happy with a decision that leaves the actual plaintiffs no realistic recourse to deal with the problem.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:38 PM) maybe the reason the White Sox have won three games all year in which they were trailing after 6 innings may have something to do with the manager? Is that unusual? I feel like when teams are down after 6, they lose like 90%+ of the time.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:35 PM) You are probably right, and since he didn't have huge success right away, the big guns (Callis, Law, others at BA) viewed him as a failure despite showing some serious potential. On a pure hitting basis, he is probably one of the top 10 hitters in the minors. Now, he doesn't have a polished game like others in fielding, running and plate discipline, but on potential as a hitter, he is just about as good as anyone out there sans maybe Harper. Also, the fact that OBP/walks are so important today and when he came in, that was a missing part of his game.

QUOTE (maggsmaggs @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:25 PM) I think the overall point though remains that Viciedo has been ignored by the mainstream prospect publications and reporters despite his success. I think that the expectations coming in that he'd be Miguel Cabrera at 19 (sold by the people who signed him) play into that as well.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:29 PM) I don't see why people should essentially be presumed to be a victim without having to prove actual discrimination and actual damages. That's the law, regardless of how s***ty Walmart is as a company. They're not being given the chance to prove actual discrimination though.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:26 PM) True, but I think discrimination is a different ballgame than charging (or overcharging) someone on a bill. There could be 25 reasons why you got .05 cents less per hour that has nothing to do with being a female. Just because you happen to be female, happen to make .05 cents less, and happen to work for Walmart shouldn't mean that you're automatically a victim of discrimination. In the case of a class action suit though...that still gives walmart an argument that the suit itself is incorrect...they simply cite the actual business reason why women are being paid less and passed over for promotion. If it actually is something integral to their business, then the suit would be unsuccessful. However, the group of employees should be able to bring the suit and have walmart justify why that is the case.

If I were to run a series of coal mines, for example, and I set the only policy being "Run coal" and I judged managers effectiveness based on how much coal each one ran...I've pushed the actual decision to ignore the safety standards on to a low enough level that based on this standard, it is the local manager making the decision so class action status against the company is not possible. Basically, it creates a convenient way for a smart set of lawyers to prevent class action lawsuits for just about anything...you push the actual decision down the level far enough and no matter what the policy, class action status as a redress against a large company becomes nearly impossible

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:07 PM) Well that goes back to the argument we had before, most of those suits will never get filed because individually they're not that strong. You need the grand pattern of being a s***ty company to drive the case and to have it actually make an impact on Walmart, both financially and policy-wise. eta: "I only got a .25 raise as cashier while the males routinely got .30" isn't a case worth suing over individually, but if you've got 100,000 cashiers with the same claim in a class suit...well... There you go. In this case, Walmart was allowing a situation where women were consistenly not promoted or paid as well as men. While it may not have been an official company policy, the company got around this by allowing the decisions to be made at a level where that type of decision was going to be made. There needs to be a legal redress here and it can't be "1.5 million individual cases".

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 01:57 PM) I guess it depends on what we all think is drastic. Dwight Howard would definitely be drastic, but we all know that's a next to impossible possibility this off-season. I wouldn't "See that on the horizon" either if I was in the GM's chair. I would obviously try for it and not complain if it happened...but I have to plan for it not happening.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 02:17 PM) Just shooting down the faulty logic of "If he's here we have to play him". It's obviously a lame excuse that doesn't fly. You're missing my point. I'm ripping Ozzie for playing Teahen at 3b last night.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 01:09 PM) Why doesn't 'as long as he is here' translate to Lillibridge getting most starts in LF? After all he can actually play defense and swipe a bag or two. What exactly does Pierre offer? I'm mean, as long as Lillibridge is here he should be getting most starts over Pierre. Isn't that obvious to anyone with half a brain? You can make the argument, and some here do, that the stealth elf gets exposed the more at bats he gets. That said...the fact that he is performing means "let's expose what his limits are and stop protecting him from success" is a reasonable conclusion.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 21, 2011 -> 01:02 PM) 66 ABs vs 285. Or 76 plate appearances vs 322 A month on the DL.

The Bulls won 62 games this year. This isn't a team that needs a drastic set of changes. They need improvement at 1 starting position. That's not a drastic change. A drastic change is what happened to the post 2007 Bulls.