Speaking in general, those that can’t keep up with competition always accuse their more capable competitors of various malpractices, including destroying the environment and using cheap labor. In my view, the first is indeed malpractice. But the second is quite legitimate and even desirable, since those who offer their labor for less are those who need work more in order to survive, so they are being helped or even saved from starvation. As for using child labor, nobody wants to see children work instead of playing and being educated. But for them, the alternative to work isn’t play and education, but downright starvation to death – think of those horrible photos of African children with swollen tummies that we can’t bear to look at. Work, any work, is a blessing and life-saver for them.
Unfortunately their are thousands of people working at places such as WalMart, but not because they want to or it's their first job. The loss of a multitude of manufacturing jobs that did employ full time and did pay benefits are now gone and we are seeing these people having to have to accept employers like WalMart just to work and get by. Do you think these people that at one time had good paying full time jobs really want to work for a place like WalMart or Mickey D's? Our govt decided that we do not need manufacturing jobs and those folks are the one's that are left out of the so called American dream, it has become a nightmare.
Sorry, I could not resist responding to this portion of your post MJ. You are absolutely correct. Now extend that philosophy to heroine. Yes people want the cheapest high possible in this economy and that, from what I understand, is currently heroine... Cut with fentanyl. Apparently the dealers are doing a fantastic job and making huge profits. In fact you could say that they are also doing a service to society by killing off their customers, and the pharmaceutical companies are loving them as well, if you track the increase in Narcan sales, prices, and profits. You may say that is an unfair comparison, but I wonder just how many toddler deaths from things falling off cheap Chinese toys purchased at Wal-Mart have caused... Or the psychological damage done to children when they pull the string on their new Chinese Christmas toy and it says,"I hate you" to them... Or the fires caused by cheap Christmas lights.... Or - That list keeps going on and on. If that is how you measure success, all the more power to you.
@JFKI: I see where this game is going... So you want to compare sales and distribution of an dangerous and addictive -ILLEGAL- drug to the success of WalMart? Does that sound like reasonable thinking to you? And did it dawn on you that the other chains (Macys, K-mart, Target, etc.) are buying their products from the same places that WalMart does? In China?!? http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/23/business/walmart-removes-enfamil-formula-after-boy-dies.html Notice that other chains are mentioned as well/ Here's a great link. Please feel free to scrutinize it and tell me how many of the 99 lawsuits mentioned here were because of 'chinese' products. http://www.wal-martlitigation.com/index.php?p=nn Time for a reality check.
Where is the page which itemizes the cases which were settled out of/before they went to court ? Don't tell me that that does not happen because I personally know of 3 which happened during the 6 month stretch I worked full time for Wal-Mart in 2000... A supercenter in a town of 3000 residents. And that was my 2nd full time job, just to make ends meet. The best "reality check" is to have been there.
Looks like in Claremont, NH, Payless lost to Olympia! Payless, at least the one in Claremont, NH, was a joke! On December 31, 2016, I walked out of that Payless and went to Olympia Sports next door, when at one of the Claremont, NH plazas... Couldn't find the sneakers I was looking for...
And I expect that now Trump is putting more taxes on many imports, more closures are on their way. Whether this will benefit the US, is less certain.
In the beginning, no. BUT if those taxes make it economical for us to rebuild our factories and start producing those products ourselves again, definitely. Unfortunately we are now a country of "I want it NOW"'s. I blame the pharmaceutical industry and their influencing doctors to over prescribe ADD meds for decades.
Unfortunate or not, the attitude is not restricted to the US and it does make sense. For example, we all know that computers, TVs, cameras and most household goods will get better and probably cheaper with time, but we’re not prepared to go without them for now and lose part of our lives waiting.
In Japan shops like this are on every streetcorner, they have the honest name "Convenience Stores". And it IS better than Walmart, not that you could understand that...
Your silly Reagan quote suggests, that it has never occurred to you that what you desribed (correctly!) is the reason why the president is a man called Trump? (As I am quite aware of the fact, that most people here are not able to understand the content of a simple sentence, but always have to add what it means in THEIR world: NO, I am NOT for Trump, I simply describe sonething that is there!)