Made in China

"A new survey shows that 1 in 5 Americans believe that God steers the economy. Mystery solved: God is Chinese."
 ---Conan O'Brien
 "Chinese President Hu Jintao had dinner at the White House with President Obama and first lady Michelle. They were going to exchange gifts from the two countries, but unfortunately everything in our country is now made in their country, so they couldn't do any exchanging."
–Jay Leno
“I want to have a bunch of kids so I can open a factory and have free labor. Beat that, China!”
― Jarod Kintz
“China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese. ”
― Charles de Gaulle 

“Most imports are from outside of the country”

  ― George W. Bush

Just finished cutting my toenails. Started off using a very attractive manicure set in a leather case that has 'Roots' printed on the case. Roots is a very prestigious and successful Canadian company that manufactures clothing products and sells them through over 200 Roots stores scattered throughout the world. Each tool in my manicure set has Roots clearly marked on one side but China discretely marked on the other. The tools proved to be useless. The clippers don't open up properly and the cutting  edges are dull. In short, it is crap and a toe is bleeding as I write this. We had for many years a manicure set made in Germany and everything worked, but I doubt that the Germans make these anymore. The boutiques and the open markets here in France are filled with Chinese goods. Unemployment is high because we helped to improve the profits of French businesses by closing up their factories so that they could buy things more cheaply from China to sell in their stores and now my Chinese made underwear has the seams falling apart. Chinese tourism is up so some good will come from all of this. 

And lets accept the fact that the Chinese are a highly intelligent people with education a top priority and are now producing many high quality products at very competitive prices. After all, they now make high speed trains and can put toy sized vehicles on the moon, just like the Americans do. It is only a matter of time before they make manicure sets that meet German quality standards.

But why in hell is there such a rush in North America and Europe to throw our workers out of a job by scrapping our factories and small workshops to seek a Chinese Nirvana? Who makes these decisions for us? In North America Walmart, the largest retailer in America has made the Waltons the richest family in America by buying most of what they sell from China and paying their American employees poverty level wages. They are leaders in vacuuming manufacturing jobs out of the country. Fortunately Walmart doesn't blight the landscape in Europe because their labour practices are unacceptable, but we do suffer from some of the same disease here. I don't blame the Chinese who are quite reasonable in wanting to sell everything they grow and make; I blame our sappy politicians who pave the way to support our business leaders and bankers in their devout (and very profitable) rush into unregulated Globalization. Let's face it, if we raise our unemployment we do save a few pennies for those who have a job or are clipping coupons, and who cares about our neighbours anyway. 

I guess in all fairness to our stock brokers, business owners and conservative politicians it stuffs their pockets with easy money if companies like Apple join the rush to hand over their businesses ( and the technology that goes with it) to the Chinese. Its like winning the lottery.

I just wonder what the wise Chinese think about us for this Lemming-like behaviour.

WALMART*, America's Welfare Queen

 

Now I know that Walmart's policies do not reflect the best way of doing business and the values that I think are important in America.

Hillary Clinton 

 "More and more Americans are asking about the price that we have to pay when Walmart comes into a community, treats workers poorly, violates immigration laws and squashes small businesses."

Anthony Weiner 

 "You know, without China there is no Walmart and without Walmart there is no middle class and lower class prosperity in the United States." 

 Arthur Laffer, economist 

https://twitter.com/UniteBlueOK/status/406303923918475264/photo/1

Each week one third of the US population visits a Walmart store. With 3500 stores and 2500 related outlets in the US and elsewhere, it is the country's largest employer. World Wide Revenues in 2011 amounted to $405 billion (about 70% in US) and profits $15.7 billion.  The products it sells mostly come from China. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that between 2001 and 2006 this resulted in a trade deficit with China that eliminated 200,000 US jobs. 

With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These issues involve low wages and inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company's strong anti-union policies. Critics point to Walmart's high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors are involved. Approximately half of its employees leave within the first year.

THE GERMAN DEBACLE (an example of what is wrong with Walmart):
The Walmart way of doing business was clearly a non fit in German and they eventually left the market Here are some excerpts from an article in the Huffington Post written by David Macaray that makes for interesting reading about why Walmart failed. 

•  Germany was too "green" for a slash-and-burn outfit like Walmart, with its plastic bags and plastic junk 
• Walmart couldn't hack the pro-labor union culture of Germany.
• German consumers prefer small neighborhood stores rather than large and remotely placed impersonal chains.
• Walmart requires its checkout people to flash smiles at customers after bagging their purchases. Plastic bags, plastic junk, plastic smiles. But because the German people don't usually smile at total strangers, the spectacle of Walmart employees grinning like jackasses not only didn't impress consumers, it unnerved them.  
• Walmart employees are required to stand in formation and chant, "WALMART! WALMART! WALMART!" while performing synchronized group calisthenics.Unfortunately, this form of corporate boosterism didn't go over particularly well with the Germans; a group-think too reminiscent of the one that that occurred in Nuremberg several decades earlier
  
• in other northern European countries where as high as half the shopping population either walk or take bicycles to shop in nearby small and medium sized specialty stores the NA style Walmart located in a remote location is a non fit. 
  
  WALMART IN AMERICA
  

A Walmart store can only prosper in a country where minimum wages are below the poverty line and with labour policies that allow companies to deprive workers of social benefits and full time employment. It is active in China but it could not prosper in countries such as Australia and most of Europe where minimum wages for working adults are more than twice what Walmart offers, unions exist and labour legislation is in place.

Here are is a example of what Walmart has to offer America

• The merchandise is manufactured abroad, mainly in China thereby eliminating mostly well paying middle class American manufacturing jobs.
• They push suppliers to move offshore by demanding lower and lower prices. Most suppliers to stay in business have been forced to comply
• A race to the bottom by competitors and suppliers in order to compete thus setting  a labour income pattern for America
•  They lobby for policies that make it easier to move jobs overseas.While this money was paid to influence a range of legislation, from promoting corporate tax cuts to opposing a bill to guarantee paid sick time to working people, trade policy was among the issues Walmart lobbied on most aggressively. They actively promote Free Trade Agreements.
• Walmart has set the template for today’s economy; one in which increased economic productivity is not shared with working people, and the vast inequality that this creates is seen as the nation's norm.
•  Today the six members of the Walton family who inherited the Walmart fortune enjoy wealth equal to that of the least-wealthy 30 percent of Americans ( that's over a hundred million Americans). These billionaires are the ultimate beneficiaries of Walmart’s push to cut costs, condemning retail employees to work in poverty and American factory workers to unemployment. 
•  Walmart wages are so low that most of its workers rely on food stamps and other government aid programs to fulfill their basic needs. It is estimated that the  government subsidy to employees amounts to about 2.7 billion dollars a year or on the average about 402 thousand dollars per outlet. This certainly certainly qualifies Walmart and its beneficiaries in the Walton family as one of the nation's leading Welfare Queens.

Do the Walton family need to be Welfare Queens to carry on? I don't think so.

Here is a headline they should think about."Costco Pays Well and Soars, While Walmart and Others Pay Peanuts and Sink"

While their second biggest competitor, Walmart, only saw a 1.2% rise in year on sales, Costco’s most recent quarterly earnings report showed an 8% rate of growth in year on sales, a 5% rise in same-store sales, and an almost $70 million rise in membership fees.

Wake up Walmart!! Its possible to change and offer your employees a better life and money to spend if you want to.