How Wal-Mart's TV prices crushed rivals

[Robert]

Sends all the Yankees home?

Take over their ownership... that's what I meant.

[Robert]

The TV program showed 18y/o women, grateful for the wages AND THE FREE ACCOMODATION AND FOOD provided by the factory.

She is an economic slave.

[Robert]

The shifting of manufacturing jobs into the third world is a form or wealth distribution.

That is a flat out lie biased by your shares with Wal-mart! The love of money will do that, huh?

[bevin]

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Take over their ownership... that's what I meant.

The companies are not owned by Americans.

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She is an economic slave

Only 150 years ago ANYBODY who worked for wages was seen as an economic slave. She is no more a slave than I am.

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That is a flat out lie biased by your shares with Wal-mart! The love of money will do that, huh?

Robert, did your job, by any chance, get lost to off-shore competition? Could it be that YOUR love of money, and the loss of the money, has made you irrational and bitter?

/Bevin

[Taylor]

(This is not directed at Bevin but at a previous message above.) Well I am sure that "Big Business" does at times not pay what it should pay for workers, but to equate Walmart Employees with "slavery" (or even most "sweat shops" in other countries) I would think would be rather hard to do. (True their conditions should be better, but if you could only see what their other options are for employment you'd see that "sweat shop employees" are grateful to have a job at all.) I have traveled internationally quite extensively and I can tell you most people in 3rd world countries are simply grateful for a job, any job. The unemployment rate is so high and there are so many jobs which pay less than 50 cents per hour, that when a person finds a job that pays better than that they are just thrilled. I personally know people who have looked for a job, any job for months, standing in long lines, filling out endless application forms, for the "opportunity" to work for 50 cents per hour in hard manual labor in some place like a cement or block making factory. The most highly sought after jobs are simply jobs which are consistent, and which actually pay. Yes, we as Americans could do better for the poor of this world. Yes, American businesses should pay better wages to workers in 3rd world countries etc, however in most places people are not like Americans who won't work unless they are paid a certain amount per hour. In most 3rd world countries, people are grateful to just have a job.

[Dr. Shane]

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Yes, American businesses should pay better wages to workers in 3rd world countries etc

I don't know how it works in China, but in Mexico the American companies pay what the government tells them they are allowed to pay and then they normally give employees vouchers to the company store as incentives for such things and not missing any days of work for a month.

[Robert]

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Take over their ownership... that's what I meant.

The companies are not owned by Americans.

[Robert]

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Yes, American businesses should pay better wages to workers in 3rd world countries etc

I don't know how it works in China, but in Mexico the American companies pay what the government tells them they are allowed to pay and then they normally give employees vouchers to the company store as incentives for such things and not missing any days of work for a month.

Got an idea:

Go there and work if things are so good.

Shane, the bottom line is this: Until these unfair trade policies affect you, you will keep ranting about how great things are....

[Robert]

the bottom line is this: Until these unfair trade policies affect you, you will keep ranting about how great things are....

And Bush calls this "sharing the wealth"! That's so funny because most people understand that to mean that his rich, corporate buddies are making zillions on the backs of economic slaves while americans are going on welfare. And this man calls himself Christian?

Why does the US have this billion dollar trade deficit? The Chinese can only buy basic items like food and clothing.

The best thing that can happen in China, since Bush isn't going to reform NAFT, is for those guys to unionize. In the mean time the corporations are taking advantage of cheap, cheap labor. How righteous of them....

[Dr. Shane]

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They tired to get the Communist government to stop their employees from unionizing. Why? They want economic slaves.

It isn't quite that black and white. The Mexican factories unionizing is one of the things that made the Chinese factories more desirable. As Mexican workers unionized and demanded more money, factories started to move to China. If the Chinese workers now unionize and demand more money (and remember the government there sets "maximum" wages) it may become cheaper to do business in India or Vietnam.

Wal-Mart purchases products made in China, it doesn't manufacture the products. Wal-Mart opposing the unions is an effort to keep Chinese jobs in China. What difference is it to Wal-Mart if the Chinese workers unionize and the factories move to India?

Unions in the private sector always result in two things. 1) higher paying jobs for workers 2) Less jobs for workers. Texas is mostly non-union. Jobs pay less here BUT there are more jobs. A carpenter can get paid more in Chicago than he can in Houston but he will have a harder time finding a job in Chicago too. Unions also drive the cost of living up higher. Dollar for dollar, it is actually cheaper to live in Houston than it is to live in Chicago, even though the pay is less.

[Robert]

Wal-Mart opposing the unions is an effort to keep Chinese jobs in China. What difference is it to Wal-Mart if the Chinese workers unionize and the factories move to India?

Actually India is unionizing too....The owners of Wal-Mart wants cheap, unethical labor so they can get very rich. They are building their empire on the backs of the poor. Sam was okay, but when his sons took over...well, you know the rest of the story.

There are unions because "the haves" tend to use "the have nots"....Of course unions have their problems too....But right now unions are needed in all these developing countries because of unfair trade policies.

[Dr. Shane]

The reality still exists that Unions mean higher pay for fewer workers. If the government does its job. Unions are not needed.

Think about it. Mexican workers form a union in a private company and go on strike for better wages when the company is already paying them the maximum wage allowed by the government.

The government caps the wages because wages rising too fast causes inflation which hurts everyone - especially the poor. Take a look at two highly unionized cities in the US: New York and San Fransisco. These also happen to be two of the most expensive places to live. Let's look at two other cities in non-union states - Houston and Phoenix. These two cities are among the cities with the lowest cost of living in the US. This is pretty consistent. Cities in non-union states like Georgia, Florida, South Dakota, Arizona and Mississippi have a lower cost of living than those in union states like Washington, California, Minnesota, New York.

The idea that the government doesn't want unions isn't so much because they want to keep the poor people down. They want to attract business, keep inflation under control and have low unemployment. Unions work against all three of those goals.