That year the top employers in America by head count were General Electric and IBM.
The top employers in America now are Wal Mart and McDonalds.
In Texas the Gubner and the Feds are trying to ramrod though a new international toll road which would make Kansas City Missouri the point of entry for goods coming into America from Mexico.
Wal Mart is very much in support of this measure.
Not that there is anything wrong with getting our goods from Mexico. After all Americans don't make anything anymore so we have to get consumables from somewhere. But why should Wal Mart be in favor of this?
Simple.
When overseas goods are brought into the United States by plane or ship there are certain restrictions about labor practices (child labor being one) which prohibit some goods from being imported even though they are much cheaper having been manufactured by children in sweatshops in some country high school kids can't find on a map. (Ha ha I typed mao the first time that's kind of ironic) But these restrictions do not apply to goods which come into our country from Mexico because Nafta that great beacon of freedom and enterprise wiped such laws away meaning that textiles can be sewn in Mexico by children and that's fine, but from China... well that's a whole different kettle of fish. But it seems that child labor is cheaper in China than Mexico so retailers here have been trying to find a way to get around these laws and bump the profit margin in turn.
Well hooray for the good guys! The new trans Texas corridor would make any goods brought into our country from Mexico via that highway exempt from such laws since technically Mexico would be the country of origin. And since Mexico has no qualms with taking goods into their ports assembled by cheaper children overseas everybody wins. Child labor laws get circumvented, Wal Mart gets cheaper shirts, and we don't care at all.
And you see that is the rub.
I hear a lot of people bashing Wal Mart because of low pay and bad employment practices such as keeping people scheduled below the thirty-two hour per week threshold where the law would require them to offer some sort of medical insurance. I mean, don't get me wrong, bash away. Wal Mart is a multi national corporation which deliberately drives local economy out of business with satellite stores and then further hurts it by closing the smaller stores once the mom-and-pops are out of business and then opening 'Super Centers' in more centralized locations thus eliminating competition and at the same time shrinking the job base and compelling their customers to drive further knowing they will because what choice do they have.
Folks also complain that Wal Mart under staffs those super centers and those few who do work there are uniformly disgruntled. Thus the service sucks and the help you do get is put off and rude.
And would you like to know who knows this and doesn't care at all?
Wal Mart.
Wal Mart knows we hate their business practices. They also know we hate their service. They know we hate crowded aisles and long checkout lines and they will never never never do one single solitary stinking little thing about it. Ever!
And do you know why?
Because Wal Mart knows that no matter how much we hate those things, we really really really like cheap milk and shoes.
That's right folks its capitalism run amok where the consumer pays his hard cash to get screwed by the proprietor and is hunky ok fine with it because he just really doesn't see the sense in paying more than two hundred dollars for a new television. Hot damn who cares about child labor this shirt is fifteen dollars. Screw the unions the meat is cheap. Oh sure we care about local economy but man my Twinkies were on sale two-for- three dollars.
Yes folks you too can sign up for crappy service and cheap prices without regret because the retailers know that you will come back again and again just so long as the price threshold is low enough. Oh sure quality products and service would be nice but who wants to pay for it? And in a Wal Mart world you the consumer don't and therefore business will never change.
And do you know who else knows this?
Utility companies, car companies, home construction companies, fast food companies, wholesale food producers, oil companies, clothing companies, the mall, the government, your barber and the kid who cuts your grass. Sure the product is crap and the service is terrible but its cheap cheap cheap, and that is all we care about.
We may complain about illegal immigrants but we sure do like cheap produce and houses. We complain about big corporations raping the land but we sure do like cheaper gas and electricity. Texas operates more coal fired power plant than any state in the country and we could not care less because the power is sold at a price we don't choke on.
In fact the only time we ever complain about a corporation and actually do something about it is if that company sells tobacco, and then suddenly this all goes out the window. But not really. After all we are pissed at cigarette companies because Auntie Dear chose to commit slow suicide with their product and now she is going to cost us a lot A LOT of money before she dies because cancer ain't cheap.
Besides the tobacco situation evoked the flip side of the Wal Mart world.
The lottery world.
That's right folks give yourself cancer and then sue for millions and millions of dollars so your kids won't have to shop at Wal Mart when you're dead.
Everybody wins!!!!
Because we're Americans and we consume the whole world and build nothing but debt and waistlines while complaining complaining complaining that it is all Wal Mart's fault.
But it isn't.
Because every time we put a penny into Wal Mart's till and say nothing we vote for this world we live in. And if our actions are speaking that loudly no one will ever hear a damn word we're saying.
Just thinking.
Hal wrote
ReplyDeleteHere, here. Guilty as charged, however, I have found that some of the "dollar stores" have "out of date" goods that aren't really affected by the date issue, so go there. I also prefer to buy used jeans at thrift stores/Salvation Army,etc.,stores, just because I am a fixed income retired person, and can't afford Wal Mart or Target super centers, or Kroger non-food items. I also watch what store brands absolutely crush big-box store prices, (like Fiesta mac & cheese, which is one third the price for twice the weight, of Kraft), & buy them in quantity, to beat the brand name issue. It is a hassle, but necessity creates thoughtfulness. Having the money to afford higher prices, creates laziness. (The difference between the prices can make up the difference to pay for the gas to get there and THEN SOME. Think about it. It will also satisfy your desire to stick it to the greedy corporations that exploit child slave labor.
Hal
Actually I do want to stick it to companies that exploit children natural resources etc, but the point is that will never happen because we the consumer tacitly approve of these methods because of our patronage with businesses who do so and our lack of speaking up in protest to it.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't Wal Mart's fault that we won't pay more than twenty bucks for a shirt that cost three cents to make its ours for thinking we're getting a deal. The point is that we are fond "tsk tsk"-ing companies like Wal Mart but we are fault that they exist and do business the way they do.
After all, if we ignored Wal Mart and shopped local economy only Wal Mart would change how they do business.