Posted on 04/15/2008 5:03:25 AM PDT by Invisigoth
Not shopping at Wal-Mart is inconvenient and costly, but just as I was weaning myself off Sam’s Choice animal crackers, it turns out that avoiding the only place that will sell you The Breakfast Club for $5 is not enough. The liberal yuppie peer pressure has moved on to boycotting all products made in China.
Would you like me to stop breathing to not pollute the environment while I’m at it too? Actually, don’t answer that. The new pet project of the J.Crew-clad Inquisition has the right foundation – China’s record of human rights abuses in prisons and in the workplace is grounds for boycott. But the economic reality, and growing guilt most Americans are experiencing, makes the call for a boycott of the country’s biggest trade partner fall on deaf ears.
No large U.S. retailer is willing (read: stupid enough) to not carry Chinese products. In the year following their 2004 joining of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and consequent release from quotas, the volume of Chinese clothing exports increased over 500 percent, and prices dropped almost 50 percent. If that’s just numbers to you, do this experiment: Check the perimeter to see if your boss is out of the way, duck in your cubicle and start checking your tags. Even if the leather on your shoes comes from Italy, the sole is Chinese. Your shirt? Yes, Made in China. Your underpants? Ditto.
(Excerpt) Read more at northstarwriters.com ...
I really think there’s a market for a new chain of stores called, “Made in America” which obviously would sell all American made products.
The author forgets that markets fill vaccuums. If China were to stopp sending their goods to the US, someone else would fill those orders... and rather swiftly. Then China would have all these goods and have lost their biggest trading partner. And who knows, maybe some American manufacturer may start opening factories again????
The size of the market is so very small that it didn’t survive.
America has determined that inexpensive clothing manufactured by thirdworld seamstresses is preferable to that from high priced Ladies Garment Workers.
The market has spoken and declared you to be wrong.
Oh I didn’t know it was tried already. lol
I boycott Chinese products and I don’t have to walk around naked. It’s actually interesting to look at clothing labels . . . the last sweater I bought was made in the Mariana Islands, so technically one could say I even bought U.S.
Hanes and FOTL are made in Honduras and El Salvador, respectively. Clothing at the discounters is primarily made in Indonesia, Egypt, and Pakistan. WalMart does carry some Chinese stuff, but it's shoddy junk. I buy my clothes at Target and get better quality for a (slightly) higher price. It's still cheaper than I can make anything but a detail-constructed business or party dress from scratch.
That would be a great scenario. Until China starts dumping their T-Bills.
Fighing Communism used to be a priority, until Corporate America found a way to make a buck on it. Now we’re in a little too deep to really take on the ChiComs.
I got the same feeling. I read recently that fortune cookies are only made in the United States, and the rest of the world (including China and Japan) don’t really even know what they are.
I think the author exaggerates China’s clothing production.
Wal-Mart has clothing made in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Egypt among places other than China.
Boycott China. Full Speed Ahead.
P.S. The label on my underpants says “Dominican Republic.”
The “Life” house brand from WalMart is made in the Dominican.
Most Americans would not eat the food they actually serve in China. My in-laws took a long tour of rural China about 10 years ago -- they learned the hard way to stash granola bars and biscuits from the hotel in their pockets. They said the food was unrecognizable (and inedible).
Remember when “Made in the USA” was Wal-Mart’s theme?.............
Good analysis
Sure do, when Sam Walton was alive. Once the heirs (who apparently don’t know what its like to work to make a buck) got a hold of it, it went straight the ChiComs.
Lucia never heard of thrift stores
Glad to see Bose was on the list - still the best stereo, in my opinion!
And Corelle? How many of us had that ugly set of white Corelle dishes with the green flowers as trim? I haven’t bought Corelle in years, but I had one of those ugly sets in the early 80s in my first apartment and you couldn’t kill the stuff no matter how hard you tried!
Well, that's a good excuse to stop shopping for American products. /sarc
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