What is Wal-Mart Trying To Hide?

Kansas Workbeat ^

[StatesEnemy]

There is no way the American worker can compete with the utter desperation of slave labor.

And if the Hyper-Capitalists think we will quietly be sold out by their perversion of "free trade", and felonious profit margins, just sit back and watch what social upheaval will be wrought.

[ex-Texan]

F'WallMart! I will never spend a nickle in their stores.

[niteowl77]

felonious profit margins

As defined by who? You, me, or Kansas wobblies?

[netmilsmom]

Why single out WalMart? I saw a show on WorldLink tv about the Gap and Nike doing it as well.
Short of shopping at LandsEnd (where I can afford to buy one dress for my kids) everyone uses slave labor. I agree that the practice is horrible, but this article sounds more like sour grapes for WalMart than against Slave Labor.

[TomGuy]

Yes. And it is surprising how many in this country complain when minimum wage might be raised a nickle or dime an hour. (Those doing the loudest complaining, of course, make far more than $5.35 per hour, but they whine that their bag of fries might increase 10 cents.)

[StatesEnemy]

The Free Traitors are simply pitting diverse standards of living against each other.

Extracting dirt cheap labor from the poorest, and selling the product at obscene profit margins to the richest - a temporary paradigm which makes for King's Ransom of "quick bucks".

[Ken522]

I like the line "To shop with our conscience, .."; it has a nice altruistic, holier-than-thou, above-the-fray, stilted but condescending aura to it.

[baltodog]

Neither will I!!
Therefore, as of this moment, I pledge to be naked and shoeless the rest of my life!!

[mountaineer]

Wal-Mart and the other multinationals refuse to release to the American people even the list and addresses of the factories they use around the world to make the goods we purchase.

So what? Just look at the product. There's always a tag or an imprint that says where it's made. If you don't want to buy it, don't. The reason Wal-Mart - a discount retailer - has to buy foreign-made products is obvious: U.S. labor unions have made it impossible to manufacture shoes and clothing here for a reasonable price, and Wal-Mart can't sell $300 shoes or $100 jeans. Their customers don't typically shop at Saks or Barneys.

[fortaydoos]

Rationalizing the enslavement of children is unbecoming.

[StatesEnemy]

felonious profit margins

As defined by who? You, me, or Kansas wobblies?

I would say when you are paying 1 cent in labor costs for the production of child's sweatshirt you plan to sell for $19.99 (it's actually less then 1 cent in many of these piecework monitored 'shops')- that that is a start towards a working definition.

[Erik Latranyi]

Frankly, I would like to see companies that manufacture overseas open their doors and books (not costs) to ensure there is no use of slave labor, etc.

I know first-hand that you can find legitimate labor in countries like China for extremely low wages. There is no need to use slave labor.

Singling out Wal-Mart is wrong. They are the biggest and when you are the biggest, people take shots at you.

[sirchtruth]

And all the while you ignor the ditatorial, communist, socialist systems set up in these countries. Like it's WALMART'S fault that these countries are run this way!

Why should Walmart, cowtow to people like you who bitch and moan about stuff like this instead of getting off your lazy hippi ass and go change their system of government so people don't have to live like what you've described.

You should be thanking Walmart for their innovativeness and low prices!

We will all be waiting for the "social upheaval" while listening to our mobile Walmart CD players with the CD's we buy at Walmart.

[fortaydoos]

How long have you worked at walmart? Must be a long time for you to believe that pile you are shoveling.

[Walkin Man]

Wal-Mart claims to have a "Buy American" policy, an "unprecedented commitment to purchase American goods," that is, until you reach the small print which reads, "...whenever pricing is comparable to goods made offshore." That is the race to the bottom in a nutshell. How can American workers compete with 9 cent-an-hour wages in Indonesia?

Don't worry, soon the free traitors will jump on your post and tell you that American workers will have to compete with workers overseas if they want jobs.

They never say what that means but this story spells it out clearly enough. As soon as Americans are willing to work for 9 cents an hour under slave labor conditions, where will be plenty of new jobs created here in the USA!

[netmilsmom]

I'm not saying that the enslavement of children is good (reread my post), I'm saying that they are singling out WalMart.
This article could have been written about a number of retailers. None of this being good.

[mountaineer]

I don't work at Wal-Mart, but thanks for your concern.

[saminfl]

You guys miss the whole point. First, you have quietly sat back and watched congress screw American manufacturing by passing the EPA, OSHA and other extreme regulatory issues. You also sat back and applauded when the unions made manufacturing so expensive American made products couldn't be priced competitively. And, you ignore the fact that those foreign wages might seem very resonable and desairable to those workers because the standard of living is so much lower in some of those countries. If you want to do something to improve our manufacturing base, start by demanding the EPA be abolished.

[Budge]

Why is Wal-Mart singled out? This is true of almost every retail business in the U.S.

Want to guess?

[netmilsmom]

fortaydoos
Since Aug 6, 2003