[Parallax]

I don't see how the accommodation of China has a any political party. Please explain how any president from either party in the last 30 years has acted forcefully and effectively with this country.

Don't you think that we just need to drop all the rooting for our teams, and realize we are all in this mess together?

Gene, you are absolutely right. There have been damn few politicians from the president on down who have done anything because it was in the country's best interest. They do what they do because they feel it is in their own best interest and occasionally the two coincide. The Bill Clinton reference was there for the sole purpose of ruffling Rupert's feathers. (and it worked! )

[GeneV]

Gene, you are absolutely right. There have been damn few politicians from the president on down who have done anything because it was in the country's best interest. They do what they do because they feel it is in their own best interest and occasionally the two coincide. )

In addition, it is the short term focus. Frankly, no politician wants to be the one who raised prices at Wal-Mart--even though those prices are really an illusion. They are financed with borrowed and manipulated Chinese money.

We all need to get used to the fact that we are now China's bitch, and she is calling the shots.
At one time, the USA was the preeminent financial power in the world and it routinely used that to strong arm governments everywhere to do business in such a way as to be maximally advantageous to American business interests.

The shoe is now on the other foot.
China can, with the stroke of a pen, shut down what little is left of your economy.
I suspect that you will find this out if you get into a pissing match with China.
They'll just slam your head into a wall, in much the same way that a dog owner does the same thing when his dog gets uppity, thinking he is running the show.

To you Wal-Mart haters out there, remember that when they get hurt, they lay off people, and they are the largest employer in the USA, or are very close to it.
That's a lot of people to put out of work just because you have a chip on your shoulder.
You might not like Wal-Mart, but they provide a lot of jobs to people and they sell goods that allow people who are less well off to have something of a reasonable lifestyle.
You hurt Wal-Mart and all you are doing is kicking the people on the lowest rung of your economic ladder off the ladder entirely.
Of course, if you piss off China, she'll just kick over that ladder and put you all in the same boat anyway, so perhaps it's moot.

Thing is when Sam was alive and running the company he would bolster US companies. And kept quite a few of them in business. His passing brought about WallyWorld's change. Cheap goods at Walmart? Short sighted yes. Add in the American companies, the mom and pop stores that shut down and the tax revenue and entitlements that were/are paid and that chinese junk is more expensive than any American non union product ever made.

[Rupert]

Gene, you are absolutely right. There have been damn few politicians from the president on down who have done anything because it was in the country's best interest. They do what they do because they feel it is in their own best interest and occasionally the two coincide. The Bill Clinton reference was there for the sole purpose of ruffling Rupert's feathers. (and it worked! )

Yes, I can agree with that! Don't look for any current or future career politicians to act any differently either......it is never about us, always about them.
Regards!

---------- Post added 03-17-2010 at 11:40 PM ----------

Thing is when Sam was alive and running the company he would bolster US companies. And kept quite a few of them in business. His passing brought about WallyWorld's change. Cheap goods at Walmart? Short sighted yes. Add in the American companies, the mom and pop stores that shut down and the tax revenue and entitlements that were/are paid and that chinese junk is more expensive than any American non union product ever made.

I agree with you too George, but we all still buy the junk because it is (appears) cheap, it is not always bad quality, and because we don't have much choice....America doesn't make much anymore. If you took the foreign parts out of autos, not a new model on the road would even crank.
Regards!

[seacapt]

Chinese crap , WalMart mentallity , ignorance and apathy are the problem not symptoms of it.
On the simplest level of daily life we the consumers can make a difference.
Here's an example: I like to shop at the local Mom & Pop grocery store and if you shop smart it really is no more expensive than the super store if you compare quality. My wife prefers to shop at the big store. Yesterday I picked up a container of garlic powder she bought and looked at the label. It cost $1.14 with a net weight of 89gr and was a product of China. While at my M&P grocery later in the day I picked up a 120gr container of garlic powder for $1.00 and it was a product of the USA.
Why the hell am I eating Chinese garlic? Why does it cost more ? Why do the super stores sell this crap? Why would an American citizen by produce from China when the domestic version is a better value?
We've seen the enemy , it's us!

[Wheatfield]

Thing is when Sam was alive and running the company he would bolster US companies. And kept quite a few of them in business. His passing brought about WallyWorld's change. Cheap goods at Walmart? Short sighted yes. Add in the American companies, the mom and pop stores that shut down and the tax revenue and entitlements that were/are paid and that chinese junk is more expensive than any American non union product ever made.

Wal-Mart has to keep it's shareholders happy. This means sourcing out cheap goods from wherever because the shareholders want dividends and they don't care about anything other than lining their own pockets.
You are blaming the messenger for the message.
If American manufacturing had been willing to compete with Chinese manufacturing, your industrial base would still be in the USA, not on the west side of the Sea of Japan.

[Parallax]

A few years ago Walmart put out bids for a supplier of, for lack of a better term, tupperware-like items. A subsidiary of Rubber-Made had the contract but lost the new bid and the plant (in the U.S.) closed. Walmart went with the chineese bid that averaged 1 cent per item less than the U.S. company's bid.

[GeneV]

A few years ago Walmart put out bids for a supplier of, for lack of a better term, tupperware-like items. A subsidiary of Rubber-Made had the contract but lost the new bid and the plant (in the U.S.) closed. Walmart went with the chineese bid that averaged 1 cent per item less than the U.S. company's bid.

On a personal note, I worked my way through part of my college education as a forklift driver for a subsidiary of Rubbermaid many years ago. I noticed just last year that the factory was closed. At the time I worked there, our biggest customers were K-Mart, distantly followed by Wal-Mart.

[seacapt]

A few years ago Walmart put out bids for a supplier of, for lack of a better term, tupperware-like items. A subsidiary of Rubber-Made had the contract but lost the new bid and the plant (in the U.S.) closed. Walmart went with the chineese bid that averaged 1 cent per item less than the U.S. company's bid.

What most don't realize is that Walmart volume buying doesn't get you the same product for less. Volume buying allows WalMart to have manufacturers build products to WalMart spec. Example : bought a vacum cleaner at an appliance store. Next day stolling through Wallyworld saw a vacum cleaner box that looked identical for @$40.00 less. After reading the label found the WalMart version had a smaller motor. The model # was identical except for a prefix indicating this was made for sale at WalMart only.
A few years back I bought an inexpensive shotgun from Walmart , within a month of use it started to rust. I spoke with quite a few people who had the same gun , those who bought from WalMart all had rust while those who bought at gunshops didn't . Yeah that was worth the $65.00 I saved. I wound up sending the gun back to the factory to be refinished after which it is OK .
Pet Safe invisible fence Yup the one at Walmart has a different transmitter than the one available in pet stores and the Wallyworld version is only a few bucks less.
Walmart sucks and so does cheap Chinese crap but what really sucks is that the average consumer is unaware or doesn't care.
Hey Paralax -tell us about the difference between a real Mongoose bike and a Walmart Mongoose!

[Parallax]

Yep, I just noticed today that my "GE" electric tea pot has Walmart molded into the bottom of the base plate.

[Nesster]

Wal mart isn't the only one - seems all the big boxes are into this. Ever check out the specs of appliances sold by Home Depot? less efficient, smaller motors etc.

Thing is, what would it take to get that Rubbermaid factory back running? Each passing year increases the required start up cost, making a re-start less and less likely.

[Ratmagiclady]

This is one of those things that while the neocons say, "Blame the damn libruls for what neocons do!' none of you 'conservative' boys seem to have much actual disagreement with *me* on. (Even if some mass-production media invest you in saying you do)


Wal-mart was a big conservative *cause* even in towns where they weren't wanted.


This is what we get.



You want 'made in the USA?' It's often cheaper for me to go buy a shelving unit for *parts* at a big box store than buy the materials at the best discount possible. (What?)

Yeah.

Take it from a scavenger: people used to put better quality stuff on the *curb* than they now run up credit cards buying.

Gods know how many rack systems I fixed once upon a time: cause people'd pitch em over one little fault. We went hungry a lot in my neighborhood, may have treated a coil of solder like gold, but we had good sound systems.

I could fix audiophile-quality cones with bent pigeon feathers. Baddabing. Try that with some of this stuff they make now.

It's all been to suit the corporations, whether or not there was a D next to Clinton's name or if anyone gives a crap whether or not he 'got some.'

People wonder where 'America' went... It's like, well, maybe we're not a nation of sales reps, ad execs, and lackeys, all begging to become brokers....

Maybe we're a nation of makers and doers (And yes, fixers) and we forgot something at the mini-mall.

[GeneV]

Wal mart isn't the only one - seems all the big boxes are into this. Ever check out the specs of appliances sold by Home Depot? less efficient, smaller motors etc.

Thing is, what would it take to get that Rubbermaid factory back running? Each passing year increases the required start up cost, making a re-start less and less likely.

It would take a lot to get the factory back. Those are very large and expensive plastic molding machines, and I am sure they didn't just close the doors and leave the machines there. They were probably packed up and sent around the world.

The specs for K-mart were different as well, even back in 1978. Mostly it was the label and the colors, though. It would have been very expensive to machine a special mold for them.

[Ratmagiclady]

It would take a lot to get the factory back. Those are very large and expensive plastic molding machines, and I am sure they didn't just close the doors and leave the machines there. They were probably packed up and sent around the world.
.

"Parts is parts." Lamenting what's gone doesn't get anything made out of what we *have.*

If you want I toldya so's, scroll back twenty years. But here we are.

Parts is parts.

Maybe it's time for a little less of the waiting on 'invisible hands' to make insistently doing the *wrong* things work out, ...and a lot more of the ol 'Yankee know-how.' While we got what we got.

[Wheatfield]

Maybe it's time for a little less of the waiting on 'invisible hands' to make insistently doing the *wrong* things work out, ...and a lot more of the ol 'Yankee know-how.' While we got what we got.

Go back 100 or so years.
Was the politics of your country so polarized that nothing got done because half the population was always at the throats of the other half like it is today?