Does Wal-Mart’s Money Buy More Than Ads?

From the above article:

“ More typical, however, are accounts like Time’s “Wal-Mart Nation” (6/27/05). Focusing on Wal-Mart’s Chinese enterprises, the article has an undeniably cheerleading theme: Wal-Mart is staging a “revolution” in China, in part by “spreading a management style that many of its young Chinese employees find liberating.”

I thought the chinese workers were considered ‘Slave Labor’, wouldn’t be a ‘good’ thing if they found Wal-Mart to “be liberating”?  Don’t slaves want to be liberated?

Robert Springer:  The only thing most people want to be liberated from is all of your BS postings on websites like this.

Tom Boese
Field Producer - Wisconsin
Brave New Films

Tom - From the response to our posts, it seems more people agree with me than do with you.  Have you burned any ‘good’ CD’s lately?

Have you been watching the news lately--china is booming and all that slave labor is very happy.

They have it better than at any other time in history, if the world market stops buying chinese goods, the people will suffer---is that what church going people want??????

I hope not----merry christmas

So you would have them working in China at slave wages or no wages at all (prison labor or child labor) rather than have people work here just so big box stores can stuff their shelves with cheap goods so you can stuff your house with the same? That’s nice. And by the way I’m not a church going people.

bry in rodgers, ar wrote:
“if the world market stops buying chinese goods, the people will suffer---is that what church going people want??????”

Well I am a church going, God fearing person and I no-longer shop at walmart not because of the stuff they sell that is made overseas but because they refuse to say merry Christmas in their stores or ads. I am sick of people and stores taking God out of Christmas. If walmart will not put God in their ads then I will not shop there. The attack on Christmas is out of hand in this country and I’m sick of it. Next thing you know they’ll ban selling Bibles at department stores and fill the shelves with Harry Potter and rap music.

bry posted:
“Have you been watching the news lately--china is booming and all that slave labor is very happy.

They have it better than at any other time in history, if the world market stops buying chinese goods, the people will suffer”

Yes, I have been watching the news lately, and I see quite a different picture than the one that you painted.  If you would read something other than the steaming heaps of crap from Wal-Tard’s propoganda machine, you would realize that there is a lot of civil unrest in China right now. For example: http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/12/09/china.protest.ap/index.html from yesterday.  Yes, there are a handful of Chinese people (and a lot of American corporate heads and shareholders) that are benefiting from our desire for cheap Chinese crap, but the majority of the country’s population is actually losing ground.  China’s rural residents are constantly being forced off of their land and out of their villages by the government without much compensation, deaths of over 100 per incident from mine explosions are almost a weekly occurrance, and thousands of people are dying from being poisoned from pollution by the factories producing crap for we Americans.  The Chinese slave labor is REAL happy… yeah right.

bry posted:
“is that what church going people want??????”
What the hell do you mean by that!?  Are you implying that all churchgoers are wanting the “happy slaves” in China to suffer by not buying Chinese products?  Sorry, I don’t get your logic on this one.  The ONLY reason that the US corporations are embracing China is for cheap labor, lax environmental and labor regulations, and the favored trade status that the US government gives them.

We are “liberating” the Chinese workforce?  At what expense?

For a better part of the 19th and 20th centuries, America has been a potentially self-sufficient industrial nation.  Now, can anyone honestly say that we could survive if foreign trade was cut off?  Companies such as Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Dell, Hasbro, and many others are forcing jobs, especially manufacturing, to foreign countries, even though their executives’ and non-essential budgets grow exponentially.

When it comes down to it, “if the world market stops buying chinese goods, the people will suffer---is that what church going people want??????” If it means jobs come back to America and China is forced to go through social reform then I’m all for it.

PS--Wal-Mart’s and many other retailer’s ads have always been “Happy Holidays”.  This isn’t a new developement.  A multi-cultural business cannot have a religion-specific advertisement campaign without being accused of being descriminatory.  What is new is renaming religion-specific items with holiday names (i.e. Christmas trees to holiday trees), which is an act Wal-Mart didn’t do.

--==Fix the problems behind your own doors before trying to fix those behind your neighbors’==--

I would second looking at Jeremy S. article. This has been in the news lately although I would expect many have missed it. This is an example also of how China in the past has handled its domestic problems. It’s not anything new.

Should also mention the pollution going on in that country which has just about no enviromental standards. Factories and industrial plants routinely dump their waste into the water supply. It’s only a matter of time before this has a devastating effect on the population.

About the chinese labor force, they do get treated very bad, but a lot of them are living a lot better now than they were 20 years ago, and hopefully this trend will continue.

thats what i ment in my statement above.

merry christmas

Meet the people of Brave New Films and learn something about their backgrounds:

Robert Greenwald is the director/producer of Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism (2004). The Bergen International Film Festival (BIFF) presented “Outfoxed” with the Youth Documentary Award. The five-year old BIFF is one of the most prestigious festivals in Norway. (HA HA HA. A Scandinavian nation with a semi-socialist economy and less than 10 million residents holds a festival that is five years old and we are supposed to believe this is prestigous!)

Sarah Feeley is the Vice President of Production at Brave New Films. During the 2004 Presidential Election, Sarah was a Field Staff Organizer for the Arizona Democratic Party where she led Get Out The Vote efforts that helped to add two new Democrats to the Arizona State Legislature.

Jim Gilliam is a former dot com executive turned activist filmmaker. Through MoveOn.org, in 2003, he hooked up with veteran filmmaker Robert Greenwald to research and help produce the groundbreaking documentary, Uncovered: The War on Iraq about the faulty intelligence that led the U.S. to war.

Richard Jacobs was named California Democratic Party Deputy Chair in March of 2005, as well as Chair of Campaign for California’s Future. He chaired the presidential campaign of Howard Dean in California, coordinated Al Gore’s endorsement of Dean, and serves as Senior Advisor to Democracy for America

Devin Smith is the Vice President of Operations and Development at Brave New Films. Smith also produced several segments of a series entitled From the Left Coast, which aired on the Link Television satellite network.

Lisa Smithline is a community organizer with substantial film production experience.Previously, Smithline was the community organizer at Office of the Americas after a 16 year career as a freelance art director and set designer.

Kabira Stokes is a fashion designer by trade, and a political organizer by calling. She co-founded the Young Progressive Majority to educate and organize the young artists and professionals of Los Angeles, and has previously worked with the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and
Peace, and the Office of the Americas.

Sharaf Mowjood came to Brave New Films as an intern, and when he graduated cum laude from Chapman University, we didn’t want him to leave. While at school, he also interned with the Muslim Public Affairs Council.

Is there a balanced viewpoint here or what?!

Gee Ellis, you’ve actually spent the time to compile the ‘Who’s Who’ at Brave New Films; you’re quite the social butterfly aren’t you!  Why do you have your panties all bound up over this movie anyway?  Aren’t your therapy sessions helping?

For starters, if you thought that a movie with the title: “Wal-Mart-The High Cost of Low Prices” would be perfectly neutral, then you have fewer brain cells then I had originally thought.  At least this movie gives some measure of balance to counterract all of the BS that Wal-Mart spoon-feeds the masses through their commercials about how much money they give to charities (which is actually a pathetic amount considering their size) and how good of a neighbor they are to communities, not to mention their oxymoronic ‘Always Low Prices’ slogan! 

Wal-Mart Corporation is nothing but a parasite on society.  They wouldn’t give a dime to charitable organizations or pay anyone above federal minimum wage if they knew that it wouldn’t affect sales.

<btw> Ellis, when you copy material directly from others, like you did in your last post, you need to note the source, otherwise it’s called plagiarism.  Also, before you rip on Norway again, bear in mind that their quality of life is one of the best in the world....and no Wal-Marts!

So if the union gets into walmart then what does that do for the chinese? I keep seeing everyone talking about the poor people in China forced to do slave labor at gun point and so on and so forth but what is the Union going to do for them? Are they going to make walmart buy only made in america or are they going to do something to actually help the chinese better their lives as well? Or is the concern for the chinese only going to last till they put them out of work?

Phil in Gore, OK
I’m wondering where it is you are doing your Christmas shopping this year since everyone has taken merry christmas out of there stores. Target and Kmart and the malls all are now being more inclusive of all religions and holidays during the winter months. My daughter said they even discussed the fact that the merchants have all switched to happy holidays and we live in the middle of the bible belt. I’m just wondering where it is you shop now that everyone is switching over. Also if you read the response for walmart they do not ban Employees from saying Merry Chistmas.
and Jeremy S. in Arnold, MO:
Wow do you think that maybe the reason there is civil unrest is because companies such as WAlmart and others are giving the Chinese a taste of democracy and earning some money. When the chinese or any other country decide they want something more you don’t think the government is just going to back up and say good for you do you ? They are going to have to fight for their rights just like we had to. And just because something is made in China does not make it cheap crap. Just because something is made in america does not make it quality merchandise either. All the union label does is tell you that you paid to much.
I’m not saying things in China are great or even good but until the people see there is something besides what they are being fed they will not want better for themselves. If America wants the jobs to come back to the United states they have to compete with other countries in all ways including the cost of what they produce. Today the world is a much smaller place then it was even 20 years ago. Moving merchandise is not difficult and companies are no longer forced to buy American. Other countries can now move merchandise without adding a significant cost for shipping like they did some years ago. This makes them more competative in the world market. American made used to win by default because it cost to much to bring stuff here from other countries now that there is competition Americans have to compete or they lose it’s really that simple. I would rather see Americans working but I would also like to see American made mean pride instead of overpriced.

lori in mississippi:
I agree with you that all American made goods aren’t high quality and that all Chinese goods aren’t all crap; I went a little overboard on that topic… my bad.  The issue that I have is Wal-Mart and all of these other large American corporations aren’t over there as a liberating force helping the people, they’re over there because of the cheap, unorganized labor, pathetic environmental laws, and favorable tax codes.  Presently, there is a 6+% tariff that the Chinese government places on imports INTO China.  Beacause of China’s favored trade status, Chinese goods into the US are barely taxed at all.  Until recently, the Chinese government has pegged the value of the Yuan to the US dollar at a lower rate which meant that the Chinese-made goods were always at a price better than American-made goods.  Also, as paranoid as it sounds, we the American consumer have been instrumental in funding the exponential military growth of the Chinese government as of late.  As the standard of living increases for the Chinese workers, American corporations will start to abandon them in search of cheaper labor; the same thing happened with Mexico, which is still largely dirt poor.  Already, Wal-Mart is trying to sledge-hammer its way into the Indian market with full force; Lee Scott has met with the Prime Minister of India on a few occasions this past summer. 

Just as I made the mistake generalizing Chinese goods as all crap, don’t generalize with the statement that a Union label means that you paid too much.  I’ve seen Chinese goods sold for the same price as American goods of the same quality.  I’m not a big fan of unions, but I consider them a necessary evil.  There are many unions in the U.S. that don’t command the inflated salaries of the higher-profile unions such as the automotive and construction trades.  I’d also like to note that the St. Louis, MO area has a few supermarket chains union employees that beat Wal-Mart Supercenters in price, selection, and service; which is probably the reason why Wal-Mart only has a couple of Supercenters in the fringes of the region.

I totally agree with your statement of wanting to see ‘American made’ meaning pride, but that will involve corporate heads to look at something other than the bottom line alone and employees that are dedicated to the job that they perform.  I do find it humorous that there are many Japanese-owned manufacturing plants in the US, like Honda and Toyota, that are turning out high quality products being built by Americans.

Phil - Actually, stores are already full of rap music and Harry Potter, though bibles aren’t banned and won’t be.  They will only be removed from shelves if they stop selling.  You can try doing business on your own by selling things people don’t want, but WalMart will own the world selling things people *do* want.

Well Lori, since you love China and communism so much maybe you should move there! let’s all pitch in and get her a ticket!

They won’t mind you being a hypocrite in that country one bit! They even have a state sponsored “church” where you can worship as long as you do it the way the Chinese governement asks.

The fact that Lori openly admits to wanting to buy Chinese products over American ones , should show you where her true loyalty is.

Lori:
I buy many gifts online from christian websites, the 700 club, salvation army stores, hallmark shops, christmas tree shops and I make many Christmas gifts. I make stained glass windows of the Nativity scene. Gifts I buy for teenagers and kids are usually Christian-rock cd’s. Also, the Chronicle’s of Narnia are a great book to buy for youths. Lori don’t worry, the tide of Jesus is rising and will soon sweep all the infidels away. God bless and merry CHRISTMAS.