Woohoo! But I'll have to buy another book to get the FREE SuperSaver Shipping!!!

The real question is if Wal-Mart carries it will it be marked down more than $9.18 and if it is should you pay more at Amazon? If you do buy at WM how many Chinese labour organizers will be killed?

If you don't buy at Walmart how many Chinese workers won't be working? How many N.A. women and men will it put to work, and how many of the working poor will be able to afford the product? Watch for the minimum wage to drop!

"cost the blood of a union organizer"?
In that case I'll take two.

"Is the Wal-Mart culture sustainable on a global level?"

I think so. All it takes is to keep ratcheting down wages of the working classes who will have no choice but to work or starve. Of course all the government unions will keep making more and more money but expect everyone else to make less. I think in the future we will have rich and poor. No middle ground. If you complain your a racist by the way.

As an engineer I think the best thing for Canada is to robotize, robotize and then robotize.

Agriculture is a good example where robots could be used. Imagine having robots pick apples rather than bringing in cheap Mexican labor.

We will soon be getting to the point where the cost to design, build and operate a robot will be less than the cost to breed, educate, cloth and feed a human destined to do manual labor in a factory.

Yes, we'll need a few workers to build the robots, but one robot can perform years of service once it is built.

"Is the Wal-Mart culture sustainable on a global level?"

Wait, let me guess.......

Are the pages perforated in 4" squares?

Think of all the lives and businesses that were ruined by Unions. To hell with them. If they don't like their workplace, do something else? You say your government won't let you? Then organized a freaking revolution. There are ALWAYS choices.

I have no doubt that there are many children that wouldn't have a decent winter coat if it weren't for the WalMart bastards.

If it weren't for WalMart, everyone would have to actually go the coast to do some whale watching.

Momar, the union ruined the company, I worked for, Columbus McKinnon Chain, St. Catharines, Ontario, in the late 60s and early 70s. They also ruined ETF Tool in the same city at about the same time. There is practically no industry left in that city other than two GM plants on their last legs.

Mr. Laird's last effort titled "Slumming It At The Rodeo, The Cultural Roots of Canada's Right-Wing Revolution" was Published in 1998.
The review on Indigo says "Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, Ontario Premier Mike Harris, and Reform Party leader Preston Manning try to make themselves out as wild west heroes while they cut social programs and speak of fiscal conservatism."
Like that was a bad thing?

Ken,

The unions that really make me crazy are the public sector unions. They are ruining everything and they have a death grip on our wallets.

Good labor laws are all that is required in a civil society. We are at a point where one has to wonder why anyone would want a job that isn't one of the cradle to grave soft touch government jobs.

That is killing our private sector. That will eventually lead people killing each other.

Wait and see. The USA is on the verge with the big union organizer in the white house at present.

Oh dear. If globalism is dead, just where and around what cause are the rent-a-rioters going to congregate in order to smash windows and capture all the MSM's attention?

I like books. When I buy them they are already printed. If I pay less at a big box there is just less profit. I like local business. I support them when it makes sense. G Bush is speaking in Saskatoon to-morrow. One of the people that wants him arrested for war crimes and being behind 9-11 has a book store. I would rather go to WM than buy from him. Life is messy.

Half of the crap we buy (particularly for children) is made in China. The Chinese will not buy toys made in China but rather Japan because the Japanese adhere to strong safey standards.
We make China strong every time we purchase their garbage and encourage those who would use slave labour. At the end of the day, it isn't even a bargain. People are left without work and the import costs are too high. Let's not forget the recalls.
My mum went to Wal-Mart ad asked for any item not made in China. A fat piece of crap Wal-Mart worker insulted her TO HER FACE and then proceeded to laugh at her with another worker in attendance.
Why are we propping up both China and Wal-Mart? Wouldn't we be happier without them?

The problem with Gorden Laird's type of books is it's always the same. It's WalMart's fault. These people just hate success, plain and simple. Cdn. Tire, Zellers and so on all buy from the same people. Walmart is always busy so they have better managers. It not our problem how it was made. It's the governments problem where it was made.

"Why are we propping up both China and Wal-Mart? Wouldn't we be happier without them?'

I dunno.

No time to chat though. Wal-Mart has slashed prices on snowblowers!

$17.82 is a bargain. Will he sell it at my corner bookstore for that price?

Norman - good point. My corner bookstore no longer exists. It was undercutand driven out of business by Chapters/Indigo (the Walmart of bookstores) where Heather Reisman decides what you can and cannot buy to read.

I go to used book stores more often than not these days....

I love walmart and exxon and mcdonalds and Microsoft (sort of) and coca-cola and all of the hundreds and thousands of other multinationals. The do amazing work to a jaw-dropping level of quality and consistency (perhaps I should rethink microsoft...) for the price.

As for being china's customer or rather client (a client in my book is someone who buys from you on more than one occasion IOW they see enough worth in what you do to come back again and again) - clients in most lines of business get to call the tune. And china would be much more hazardous to one and all if it was treated like a pariah.

Lenin may or may not have said that capitalists would sell the Reds the rope with which to hang them but, our relations to China sure as hell illustrate the philosophical underpinnings of the statement.

While the western world has gone deeply into debt to China, in order to buy their cheap consumer goods, the Chinese, have used the profits to buy our mineral products, lumber etc. and to build a mighty military machine including aircraft carriers. Nuclear subs are probably on the near horizon. Hey, Taiwan, it was good to know ya!

Before WWII, Canada sold shiploads of scrap iron to the Japanese while we bought celluloid cupie dolls and dainty chinaware from them. From Germany we bought Leicas and binoculars while most of the nickel production from Falconbridge's refinery in Norway went to build the Nazi war machine and continued to do so even after war broke out.

Enjoy the $12.00 shirts and $18.00 toasters made by exploited labour, folks. Barring a major international political alignment, we'll all pay dearly for them in the end.

My point is that it's a bit hypocritical to slam big-business, yet profit from selling your product through a large business. How many jobs have been lost from the likes of Amazon?

I love Amazon. I've gotten a lot of books from them over the years. I also shop at local stores though. It's nice to see a book before you buy it. I never look at a book intending to buy it from Amazon, though. Bad karma doing that.

The bigger picture is this though. The likes of WalMart, Amazon, etc. have done more to benefit the poor than any NGO in history. There are small cities who lobby to get a WalMart in their town. It actually lowers the cost of living. On the supply side, people in China who would have lived a subsistence existence are making a living. This would otherwise be seriously poor people. We're talking steps away from starvation.

Of course there are edge cases where abuses occur. But this happened before and will likely continue. The world is a messy place. We address the bad stuff when we can. But globalisation can't be stopped. It would be like trying to stop the flow of a river.

Read the Amazon review. He pushes all the leftard buttons. Not a book I would buy, even if they were giving it away. No fireplace, doncha know?

My question was a serious one.
Any takers?

"Why are we propping up both China and Wal-Mart? Wouldn't we be happier without them?"

I think we would but at this stage game it's probably to late to do anything about it. The US owes China billions of dollars so they are not about to play any games with trade sanctions. Obama has snubbed the Dalai Lama at the same time his people are praising Chairman Mao publicly. I just wish our government would stop sending China aid. They don't need it.

I went to Walmart for the first time a couple weeks ago to get batteries. There certainly seemed to be a lot of people there who could afford to shop somewhere else. You shop there and you help kill local manufacturing and locally run shops which then has a domino effect throwout the community. Folks don't seem to care about this.

All believers in globalization must take a basic accounting course in the 1st place, and read the protocols in the 2nd.

Why are we propping up both China and Wal-Mart? Wouldn't we be happier without them?

We'd be spending more money for the same product. I don't know why that would make you happy.

> We'd be spending more money for the same product.

Idiot. The money spent would be divided between the manufacturer's profit, employees salary, government taxes. The 1st two would further divide into further taxes, savings and investments.

When you spend at Walmart the manufacturer's and employee's portion is lost to the communist regime half way across the globe and is helping them to build the warheads pointed at your temple.

Dork!

"Why are we propping up both China and Wal-Mart? Wouldn't we be happier without them?"

Short answer? No.

Wal Mart purchases billions of dollars worth of goods and services from Cdn firms, employs 1,000s of Canadians, and pays lots of tax. It makes goods affordable to many on limited incomes. And it rewards its shareholders with fair returns. That sounds like a win-win to me.

Wal Mart has a competitive advantage in its product distribution network as well as its purchasing power advantage. Not bad things in themselves. That it chooses to pass on savings to its customers is a good thing for us.

As for China, the creation of a 'middle class' from the proceeds of international trade should be seen as a catalyst for change. And not only political change but environmental as well. The destitute care little for their environment. Already there have been examples of middle class neighbourhoods organizing NIMBY protests against power plant construction plans.

To be sure, the international community should keep humanitarian pressure on all regimes, China included. But all stick and no carrot is, IMO, the incorrect way to go about it.

Idiot. The money spent would be divided between the manufacturer's profit, employees salary, government taxes. The 1st two would further divide into further taxes, savings and investments.

You're an intensely stupid person. If your retarded theory makes sense to you, go ahead and pay ten grand above list price for your made-in-Canada Corolla. According to your dumb isolationist protectionist historically-refuted theory, why wouldn't you? The money "stays in Canada"! Yay!

Nitwit.

"As for China, the creation of a 'middle class' from the proceeds of international trade should be seen as a catalyst for change."

The growth of their middle class seems to be the destruction of ours though. Not all change is good. I doubt the Chinese government is concerned with the welfare of it's own people. My guess is that more business gives them more leverage which they can then use to expand their influence.

On face value you comments about workers, taxes, investors, seems right. I'd be curious to know how much they pay their workers and who their investors are though. Sometimes the Devil is in the details.

> You're an intensely stupid person.

Well, not really. According to my bank statement I am smarter than 99% of North American population.

> If your retarded theory makes sense to you, go ahead and pay ten grand above list price for your made-in-Canada Corolla.

You neglected to provide the 'intensely smart' alternative. Reveal your theory, which car makes sense to buy? I bet it begins with I, ends with N and has 3 letters in its name.

The dimwits like you are all emotion, no facts. See, I can be just as potty mouth as you are. Does that advance the debate? As you can see, it does not. Why don't you actually say something to substantiate your theory (BTW, is there any?)

You neglected to provide the 'intensely smart' alternative.

No, it wasn't my intention to point out the alternative. I pointed out that there's no way you actually follow your own theory, because it makes no sense.

But since you ask, the smart alternative, proven by history time and again, is that trade is good. Trade is mutually beneficial. Protectionism and isolationism constitute a suicide pact which strangles wealth creation, and is the refuge of economic illiterates and ignoramuses.

See, I can be just as potty mouth as you are.

Hilarious. Being a pinhead, it may have slipped your notice that your "factual" tirade began by calling me an idiot and ended with calling me a dork. So I return the favour, and you start crying. Go piss up a rope, you thin-skinned jackass.

"Why are we propping up both Japan and Simpsons-Sears? Wouldn't we be happier without them?"

Oops, I forgot it isn't the 70's anymore. Anyway, some dub from 1980:

http://tinyurl.com/yl9sru4

Gord said: The growth of their [China] middle class seems to be the destruction of ours though. Not all change is good...

True enough - to a point. For sure, some manufacturing has ventured off-shore to lower cost environments. But just as Europe lost advantages in textiles to the southern US, North America is losing manufacturing to the far east. A brutal but necessary reality of a modern western economy is that nothing is guaranteed.

The trick is for governments to focus on its core competencies, ie, infrastructure, etc so as to keep the costs of doing business here as low as possible. The net result will be to enhance productivity which at the end of the day is the true measure of a nation's wealth.

Waterhouse, kidoo, you are all boiling emotions - no information. We all heard that you believe in globalization. Just how do you think negative trade balance is benefiting Canada? Give me the numbers, I love accounting and hate void rhetoric.

I showed you countless times that w/o China doing two things: a) robbing the rest of the world to invest in the US or b) printing counterfeit US currency; it is impossible for their investments into the US to exceed trade deficit.

Do you at least know arithmetic? Pluses and minuses, forget multiplication and division.

When you take half water out of the bucket and drink half of that, there is no way you can put water back and arrive at the same volume. That's what China does. So you are an idiot and a dork if you don't believe your own lying eyes before which exactly this process is occurring.

People in China aren't better off. The "open market" theory has been thrown around for the longest time. Nothing has gotten better for the Chinese. The totalitarian government has just gotten more powerful.
Move all the companies back here. Line OUR pockets. At least someone can complain when their bosses force them to work in unsafe conditions.

you are all boiling emotions - no information.

I told you I'm on the side of the indisputable lessons and overwhelming evidence of history. If you refuse to acknowledge them, that's your problem.

Honestly, the rest of your post is scattershot weirdness of zero sense. The only thing you've done here is postulate one "thought" experiment which I then showed to be of no value whatsoever.

Focus. Please. Try again to refute every lesson history has taught. Go ahead, numbskull.

> I'm on the side of the indisputable lessons and overwhelming evidence of history

Like, settled science? Aha...

Dude, never in history the governments actually took the triads' money in order to create unbearable conditions for business in their own countries. What history lessons are you talking about? Are you talking of the lessons of the last 50 years? Dude, those 50 years are the point of discussions, you are just too dumb to realize that it is still too SHORT TERM to qualify for history lessons.

What history lessons are you talking about?

The ones which proved that mercantilism is not a useful economic model. The ones which show that the wealth of the world is not a static sum, that wealth gets created. The ones that prove that isolationism and protectionism are not helpful to the economy which imposes them.

It's pretty clear you're a complete imbecile, but still - do you even understand the implications of the economic policies you advocate? Get thee back to the 17th century. Shoo.

Lotsa' heat here and not much light.

Wallmart's business plan: induce suppliers to retail through Wallmart. As soon as alternative (original) distribution system is destroyed start putting screws to suppliers on price. If suppliers tries to end wallmart relationship they soon learn that businesses once abandoned are reluctant to give a second chance, plus original price point is destroyed.

China's business plan: own the world. Sadly Canadians have played a significant role in teaching them how (but we don't want you back Mr. Strong, unless it's to answer question about Tongsun Park, Paribus Bank and oil for food).

Any talk of dollars is relative. I recall my Moose Jaw neighborhood in the 60s. Pretty much exclusively one income families, no crime to speak of. Lots of kids and lots of fun.

My very similar neighborhood in BC, all two income families, school closures cause no can afford kids and a home, all kinds of crime and not nearly as much fun for my kids as I had because everyone is afraid.

Our legacy (those in their 40s 50s) is one we should all be ashamed of. The lowest common denominator has become the law (sorry zellers). There is little quality in any product, almost no quality in goverance and the educational system has become a wasteland of stupidy and catering to victims. New isn't always better and the wisdom of the ages is not old fashioned.

> The ones that prove

Blah-blah-blah...

Your 'lessons' are inconsistent from the point of view of hard science: math and accounting. I demonstrated that in numbers. You are only throwing around slogans. See the difference?

Prove to me that I am an imbecile, show me the money, demonstrate how my theory is inconsistent, that suggest that if Canada pays for Chinese goods and China invests in Canada, the investment cannot be either larger than or equal to the trade deficit, because portion of China's surplus is pocketed by the communist party and triads to be pissed away and stashed away.

Dude, I repeat: it's math that's on my side. On your side is a bunch of slogans that you are waiving. How much is 2+2/2?

Don't forget the role of homegrown government in this,if it costs less to live due to cheaper goods subsidized by chinese labour there's more room for the gov'ts to increase the tax burden to bride us with our own money and pay for things like defined benefit public sector pension plans.

Don't forget the role of homegrown government in this. If it costs less to live due to cheaper goods subsidized by chinese labour there's more room for the gov'ts to increase the tax burden to bribe us with our own money and pay for things like defined benefit public sector pension plans.

Waterhose, a colleague just returned from a business trip to China. He visited a factory making, let's say Brand Name A. The person who owns the factory is Chinese. It's not the Brand Name A - it's a Chinese national, who somehow (thru tender or whatever) got a contract with the Brand Name A to manufacture their goods.

That person built not one, but two factories. Both are manufacturing virtually same product. First one goes to North America and Europe, where it is sold under Brand Name A. But the 2nd factory sells to the Middle East, China, India, Russia etc. under a number of other brand names. The 2nd factory has the same blueprints and schematics and is not paying any royalties to the Brand Name A. Every yuan is pocketed by the owner.

Dude, you have to be deaf and blind in order to defend globalization. If we only had level playing field! But we don't. I am genuinely believe that the current crisis - North America being several trillions in debt - will finally awaken people and push them to realization that the trade unions must be obliterated, probably physically. If a dictator comes along and offers to execute the union bosses in Canada - he's got my vote.

The solution to China is to demand they freely trade their currency. If their currency floated up trade would move in the direction of balance soon enough. I like free trade but it's not really free trade if the currency is distorted and the people don;t work voluntarily.