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Anyone who is interested in the debate surrounding Walmart and how it impacts local and global economies should check out this PBS documentary. http://www.pbs.

Anyone who is interested in the debate surrounding Walmart and how it impacts local and global economies should check out this PBS documentary. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/ http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/view/ Of particular interest is the section called "Muscling Manufacturers", which shows how the sheer scale of their operation gives them the power to force local manufacturing jobs overseas, effectively creating these "lower income residents" that natrius mentions above. Scale is often a topic of discussion for hackers; to see how some of the same principles apply to a huge retail corporation is mind-blowing. Definitely worth a watch, imo.

natrius 17y ago
I don't believe that the imaginary lines that humans tend to draw in the sand to separate people make a Chinese person less worthy of a job than an American. It is in my best interest to keep jobs from leaving the country. Money tends to circulate locally, so we're decreasing the amount of wealth available here when we buy foreign goods. Losing American jobs also increases the costs of our social welfare programs. However, since our social welfare programs are presumably better than China's, creating a Chinese job at the cost of an American job likely leaves the world better off if we assume that the increased taxes and decreased American income would result in a negligible decrease in well-being in comparison. I think that's a fair assumption. Shop at Walmart, save the world.
tptacek 17y ago
The end result of this process is that people pay significantly less for the same value to their life, improves their standard of living. For some products, the quality tradeoff is worth it. For others, quality wins, and in those cases Wal-Mart has less leverage. Wal-Mart didn't create price competition.

natrius 17y ago

I don't believe that the imaginary lines that humans tend to draw in the sand to separate people make a Chinese person less worthy of a job than an American. It is in my best interest to keep jobs from leaving the country. Money tends to circulate locally, so we're decreasing the amount of wealth available here when we buy foreign goods. Losing American jobs also increases the costs of our social welfare programs. However, since our social welfare programs are presumably better than China's, creating a Chinese job at the cost of an American job likely leaves the world better off if we assume that the increased taxes and decreased American income would result in a negligible decrease in well-being in comparison. I think that's a fair assumption. Shop at Walmart, save the world.

tptacek 17y ago

The end result of this process is that people pay significantly less for the same value to their life, improves their standard of living. For some products, the quality tradeoff is worth it. For others, quality wins, and in those cases Wal-Mart has less leverage. Wal-Mart didn't create price competition.