Wal-Mart "goes back" to .....

[Racket_Man]

Made In America. WHAT A JOKE!!!!

http://money.msn.com/investing/wal-m...to-made-in-usa

Now to the interesting part ONLY 2% of their inventory will be ramped up. AND given their history with current American suppliers (meaning beating a supplier's wholesale price below cost, exclusive one sided contracts, no price increase even for a cost increase, etc.).

HMMMMMM about 25 YEARS ago WM did indeed have a MADE IN AMERICA thing going but then ole Sam decided that huge profits were better than American jobs/products and bought cheap out of country products.

[s_stabeler]

To be fair, at least it means the money will be kept in the US, instead of making the trade deficit even higher. ( although I agree that Walmart is abusive towards it's suppliers- it IS, however, easier to deal with the problem if everyone is in the US. Something like the UK Supermarket Code Of Practice ( while basically means retailers have to play fair with their suppliers) would work.

[Boozy]

Why are people so obsessed with "made in America" products? It makes no economic sense. When it comes to products such as textiles and disposable electronics, there's just no reason for a country with the technology and infrastructure of the US to be making such things. They can do it cheaper and more efficiently elsewhere. It's better for everyone. Let developing economies manufacture simple products. The US is better off producing the designs, equipment, and technology used to create those things, and export those.

The trade deficit is a problem, but the solution isn't to start sewing t-shirts again. The industrial revolution has come and gone in the US. The solution is to utilize the existing infrastructure to innovate.

[Andara Bledin]

Ultimately, it's a continuing pattern of tribalism that far too many people subscribe to.

It doesn't matter that it makes no sense. Someone else is doing that job, and it doesn't matter that we gave it to them because we could be doing more lucrative and important things, giving it to someone else equals, in some people's minds, taking it away from an American.

[protege]

Why are people so obsessed with "made in America" products?

Because the "dey're taking awr jerbs" people go nuts over it. Wal-Mart is attempting to capitalize on those feelings. Can't really fault them for that

But one argument I'm tired of hearing, is about how "all the profits go to China" (or Japan, Korea, etc.) Quite a few people seem to think that all the money made from selling a product is instantly transferred out of the US. Last time I checked, "profit" is a very small percentage--comparatively speaking--that leaves.

They ignore the money that the firm spends here--to actually get the product into the stores, advertising, sales taxes, salaries of *American* workers, warehouse costs, to name a few.

For example, the profit made when I bought my Corolla went to Japan. The car was designed there...but was actually built *here.* In the former NUMMI plant in California, in fact. A plant, which generated thousands of jobs for American workers. A plant, which generated property taxes, and funds to other businesses and services, as well as the community it was located in. All of that gets ignored, because Americans are too fucking stupid and think "import = bad."

As for the infrastructure being "adaptable," it's not always possible. Where I live, most of the big mills, factories, and rail yards are gone now. Sure, there's some steel and other products still being made here in Pittsburgh...but it will never be like it was. Nearly all of the big mills--which could have been converted to warehouses or factories--were torn down to make parking lots, office buildings...or even more steel...in the 1990s.

That's not to say that we haven't changed. Instead of being the home of heavy industry, my city moved into healthcare, research, and other high-tech areas. Prior to the area's rebirth, steel had simply become too expensive to manufacture here. Local mills had a huge market share, and because there was no competition (or so they thought!) they got fat and lazy. They didn't bother modernizing the mills, until it was too late.

That last bit is what hurt us the last time. The US needs to innovate. We cannot make everything ourselves. To do that would not only be incredibly foolish, but wasteful, and economically impossible.

[smileyeagle1021]

I can somewhat understand the obsession with "made in America"... the country does have a history of innovation and a lot of people assume that home of innovation also means home of best quality of manufacture. Sometimes it is true, often times it is not.
There are some things that I will admit to going out of my way to get made in America. I prefer made in America yarn because American manufacturers have figured out how to make yarn sans dye lots... never having to worry about finding matching dye lots while working on a project is well worth the extra $0.30 cents a skein to buy it. If they exported that technology to China though, I may well consider buying the import. Both my last car and my mom's last car we bought made in America because we were tired of Japan's innovation for the sake of innovation (Chevy reduced the weight of their power steering system by improving on the efficiency of their hydraulics, whilst Nissan just dumped hydraulics all together in favor of electric servos... which can short out and lock the steering... already had one insurance claim because of that and pray that the next time it happens isn't on the freeway instead of like last time where we were incredibly lucky enough to have it happen in a parking lot). Granted, in each of those cases, the made in America tag had less to do with the decision to purchase it than the qualities of the product.
Now, as far as what was said about the tribalism... there is something of a point in that. The jobs being sent to China are crappy jobs, but with so many people out of work, a job is a job.
There is other things to be said about local manufacturing. If you are an environmentalist, made in America means less fuel and emissions from shipping. If you are an investor in utilities it means more sales (manufacturing often times takes large amounts of energy). If you are unable/incapable of going to college, the crappy manufacturing job is an alternative to the crappy service job (the pay may not be any better, but at least you don't have people treating you like dirt all day).
And ultimately, it comes down to patriotism. Many people can remember when Made in America was a sign of quality. A lot of people see it as "we used to be able to put men on the moon and now we can't even build a decent toaster." Whether or not that is an accurate summation of what the nation has come to is up for debate, but at least at an emotional level, it makes a kind of sense.