More thoughts on Wal-Mart...

This post is from my friend & co-worker Richard Penley. He used to work at Wal-Mart before he got to be a big shot lawyer... :-)

Let's look at Wal-Mart from a "Nuanced" perspective:

One could argue that Wal-Mart is increasing the standard of living of all Chinese workers by buying products produced in partnership with Chinese companies. Liberals tend to embrace communist values, so why not embrace the emerging Chinese capitalistic/communist model, or are we xenophobic when it comes to where we buy our products? As a true liberal would say, Chinese people are people too. They need shelter, food and clothes just like the rest of us. So why should they not partake in a little free enterprise? Taking into consideration the salary and standard of living there, Chinese workers are better off working in those industries that produce consumable goods now than in any time prior to the Twentieth Century. Let's not forget, if you were a rural Chinese man or woman prior to capitalism trickling into the free trade zones of China, your daily activities included pulling oxen in swamp ridden rice patties in order to feed a billion of your neighbors. I'm sure that is an in-humane way to live.

So I ask, why would the typical rural Chinese resident pull up their roots in mass numbers and move into the economic free trade zones in the coastal regions of Southern China? Is it because they desire to be exploited by Western Corporations through some quasi-form of slavery or are they just trying to improve themselves and earn a respectful living wage like the rest of the developed world?

No matter how much we detest it, we now live in a competitive world where economies are dependent upon each other. Truer communist words were never spoken.