I have set up and stripped down several manufacturing plant over the years and I can tell you Walmart has nothing to do with the US losing manufacturing jobs. It'sour tax system and unions that are chasing the manufacturing jobs out of this country. Here's an example, the US has a tariff on sugar, and it's pretty high.A candy manufacture can strip down a plant,build a plant in Canada,relocate all of the equipment, pay more per hour for new employees in Canada, and pay for the whole project in less than a year with the saving on the sugar tariff alone. I know of at least 20 plants with 300+ employees that were relocated in the last 5 years just based on the sugar tariff. Now if you factor in the corporate tax the US charges it less then a six months pay back. You want to bring jobs back to the US, you have to changeour oppressive tax code.

ONLY 35%??? So your attitude is that if I don't bother with higher education, I'm only eliminating my chances of getting 35% of the jobs out there, not to mention the highest paying jobs? The fact is, there aren't enough people to fill all of the jobs in some sectors- a lot of high tech jobs are going overseas because there is an abundance of highly educated folks in China and India without jobs.

Another side of the coin is that the people who earn a Bachelor's, Master's or PHD are the ones who are creating the jobs faster than anyone else. The 'jobs' that you quoted from the government study aren't entitlements from the government or business, or even a static thing, but are things that had to be created because someone had a new idea or product to sell The last 2 companies I worked for were started up by PHD holders, and very likely the next job will be the same. The future is technology and information, if you have neither, you won't have a job for long.

They don't need to import anything because they don't have their own government standing in the way of industry. If they wantto start upa chemical plant, they don'thave to file environmental impact statements, deal with local zoning, get permission fromt he DNR or Army Corps of engineers, they don't have a BATFE or DEA that they have to worry about, or an FDA to file extremely expensive reports to if they make something for human consumption. A company I worked for, bought a lot of chemicals from China, becuase the costs were fractions of a penny on the dollar of what a domestic producer would have to charge- this is due to our own government putting roadblocks in our ability to produce anything.

That dollar that is spent 7 times over in a community willalso be taxed at least that many times. payroll taxes will cut theoriginal dollar down to about $0.75, figure a 5% tax every time its spent, you end up having to spend 7 times as much to get a full dollar tothe last recipient in the community.

Correction- some American's economic power is slipping. Its those that bury their head in the sand and believe that they can get by without a marketable skill or knowledge that are going to be hurting.

Some of you guys crack me up. Saying that everything Walmart sells is from China. Walmart sells the same things All the other stores sell. You will find the same items on other store's shelves.

When Walmart came here everyone knew they'd put K-Mart, Ames and other stores out of business. I look at it this way, K-Mart and Ames were in business way longer than Walmart. Yet, Walmart was able to sell stuff way cheaper. The other stores didn't worry about saving their customers money. But now Walmart comes along and sells things for less and the other stores complain.


Let me ask this. Why couldn't other stores, like K-mart, Ames, Mongomery Wards, Sears, etc. do what Walmart did? They were around alot longer. Why didn't they sell things cheaper, draw in more customers, expand their business.

WHAT STOPPED ALL THE OTHER STORES FROM BEING ABLE TO DO WHAT WALMART DID?

I do feel a little bad for the mom and pop stores. But times change.

Let's look at ATV dealers. Some of these dealers charge a set up fee, DOC fees, Freight charges, etc... They all charge a different price for these.Anywhere from $200 to $700 in additional costs.Some even state that they HAVE TO charge these fees. THEY DON' TSome dealers waive these charges all together and still charge a couple hundred dollar lower MSRP. They call these volume dealers.

Only a fool would pay $700 more for the same machine. But people do it every day. I look at Walmart the same way. They know how to manage their business and pass the savings on to customers. The other guys don't.

When you blame everything on the U.S Government and our taxes, Remember who the U.S. Government is. Other stores sell some of the same stuff Walmart does but on nowhere near the scale. They have no choice if one sells junk, they will all have to sell junk becauseWE will no longer pay more for quality.

I'm glad that someone believes in the fairytale of 'government by the people' while at the same time our government is fighting an unpopular war, and places more walls between congressmen and constituents (see McCain-Feingold)

China can do everything cheaper than we can.

Yea, especially when they have an undervalued currency, no human rights or labor laws, and the government helps to subsidize a lot of the stuff. Just because our jobs going to china represent the free market system doesn't mean that the way china does business is by way of free markets, that's where we're all getting screwed.

True,very true.

I don't shop much at Wal-Mart, but I don't blame them for anything they have done. They have merely sold the American consumer what they wanted. Nobody put a gun to anybody's head and said buy this or else. Everybody that walks into a Wal-Mart does so at their own free will.

The reason I don't buy much at Wal-Mart is because of service and quality. If I can find the same quality item at Wal-Mart for less, I will buy it there. Otherwise, I'll look elsewhere. Buy a gun/scope combo at a local gunshop, and most will mount and boresight for free. Plus, the local gunshops usually have the gun and the scope I want in-stock. Wal-Mart doesn't carry many high-end optics, so I have to get them somewhere else anyway. What they do carry, finding someone in sporting goods that actually knows what you want AND how to order it is like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow here in Lubbock.

In some of the smaller town Wal-Mart's its a different story, there would be no stores in those towns anyway without Wal-Mart. Those are probably the stores that will continue selling guns. I know the guys that work in both Wal-Marts near my home town, and they are avid hunters and fishermen like myself and are very knowledgeable about both.

I boycott Walmart because of their crappy merchandise. If you seel me a shoddy TV, I'll be damned if I support your business by buying my toilet paper from you.

I bought a gun at Walmart once and it was a huge hassle. I don't honestly save that much more over getting my day to day stuff at the mom and pops. Plus, there's a cute girl who works at the local drug store. All the wal Mart ladies around here are haggard old crones.