fair trade for the Americas?

Fast Company | The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know

“People ask, ‘How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?’ Sure, it’s held inflation down, and it’s great to have bargains,” says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills. “But you can’t buy anything if you’re not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs.”
[ . . . ]
“We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world–yet we aren’t willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions.”

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell, and that strikes me as a side-effect of this unending quest for lower prices. Those prices represent wages, after all.

It might be instructive to see how many “Buy American” bumper stickers you can find in Wal-Mart parking lot. I don’t shop there, nor do I own stock in them. if you do, think of what your dollars are voting for.

[Posted with ecto]