Walmart Work Release?

[Werewolf]

You're right, in 1980 the average manufacturing worker had to work 68 hours to buy a TV that would last 20 years.

Guy - you keep saying this. TV's with CRT's don't last 20 years and never have (unless they only got turned on a few hours a week). The CRT that will last 20 years based on the time a TV is on in US households/day has yet to be invented and never will be (You might be able to get a CRT to last 10 years maybe but even then the electron guns are weak, the picture dim, impossible to tune for good color - and you wouldn't want one). In addition the TV's you respect so much built 20 years ago were by then mostly solid state. Transistors/IC's last longer than tubes but they don't last 20 years - especially not the commercial grade devices used in TV manufacture. Your 20 year TV is a pipe dream and typical hyperbole.

And on an inflation adjusted basis TV's today cost about a 1/4th of what they did 20 years ago. They're cheaper to get as a percent of your typical household income than ever. Hell they've almost reached the point of just toss it out when they break and buy another they're so cheap. Look in the yellow pages for TV repair shops. They're out there but not many. Grab a yellow pages from 20 or 30 years ago and look at the difference.

There's a reason there are no longer any TV's manufactured in the USA and it isn't Walmart - it's that the Japanese can design 'em better and the chinese build 'em faster and cheaper.

Your neighbors aren't out of work because jobs were exported they're out of work because they didn't change with the times, get the education they needed to fill the high tech jobs in the USA and that we excel at or stayed with a union that priced themselves out of the market.

In short they failed to adapt (just like a lot of mom and pop shops trying to compete with Walmart failed to adapt) and Darwin had 'em for dinner.

 

[Rabbitcreekok]

Well said Werewolf.

+1

 

[RaysZ71]

I don't get why everyone hates on walmart. Guess there jealous of there success. That they didn't have the idea. We all say we would do this do that if it was ours but would you really?? I doubt it. You wanted low prices they gave them to you now you shove them back in there face. While i don't agree with everything they do. I think its cool that one man had a dream and made it come true and it has turned into one of the largest companies in the world.

I don't hate Walmart, I always shop there and no Im not a redneck or trailer trash.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

Guy - you keep saying this. TV's with CRT's don't last 20 years and never have (unless they only got turned on a few hours a week). The CRT that will last 20 years based on the time a TV is on in US households/day has yet to be invented and never will be (You might be able to get a CRT to last 10 years maybe but even then the electron guns are weak, the picture dim, impossible to tune for good color - and you wouldn't want one). In addition the TV's you respect so much built 20 years ago were by then mostly solid state. Transistors/IC's last longer than tubes but they don't last 20 years - especially not the commercial grade devices used in TV manufacture. Your 20 year TV is a pipe dream and typical hyperbole.

QUOTE]

You totally missed to point ... How do you think the Aisians got into the TV business in the first place. American companys moved there. First it started as "imports" and a few short years later we just gave it all away.

The folks who used to build consumer electronics and appliances ( not to mention farm tractors, nuts bolts, guns, clothes, and in some cases -food) would be making "flat screens" if we would favor domestic investment and force the the currency market to level the undervalued currencies we compete with.

In the mid 70's "they" told us we would replace all the foundry and mill hand jobs we were loosing with the gains we were making in the IT and tech feild.

Hell... we screwed that up too. Every customer service phone bank we ever thought of 25 years ago moved to India, Aisia or some other 3rd world country.

You younger guys need to really look hard at the choices your generation needs to make ... to fix the problems my DADS generation brought upon us.

 

[vvvvvvv]

Every customer service phone bank we ever thought of 25 years ago moved to India, Aisia or some other 3rd world country.

I get calls every week from Indian companies wanting me to outsource my programming work to them to $2/hr. I refuse every time. It seems very difficult to compete with other Oklahoma companies that do outsource their work and act more like a middle man, but the fact is that by keeping my rates fair and not outsourcing I get to work with better clients who care more about quality than bottom line.

(By the way, that's why I and a lot of other developers don't list a phone number on our websites. India has a tendency to ring you non-stop.)

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

Werewolf you're missing the point. I don't give a rats reserve about TVs, we could be talking about widgets for all that it matters. The point is that Wal Mart's demands of high profits while dictating the profit that it's supplier is allowed to make has killed manufacturing in America.

High tech service jobs, huh? Didn't you just say that high tech devices are disposable so the service jobs no longer exists?

If I'm not working I'm not spending, if I'm not spending your service is not required.

 

[Werewolf]

Werewolf you're missing the point. I don't give a rats reserve about TVs, we could be talking about widgets for all that it matters. The point is that Wal Mart's demands of high profits while dictating the profit that it's supplier is allowed to make has killed manufacturing in America.

High tech service jobs, huh? Didn't you just say that high tech devices are disposable so the service jobs no longer exists?

If I'm not working I'm not spending, if I'm not spending your service is not required.

No I didn't miss the point.

The point is that whether we like it or not the economy has turned global. Countries will do what they do best to succeed in that economy.

My point is that in the US, the days where some half literate joe sixpack can earn $25+ an hour for turning the same bolt all day long on an assembly line have gone the way of the dodo. Those that don't understand that are doomed to the same fate.As for the unions, they can kick and scream and pay off the democrats till the rooster crows but their days are limited as well.

What the US does best and is most successful at in the global economy is basic research and service (and by service I am not talking MacDonalds or Service Master crap - I am talking about Consulting firms that go in and help companies get better, financial firms, engineering service firms, medical firms that help design and build hospitals and clinics etc and do it both domestically and internationally). To fill those types of jobs our culture is going to have to adapt. Joe SixPack is going to have to pay attention in school and rely on his brain for success and not his brawn. If he can't do it he's gonna end up working in MacDonalds, digging ditches or the plethora of other jobs that require little to no skill. And he'll be buying the few goods he can afford from companies that made those goods somewhere besides the USA.

Adapt or die. Darwin ain't just a zoo keeper - he keeps tabs on us humans too.

 

[Shootin 4 Fun]

I can't believe that anyone would rather support China than support their own. I wonder if these are the same ones screaming that the democrats sold us out to China.

 

[Jefpainthorse]

No I didn't miss the point.

half literate joe sixpack can earn $25+ an hour for turning the same bolt all day long on an assembly line have gone the way of the dodo. .

Thats the same old saw you guys play to death. For every $25 hour Union shop out there there *was* 10 places paying $7 to run a die casting machine or grinding carbon and rubber to make floor mats for $9.

You really don't have a clue about what factory work pays...or used to pay before we sent it all away do you?

Shoes and shirts payed on a peice work bonus basis. Not many folks were getting rich... but they were PAYING their house notes, buying cars and getting there kids fed and schooled.

And as far a literacy goes... ask around ... lots of folks are paying down $50K student loans managing I-Hops for $30 K a year these days.

 

[vvvvvvv]

I can't believe that anyone would rather support China than support their own.

You're operating on the assumption that a majority of what you pay when you buy an imported item goes overseas.