The Wal-Mart Problem

Originally Posted by Beestie

All anyone knows is what we write in our posts.

It helps to read them, too.


Since I’m putting off an unpleasant chore, and since I’m feeling rather sullen at the moment, I’m going to give an answer to your comments that you don’t especially deserve. The following is largely from the CIA World Fact book. That’s CIA as in Central Intelligence Agency – not exactly a hotbed of bleeding liberal propaganda. The last I knew, the CIA does not check on my economic status before writing up its reports, either.

According to the CIA, China is (gasp!) run under a communist system of government.

The restructuring of its economy and resulting efficiency gains have contributed to a more than ten-fold increase in GDP since 1978. Measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis, China in 2005 stood as the second-largest economy in the world after the US. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in October 2005 approved the draft 11th Five-Year Plan and the National People's Congress is expected to give final approval in March 2006. The plan calls for a 20 percent reduction in energy consumption per unit of GDP by 2010 and an estimated 45 percent increase in GDP by 2010.

According to a second hotbed of mindless liberalism, The Economist, China develops her economy through exporting, so the Chinese government protects her exporting companies. China subsidizes these companies, lends them low interest loans, and gives them tax refunds. Also, most importantly, Chinese government controls her foreign exchange rate and keeps the rate low. Under these protections, Chinese exporting companies have lots of advantages in competition with foreign companies.

Chinese companies have little concern for interest rates on bank loans since credit is allocated with little regard to its price. Despite China's reforms of recent years, the government still controls more than half of the economy. Most state-owned enterprises do not care about the cost of borrowing because they have no need to make profits


Back to the CIA’s lefty writings:

(US companies) face higher barriers to entry in their rivals' home markets than the barriers to entry of foreign firms in US markets… The onrush of technology largely explains the gradual development of a "two-tier labor market" in which those at the bottom lack the education and the professional/technical skills of those at the top and, more and more, fail to get comparable pay raises, health insurance coverage, and other benefits. Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households...Long-term problems include inadequate investment in economic infrastructure, rapidly rising medical and pension costs of an aging population, sizable trade and budget deficits, and stagnation of family income in the lower economic groups.

Some fun comparisons, again from the CIA Fact book:


Foreign reserves and gold: USA, $86.94 billion; China, $795.1 billion
External debt: USA $8.837 trillion; China, $242 billion
Population below poverty line: USA, 12%; China, 10%

So, Comrade Beestie, how many shares of free market Wally World stock did you say you owned? The Central Committee wants to know.

[Beestie]

Originally Posted by marichiko

[China lies and cheats]

The list continues to grow.

Originally Posted by Beestie

The list continues to grow.

That's nice, Beestie.

And to Imprint:

What planet did you just arrive from?

Busterb, precisely! Its cheap crap, manufactured under a communist system by companies that don't have to be competitive because the government props them up.

[xoxoxoBruce]

One thing it has done is kill Chinese workers at an alarming rate. Pollution is running rampant, lung cancer has become the prime killer and strange diseases are popping up like daisies.

[wolf]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

One thing it has done is kill Chinese workers at an alarming rate.

Alarming to us, part of their 10 year economic plan to reduce surplus population for them.

[Troubleshooter]

Originally Posted by wolf

Alarming to us, part of their 10 year economic plan to reduce surplus population for them.

I ran across this at a site called The Superficial. Emphasis mine.

Meg Ryan, star of such movies as Crap and Crap 2: the Craptathlon, will adopt a Chinese baby later today, according to OK! magazine. The adoption is scheduled to take place at an American consulate in China. An insider tells the publication, "The consulate will formalize the adoption and grant Meg's new daughter a visa and a social security number. They will probably be flying back to the US immediately after the process is complete."

China is like the Wal-Mart of adoptions. You touch down at the airport in Beijing and they just start throwing babies and fortune cookies at you. But good for Meg. Now all she needs to do is name the baby Lo Pan and teach it to shoot fire from its eyes.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Troubleshooter

China is like the Wal-Mart of adoptions.

Well, if abortion and contraception become illegal in this country, maybe we can get Wal-Mart to offer adoptions. With %10 off discounts in the portrait studio and 1 free bag of diapers with each adoption (limit 2).