Wal-Mart, I Love You, I Hate You.

Wal-Mart. Depending on who you ask, when they come into town, they either revitalize the town or they kill off every last mom-n-pop in sight. Behold, a giant grey box in which the only thing lower than the prices are the wages. Where did all the displaced Filipinos who were working at the airport x-ray go? It would appear to me that they all took up employment at Wal-Mart. I go into our local Wal-Mart, and if the checkout person speaks English as their primary language, it is a fluke, a rarity.

Does the arrival of a Wal-Mart into a community suddenly provide new employment for the marginally employable? Does that same Wal-Mart end the employment of folks at stores forced out of business? Are new jobs created around a Wal-Mart? Do these jobs mainly involve flipping burgers and assembling sub sandwiches? I suspect all of the above are true.

But the prices! For sure, the prices are low, indeed. Judging by the heavy migrant workforce, the wages must indeed be as low. Certainly if one is to believe what one hears on the news, the work conditions might be best described as laogai.

What is laogai? Laogai is a Chinese term for "forced-labor camp." How does Wal-Mart manage to serve up such low prices? It isn't their job to manufacture the goods they sell, they merely sell. Where does most of that stuff come from? China. How do the Chinese manage to produce so much stuff so cheap? Well, for starters, the average income in China in 2003? $316. Of course, that represents the average income. Poor folks in China, which increased by 800,000, averaged only $77 in 2003. Certainly this figure does not factor those unfortunates who are serving time in laogai. How many DVD players, how many bicycles, how many children's toys are the result of laogai? Does Wal-Mart dare to ask?

I dare you, take a look for yourself. Visit this link to see the slave labor goods produced in Guangdong province, and hit "CTRL-F" (windows) to pull up the in-page Search. Do a search for the phrase "Christmas trees". You see artifical Christmas Trees for sale in Wal-Mart? You notice that those trees are typically made in China? Well, although I have no proof linking the trees in Wal-Mart to the ones produced at the Jieyang Prison in Guangdong, you might want to ponder if laojiao-produced artificial Christmas Trees will be cheaper to produce than ones elsewhere in China, or the USA, for that matter.

Looking for toys? Look here and check out #2 on the list, Shanghai Municipal Prison. I'm sure the prices are low, always. #19 on the list, Baimaoling Prison, produces a wide variety of goods, and they export to the USA! No doubt the prices are low, always.

Does this implicate Wal-Mart? No, not directly. But one can only ponder how many laojiao goods are parked on Wal-Mart's shelves. Clothing, toys, electronics, hardware, virtually the entire Wal-Mart inventory could be laojiao-produced.

If Wal-Mart would produce a statement about their efforts to avoid laojiao goods, and the distributors who bring them into the USA, I would feel a bit better. Somehow, I suspect that the real answer lies in their motto "Low Prices, Always."

As they say on TV informercials, though, "But wait, there's more!" Here is a link to the Laogai Report, outlining just how Wal-Mart gets those "Low Prices, Always." The document is a 12-page PDF. Take a look at page 9, and read the article "The Truth Behind Wal-Mart's Low Costs."

I think I should shorten the title of this article to "Wal-Mart, I Hate You."