The Walmart Saga

[coloma gold]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

Heh,

1)I'm not religious
2)I don't hate the Chinese people (nor consider them slaves to the US's greed but rather their own gov't's policies with regards to trade with the US, trade with the rest of the world, and distinct lacking in areas of human right withing China)
3)I don't mind that Walmart is successful or that other companies can become as successful as Walmart.

What I want is fairness.

When Walmart, or any big business, can change the rules to give it unfair advantages and when they can buy off politicians or persuade them using lobbyists to influence otherwise good governance to give them unfair advantages, I have a very natural problem with that.



How incredibly rude and distastefully myopic, not to mention borderline mental. Let me guess you learned I was as such from the BBC? Or Newsnight?

That's sad if true, but not entirely unexpected.

Voodoo,
I have read your response to comments. Unfortunately, the comments are incorrectly attributable to me. I did not make the comments.. I believe that if you research the comments you will find that they were made by someone else. Therefore, your response(whether correct or incorrect) are misdirected and missed the correct recipient.

[JohnSoCal]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

When produce can be grown in Canada for less than it can in the US, Walmart will buy from Canada and pay the Canadians less. If it was free trade, they would pay the Canadians the same as the producers in the US.

Absolutely untrue. Produce has never been cheaper in Canada. Even if it was, there is absolutely nothing wrong with paying them less than the US price. Your statement is nonsensical. Everybody shops around for the lowest price. Why would anybody pay more than the going price where they purchase their goods? Canada imports most of their produce from the US. The US imports virtually no produce from Canada. What produce we do import, mostly comes from Mexico. The main items that the US imports from Canada are: oil, lumber, and automotive products.

In the past several years, the Canadian dollar has been higher than the US at various times. The US dollar is very weak and will continue to be so due to the massive debt we are running up. Canada is in much better shape than the US. They don't have a housing crisis like we do, employment is rising instead of falling, their financial institutions are in much better condition, and their government isn't running up massive deficits. Their debt ratio to GDP is much better than the US and they are strong in commodities. All of these factors contribute to a stronger CDN dollar. Unfortunately their strong dollar is causing problems in their manufacturing sector. The period in the 80's when the CDN dollar was very weak was because Canada had a severe debt problem. That has since been improved greatly by them having budget surpluses for several years in a row

I wasn't going to reply as this can go on and on but I decided that your misconceptions needed to be answered.

[Voodoo]

Originally Posted by coloma gold

Voodoo,
I have read your response to comments. Unfortunately, the comments are incorrectly attributable to me. I did not make the comments.. I believe that if you research the comments you will find that they were made by someone else. Therefore, your response(whether correct or incorrect) are misdirected and missed the correct recipient.

Sorry about that. I meant the one to go to Zoom but somehow managed to get it crossed up.

[Voodoo]

[quote=JohnSoCal;198597]

Originally Posted by Voodoo

When produce can be grown in Canada for less than it can in the US, Walmart will buy from Canada and pay the Canadians less. If it was free trade, they would pay the Canadians the same as the producers in the US.

[B][I]Absolutely untrue.

Unfortunately it is the truth whether you agree with it or not.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Produce has never been cheaper in Canada.

You are conflating produce made for export with something else entirely. If the Canadian dollar was low compared to the US dollar, it stands to reason that Canadian produce could be exported to the US for less than US produce to Canada. This is pretty basic stuff, no offense, that even you, in passing acknowledge in your counter arguments.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Even if it was, there is absolutely nothing wrong with paying them less than the US price.

As I said before, I believe there is a problem. Viewed with a narrow focus, the makers of the produce will get paid fair market value and not a penny more for their goods. That's all well and good so far as it goes. But you have to take a step back and view it from a much broader perspective. When those goods are traded internationally, literally between nations, trade imbalances occur and, under ideal circumstances, are addressed over time by a raise in value of the undervalued currency. Export trade and currency valuation tend to work against each other helping to mitigate each other's tendencies towards excess.

Paying Canadians, for example, the same as US producers allows this process to occur much more rapidly but not doing so slows it down considerably.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Your statement is nonsensical.

I know it appears that way to you, but I assure you, it isn't.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Everybody shops around for the lowest price. Why would anybody pay more than the going price where they purchase their goods?

I dunno. People in the past used to pay for such silly things as quality and craftsmanship. People still do but those that do tend to be from China these days, suprisingly enough.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

Canada imports most of their produce from the US. The US imports virtually no produce from Canada. What produce we do import, mostly comes from Mexico. The main items that the US imports from Canada are: oil, lumber, and automotive products.

I was using Canada as a general example not a specific one.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

In the past several years, the Canadian dollar has been higher than the US at various times. The US dollar is very weak and will continue to be so due to the massive debt we are running up. Canada is in much better shape than the US. They don't have a housing crisis like we do, employment is rising instead of falling, their financial institutions are in much better condition, and their government isn't running up massive deficits. Their debt ratio to GDP is much better than the US and they are strong in commodities. All of these factors contribute to a stronger CDN dollar. Unfortunately their strong dollar is causing problems in their manufacturing sector. The period in the 80's when the CDN dollar was very weak was because Canada had a severe debt problem. That has since been improved greatly by them having budget surpluses for several years in a row

I have no interest discussing with you the politics of internal budgetary finance with respect to the US and Canada outside the points that directly touch upon trade imbalance and the ability of currency valuation to compensate and as such am in not going to take a position on topics such as the housing crisis in the US or gov't policies outside trade and currency in Canada. Hopefully you understand.

Originally Posted by JohnSoCal

I wasn't going to reply as this can go on and on but I decided that your misconceptions needed to be answered.

Heh, yeah, but you didn't though.