"Every time you shop at Wal-Mart, a baby in China dies"

[MercutioATC]

My mother's a 62-year-old East-coast Italian woman. Suffice it to say that she's prone to becoming emotional. She's also very new-age, liberal, touchy-feely. She has been known to cry at TV commercials.

My parents used to shop at Wal-Mart for one thing...engine oil. They knew that Wal-Mart was bad, but oil for their cars was REALLY cheap at Wal-Mart. Despite my talks, they continued to get their oil there...

...until I told my mother "Every time you shop at Wal-Mart, a baby in China dies".


Yeah, it was a cheap shot, but I like to think I was serving the greater good.

[Tunkamerica]

1. ?

that doesn't even make sense.

Tell the truth, let them make up their own minds.

[originalpckelly]

3. Actually yes it does make sense...

In China WITHOUT THE CONSENT OF THE MOTHER "corrupt" government officials carry out forced abortions on women to keep with their population quota.

FORCED not by their CHOICE.

Money from Wal-Mart goes to fund the Chinese government, and thusly these "corrupt" FORCED abortions.

It really doesn't matter where you come from on this issue, the whole idea of a woman's right to choose is that the government shouldn't tell a woman what to do with her body. In China, it goes the reverse of what the fundies want women to do, the government forces women to have abortions.

One way or the other, this is not acceptable. Women should be able to have control over their bodies, not the government.

[Tunkamerica]

4. ok that was quite a leap

Money from LOTS of places goes to fund the Chinese government. Blaming Wal-Mart for forced abortions in China is ridiculous. It is. And it's unnecessary. A rational person can look at the real arguments against Wal-Mart and make up their own mind. Right?

Plus, oil is one of the few things that China's not cornering the market on.

[originalpckelly]

6. Any other company which contributes to the survival of a bad government...

(and that's the polite phrase) is not doing it's social duty.

The forced abortions are one among many abuses of power in China. It is also well known that inmates are routinely executed to harvest their organs.

It's quite sickening, and China is the country doing it.

They have also persecuted the people of Tibet over many decades because of their religion.

China is being helped by these companies, and that help makes these affronts to liberty possible.

[qazplm]

8. almost every sector

of our economy goes to fund China.

Probably some of the clothes on your very back in part went to fund China.

Have you gone through and determined where EVERYTHING you ever buy is made in part or whole in China?

Then you too are apparently responsible for deaths, using this logic.

[Crandor]

18. Get used to it

America's going to have to do the same sooner or later. Despite what the right wing says, natural resources are limited, and population growth can't continue forever.

[tigereye]

21. that's really stretching the argument.....

I should think the poor worker policies would be sufficient.


That's almost as bad as the "eat your food since people are starving" argument, we used to hear when I was a kid....

[rman]

7. It's pretty close to the truth

Much closer than what any MSM outlet or any large corporation doing business in China will tell you.

[MercutioATC]

26. It's a reference to China's human rights violations and Wal-Mart's support of them

by using such a high degree of Chinese labor.

[Hibernias Daughter]

2. OK I get it; but

where else can I shop? They've driven our Ames and K_Mart stores out of my closest town (21 miles away). Whenever I'm in a larger town (another hour away) I shop in their downtown not Wal Mart (because they have one :-))

My point is that not everyone can easily do what you ask of them. You and your family sound like cool people. Introspective and analytical, as well as loving and caring. I would consider it an honor to know you folks. And in Utopia I would agree with you. But this is the real world and you cant just tell hard working people that they have to travel 4 hours to and from a town every weekend to pick up bird seed when they can get it an hour away. Also we have a shitload of snowstorms. I'm a good driver but our road conditions can be downright dangerous sometimes.

I admire your idealism, but you've got to understand that sometimes pragmatism though not always desirable, must be practiced at times. And worse, there are times when no choice exists... or at least not a reasonable one: this is the current situation here. I shop oustside of Wal Mart whenever I can, but that is a rare occurrence.

I do wish you luck however. You're a good person.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Shop online

I do understand what you are saying. One of my best friends lives in a small town and she has to drive 40 miles to shop and her best choice there is a WalMart. So she does all the shopping she can online. Saves her a bundle in gas.

[Quantess]

5. AWESOME!

:sarcasm:
Step on a crack in the sidewalk..

[baldguy]

9. A lot of people don't care.

Just so they can get their crap at criminally low prices, and the clerks say "Merry Christmas!" to them.

[Texasgal]

14. Well.. when other pharmacy's

can afford to sell four dollar RX's, I'll ask my Mom to to stop being a a "criminal" :eyes:

[Maddy McCall]

17. No shit.

I love the purists and elitists at DU.

[Maddy McCall]

delete

.

[Maddy McCall]

22. delete

[MercutioATC]

25. Ask and ye shall receive...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4348465.html

Not the best choice of big-box stores, but Target offers $4 prescriptions.

[Texasgal]

36. That;'s Great!

I just looked!

Seems 3 of the six meds that my Mother gets is not on that list though. :(

[Clark2008]

30. You do realize that the employees lost their bonuses for those

$4 prescriptions, don't you?

I guess if everybody's poor, then no one will be able to afford anything BUT $4 prescriptions.

[Texasgal]

35. I don't care.

My Mother lives on social security and a small retirement fund.

She was paying close to 200.00 a month on meds. After some research we found that a little more than half of her meds were on the wally world four dollar list.

My Mom is able to pay her bills and eat a little better because of this.

Now, you tell me.... should my Mom an elderly woman that barely scrapes along be held liable for wal-mart workers who lost their bonus?

I didn't think so.

[ThomWV]

10. Motor Oil and Dog Food

2/3 of the content of the motor oil jug came from the good old USofA; likewise, virtually every soybean ground and every inch of hog's gut saved to make the dog food came from a domestic source.

Buy American!

Every time you shop at Wal Mart some old-fart Greeter makes another hour of minimum wage.

[Ms. Toad]

11. Right,

# of Wal-Mart shoppers x # times shopping at Wal-Mart = really big number of babies being killed. Within a few days those Chinese babies have to be killed before they are conceived - maybe your parents are even killing their parents, grandparents, etc. in order to keep up with the killing spree you have described.

Better to hand her a copy of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America." A tad more reality based.

[MercutioATC]

27. Geez, it wasn't a literal statement...

It simply illustrates that shopping at a store that gets the majority of its profits by sourcing from a country with horrendous human rights and labor abuses is a bad thing.

:eyes:

[Ms. Toad]

31. If it wasn't intended to be a literal statement,

and it wasn't taken as one by your parents, they why did it have a different result than all of the previous times you had explained that shopping there was bad?

[MercutioATC]

32. Did you miss the extensive explanation of my mother's personality?

She was a teacher, both primary education and special needs. She ran her own catering business for years. She's no pushover.

However, she is susceptible to emotional pleas...so that's how I approached the issue.

There's a problem with this?

[Ms. Toad]

34. From a personal perspective,

big time, mostly having to do with intellectual and emotional honesty in relations with other people - qualities I place pretty high on my list of important characteristics in my valued relationships. I already addressed the intellectual honesty. If I wanted to make an emotional pleas there are lots of tug-at-the-heart reality based pleas I can make regarding the lives of Chinese workers to which WalMart contributes, without resorting to the emotional equivalent of photos of baby body parts which are routinely used as a emotional pleas against abortion.

If that's the kind of relationship you have with your mother - and it suits both of you - enjoy. When you post it on a website for comment by folks you shouldn't really expect universal kudos about the questionable (by your own admission) method you used to convince your mother to stop shopping at WalMart.

[Nikia]

12. Didn't the Chinese have forced abortions before Walmart became big?

Even if we disagree with this practice, the Chinese government adopted this policy because they thought that it is was a wise economic and environmental decision. If the country were richer economically, I don't know if this policy would more or less likely to stay in place. It is a complicated issue.

[originalpckelly]

16. China still has population quotas which different provinces and...

local governments must meet. To accomplish this there are those who force women against their will to have abortions. They do not get to choose to have them, which they can go ahead and do if they want to, it's their body, but they don't get a choice.

The government of China at the national level knows of this, and they have still not rescinded the policies.

On top of that they kill prisoners only to harvest their organs.

This is some pretty fucked up shit.

Yet on the other hand, there's hardly anything made in America anymore.

But I must add that 70% of the products in Wal-Mart come from China. Not only do they help that government, they also hurt the local manufacturers in China because they will literally force people to shave pennies off of a product, or make them lose their contract.

This is on top of Wal-Mart marking the stuff up by large margins.

Wal-Mart doing business with China in such an abusive way, is also hurting Americans directly. Millions of manufacturing jobs have been lost to China, and they have not been replaced by better jobs. People who've worked in a factory all of their life, are now having to take up crappy jobs at McDonald's.

[Maddy McCall]

20. Of course.

[oblivious]

13. Yeah, yeah, and every time you buy a Big Mac another Iraqi kid dies.

[MercutioATC]

28. McDonald's gets a large portion of its profits from exploited Iraqi labor?

I had no idea...

[oblivious]

33. Using your logic, buying American products means you are part of the evil their govt does.

I hope your mom chased you out the door with her broom when you tried that one on her.

[Maddy McCall]

19. Well, I guess I'm a Chinese baby killer.

I shop where my money buys the most of what I need.

I order online for stuff I can wait to purchase. Or for specialty items that I can't get anywhere else.

And I shop for groceries at the mom n' pop grocery store here, unless it's an item they don't carry. (English muffins, for example.)

But I'll continue to shop at Walmart for the things I need that I can't buy elswhere locally.

And I'm not going to purchase everything that I need online, because I can't afford shipping.

[yasmina27]

23. Why is WalMart worse than other stores?

First off, let me say that I NEVER shop at WallyWorld, for many reasons, including the Chinese human rights abuses. I wrote an article about 5 years ago for our union newsletter about WalMart abuses and educated many of our members about WM. Some of them approached me after the article was published and said they never knew the things I talked about and would never shop there again.

That said, every time I argue w/ my sister about WalMart, we can never get past the China issue. She says, "Yeah, but where can you go and NOT buy stuff made in China. Sears, Penney's, Kmart, etc. many of their products have the 'made in China' label. So what is the difference?"

Does anyone have info and/or a link to why WM is so much worse regarding the China issue? She doesn't hear the arguments about low wages, health care, management, forcing out local businesses, etc.

Thanks!

[joeunderdog]

29. More than 10% of ALL USA imports from China go to Walmart.

Maybe more, as this article is dated. But you get the idea. Lots of interesting info on the strong-arm, anti-American tactics of this disease of a retailer.

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/77/walmart.html

[Pathwalker]

24. You lie to your mother - and you're proud of it?

Sounds like your mother needs financial help, too... :eyes:

[Lurking Dem]

37. I'm not sure how much

actually goes to "funding the Chinese government."

WalMart, and other American manufacturing companies, are raping China for cheap labor.

They get to set up shop in China and pay no Chinese tax for 5 years in order to provide jobs/stimulate the local economy. But at 5 years, those manufacturers close down, reform under a new name, and get another 5 years tax free.

Frankly, it's starting to piss China off.