I used to have a union job too, and I didn’t complain that I was getting paid WAY more than the work I did was worth, either. Still, as a responsible adult I would never claim that I actually deserved those kinds of wages; I only got them because my union strong-armed my employer until they went bankrupt & had to move their operation to Mexico.

Penn & Teller granted in the episode that Walmart is perfectly capable of doing wrong, and in the past several stores have done some pretty shitty things to their workers. Honestly, though, one of their guests summed it up perfectly – Walmart has done nothing but give the American consumer what they’ve asked for. Through our spending habits, we’ve proven that we value convenience, efficiency, low price and Walmart quality (define that however you like) over the privilege of paying more for high-paid, knowledgeable store employees & the fun of having to travel to a multitude of various mom & pop specialty shops.

Walmart is what America asked for, and we got it. Now quit your bitching & go enjoy some everyday low prices.

Free market capitalism assumes the market is really free. With the Chinese yuan artificially held low by the Bank of China, it is simple for Walmart to pump wealth into China. If the market were really free the yuan would rise and the pump would reverse direction. But that isn’t happening, is it? Why?

Because we all think we’re getting something free. Impossibly cheap goods for the US market, huge profits for shareholders and a Chinese government that can afford to subsidize US national debt. Win-win…. until the pump reaches the bottom and we discover all our wealth has been transferred from the bank accounts of working Americans to Chinese ownership of US bonds.

Walmart is the engine of our future loss of economic power and independence and ultimately to our enslavement to the rich Chinese government that loves capitalism as long as they don’t have to play by the rules.

Congrats on building another engine in your town.

I love the comment section though. Fantastic stuff. I’ve watched a few Penn and Teller Bullshit episodes and for the most part they’re entertaining but this one just rubs me the wrong way. They almost seem to intentionally gloss over relevant facts and I find that troubling. They cite the amount a full time worker in management gets yet fail to mention that the majority of workers at Wal-Mart are not full time, not managers and rarely make anywhere near 10 dollars an hour. They try and justify the use of sweat shops by saying the alternatives in those countries are worse so that somehow by default makes the sweat shop better. Yet that reasoning can be applied to other lines of work though. So why are people outraged by child prostitution in foreign countries after all if the kid makes more than they would in the sweat shop shouldn’t we be thanking the sexual predators for saving them from poverty? Free market rocks guys now get out there and rape some kids.

As for the argument that if you don’t like Wal-Mart you should shop somewhere else where exactly would you like people to go? After all by coming into a small community Wal-Mart drives other companies out of business so where do I shop when they are the only one left?

Libertarianism is not an excuse to stick your heads up your asses and act like bad things are acceptable as long as they are done in a free market with no interference. Enjoy the coming depression you’ve all earned it. By allowing outsourcing of jobs and the weakening of the American industrial infrastructure this country is about to get its ass handed to it on a silver plate. Sadly that silver plate was purchased from a Wal-Mart and made by kids in China.

Slow clap.

Is your union job in retail? That’s a relevant fact that you’ve excluded. Any retailer that pays its employees $20/hr would be destined for bankruptcy.