America's memory manufacture Micron (and my prior 51% employer) announce this week they would lay off an additional 2000 employees in Idaho. That story in itself is not that interesting given the sea of other recent layoffs. What really makes this story interesting is that Idaho's largest employer is now Walmart.
Not that there's anything wrong with WalMart. In fact, I love their business model. But Walmart does not produce a product. It serves only the end user and actually negatively impacts our GDP with their large sales of imports.
IMO, what this clearly represents is our move from an economy based on manufacturing to an economy based on consumption... a most unsustainable trend.
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6 comments:
Lucky it is on the other side of the state. The INL(Idaho National Lab) is the largest supporter of income in the area. We do have 2 Wal-Marts in town now.
It's funny too(sad funny)that ol Sam Walton was a real patriot and when he was in charge he had a strict policy about selling American made goods.Walmart has their own brand of electronics and small appliances,Durabrand and their own factory in China that makes the shit.They don't just buy from these guys they built a factory over there.Check it out,you can't buy Durabrand anywhere but at Walmart.Labor Unions really forced the price of our hard goods up so we are forced to use cheap overseas labor.We need to fix that problem first,the cost of manufacturing our own stuff.How cool would that be if we supplied Chinas Walmart with our goods.Yea like that would ever happen.
Oh I'm all for free trade as long as we aren't getting hosed.
I see where the Rocky Mountain Times is to publish its last paper on Friday. 150 years of print comes to an end.
Good Ridance to the Rocky Mountain News! What a tabloid. No one wanted to buy it because it isn't worth anything. Now I won't get anymore unsolicited phone calls to subscribe. Now if the Denver Post would only close shop.
And to all the hacks that worked there, now you'll have to get real jobs.
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