Attention, Walmart shoppers: Those deals you’re getting aren’t such good deals. Set aside for the moment that you can get similar items elsewhere on sale and meet or beat Walmart’s prices. Set aside the fact that you’re budget likes it when you buy items that are cheap every day, even though their manufacturer is subsidized by the Chinese government, with low standards that often produce sub-standard or dangerous products. The fact is, those “cheap” items cost America and our workers dearly.
Reuters reports that Walmart single-handedly caused 15.3% of our counry’s goods trade deficit between 2001 and 2013–that’s $48.1 BILLION that went to China rather than into our economy. 400,000 American jobs were lost to Chinese workers, who, by the way, suffer abuse in their jobs.
Walmart claims they’ll be adding jobs here. Most of their workers, however, are paid low wages and are kept part-time so the corporation doesn’t have to pay benefits. According to the Economic Policy Institute, real jobs are not materializing, and the EPI projects that Walmart will send more manufacturing jobs to China in the next decade than it creates for U.S. workers. All in all, the situation harms our economy.
Keep this in mind this holiday-shopping season. Watch the ads. Use the coupons. Shop wisely. Just not at Walmart. Make it a merrier Christmas for the American economy and our workers.