Wal-Mart discussions good or bad

[Hoot]

Moose & BigE -

The subject of China and Asia in general is probably a timely one for me. I recently returned from Asia after having spent the past 15 years living and working there. I've been traveling and/or working in Asia for the the past 20+.

My father passed away after 91 good years this past year and my mother was/is lost. My wife and I had no choice but to come back in September and help her take care of her affairs...basically take care of her.

BigE, I understand you mother's situation all too well. Years ago I was forced to make a decision, take a position in my companies overseas office or look for new work. My job wouldn't exist in the U.S. any longer. I chose to move to Asia. I'm glad I did. The past almost 20 years have been a incredable experience for this country boy.

I've served as the director of Asian operations for two major American companies during this time. Most recently I've been working for myself providing services that include the investigation of trade mark infringements, piracy, patent infringements and human rights issues in Asia, particullary China on the behalf of American and European companies.

Due to the nature of my work I've been exposed not only to government officials, local and national in China, but also the nasty and often dangerous under belly of the society as well. Sometimes it has been difficult to differentiate between the two. The work has never been boring.

Through the years I've had to bone up on our trade and political policies, specifically with China. I'm certainly not an expert, but understand a bit more if only through osmosis than the average person probably.

The simple truth is there are no simple answers to the situation we find ourselves in. It is easy to say "stop trading" with China period. But that is not realistic from not only a economic perspective but a global political perspective as well.

Moose as you point out, China appears to be more aggressive and is on the move "defensively". The amount of spending that has been focused at improving their "defensive" capibilities is staggering. The amount of money that has been spent on infra-structure is equally as staggering.

My concern about the loss of jobs to China takes a very back seat to what I see coming down the road. I've had the terrible feeling that at some point we will have a "show down" of sorts with China. It may come from a cold relationship regarding trade imbalances or because of China's insistence that Taiwan belongs to China and tries to snuff out Taiwan's independence by force.

In any case the bottom line, as a country we have stumbled in every which way trying to work with and undertand the Chinese. Our past seven Presidents policies have been in contridiction to each other as it applied to policy toward China. We have never had a consistent policy. The Chinese expect a new policy every 4 to 8 years from us, often times totally different, always inconsistent.

It's important to note that this is a culture that has existed for over 5,000 years. It is so complex that it always has the so called experts, "China hands" consitantly scratching their collective heads. Things are never as they seem there. These are wicked smart people.

These are also people with long memories and infinate patience. They recall the opium wars and trade that was forced on them by not only European countries but the U.S as well. Believe it or not, they speak of this often. It is like yesterday to a county 5,000 years old. All of these events and our support of the "Generalisimo" after their civil war, is always fresh on their minds. Our inconsistencies and their underlying "hard on" and mistrust of westerners makes our necessary dealing with China very complex and always testy.

One thing for certain, we have to have consistent and strong policies towards China and we can not back down from them. They respond to power and strength of conviction. It all boils down to "Face". Probably the single most important aspect of Chinese culture. We can not afford to lose ours and we can't put them in a position of losing theirs.

The loss of jobs here at home hits many people where it hurts. My mother loss her job with Brown Shoe Company years ago. Men and women forced to find new jobs after spending almost a lifetime working in textile mills, shoe factories, on and on, hurt like there's no tomorrow. How do you tell these people that they are the result of an economic evolution that was destined to happen the very day the mill opened in their town. It's not going to reverse itself but I do feel like BigE that the cycle will come back around and more jobs will be created in the technology sector.

However, our people will need to be competitive and this means a reality check and increased spending on education and training. The public should take note of the computer software industry's courting of computer technicians from India as an example. This is happening today. These people are not being brought over to the U.S. because they will work for less, although by our standards they will, they are being brought over because they are among the best and highly trained. This we can do something about.

Another long winded post I know, but lastly...Moose I think your concern is the paramount one at this time and your right on. China is feeling it's oats and with a new confidence beginning to strut it's stuff. It's like the old saying my father would say to me on occassion, "If I give you an inch, you always take a mile."

We can not give an inch to the Chinese. Not even a hint of an inch. Any nasty confrontation with China would make Iraq look like a walk in the park.

Hoot

[Chester]

Thanks Hoot for a very informative post ...

[papasage]

have ben pondering on the wal mart discushion . it isent just walmart it is all chain stores . grocerie furniture hardware and any type of store that buyes in bulk .
i run a small upholstery shop and the chain furniture stores are puting my type of buisness out of buisness . the onley thing that keeps us afloat is the antiques and that special couch that grand ma had . and maby a special chair that we like and cant find one to take it`s place. there are some furniture that is worth recovering . but in small towns there isent enough to keep more than one shop buisey .the majority of the furniture that is sold isent going to last maby 3 years .
dont blame it all on wal-mart . i think we can blame it on us we want price not quality . if it looks good and cheep then it is a bargin .
maby if it is heavy . had a salesman that worked for a furniture store said they would take a cheep lamp fill the inside with dirt and double the price and sell them fast becouse they wer heavy .have a lot of my customers tell me that they have a good chair or couch becouse it is heavy.not true . look at other chain store buisness and see how they operate . they mostley just stick to one type of store like clothng stores stick to clothes and acc and hardware just hardware and ect. sam walton just built a empire that no one else had the guts to do . any one with the guts and buisness sence could do the same . he could have went under like a lot of other buisness has don in the past .he could have died a poor man . maby in some wayes he did . papasage