The buy local, pay a living wage argument isn't the important point. The best advice to the American consumer would be to demand quality. It doesn't matter if Walmart supplies it or China manufactures it.

But when considering a purchase, ask yourself this question: "when will this product end up in a landfill"? From childrens' toys to icecream makers, the answer for most of the crap we buy probably ranges from a week to a year.

Walmart doesn't seem to think anyone would ever pay more than $49 for an icecream maker. But try it once, and you'll discover it doesn't actually make icecream. The electric motor will get you started but doesn't have the power to stir once the cream thickens, and as the icecream starts to harden, even the steel crank fails because its PLASTIC gears skip when you turn the handle.

Unless you know a product can be serviced, upgraded, and recycled, the chances are, your house is just a temporary detour on it's way to the landfill.

Rarely have I read so many economic myths in a single book review. The truth is that the design and engineering of consumer goods and other products has been generally improving for generations, and probably since the beginning of written communication. This is true even though prices have been going down (measured by the actual hours we all have to work to afford such products).

I remember copy machines I used as a kid that jammed at the drop of a hat; now you can drop a wrinkled stack of coffee-stained papers on the top of any copy machine at Kinkos and have perfectly-collated copies almost instantly. Butterfinger candy bars used to break into numerous pieces before you unwrapped them; now they are packaged in two segments to prevent such problems. There never was a time when fine "craftmanship" governed the manufacture of most consumer goods. Most of the furniture and cooking utensils our forefathers used were crap.

Chinese workers have migrated from farms to factories because they have generally found they live better lives as factory workers than they did as peasant farmers.

I could go on and on, but I doubt I would change the mind of anyone who rejects the law of supply and demand and the opportunities offered by free markets

I started buying things at Ikea in 1977, when I moved to West Germany.

I still have the bookcases and solid pine buffet that I bought then. Things are only disposable when you make them so.

This is background, no sympathy needed:

Being a NYC girl, I never even considered shopping in Wal-Mart.

Then in 2000, the market crashed, and after 9/11, it crashed again.

Then the company my husband worked for went under and at 58 he was jobless. We were living in a house where the taxes were $6,000/year, and the heating bill half that, only because I had signed a contract with my oil supplier, if I hadn't, it would have been another $6,000. We sold and moved.

I may not be as happy here, but I can afford to eat and pay for my meds. As for Wal-Mart, if you read labels, you can use it to help lower monthly coasts.

I'm sorry about children, working and starving in China, but I don't want to be a senior starving here. That being said, I buy very little food at Wal-Mart. I know it's animal & seafood products, come from places, I'd never want to see. And that it's produce is full of stuff I don't want in my body.

But three months of my generic meds are only $10.00(those that I don't buy in Canada). I can buy 100% cotton jeans & shirts for one quarter of what I would pay in Dillard's. Plus, the organic eggs I might buy in Whole Foods, are $.70 cheaper here.

We, who shop at Wal-Mart are not fools. People are not what they do, or how much they make, and the poor deserve to be treated as well, where it counts, as the wealthy. This country has let it citizens down in various ways. Hopefully, it will someday be a fairer place to live. Until then, I refuse to put on the guilt that someone else wants me to wear. I've been a liberal all my life, not going to change now, but I like to think I'm a realistic & pragmatic one.

Your points are well-taken.

One can say the same thing about the natives in another book recently profiled on salon.com, Richard Bernstein's "The East, the West, and Sex." Bernstein himself in fact says it, "Even the gout-ridden American in the Philippines who so aroused my contempt might be deserving of some understanding. The man bore no moral responsibility for the poverty that induced his companion to be his companion. Presumably she entered into the relationship with him because it was to her advantage."

Does that mean it's acceptable for the beneficiaries to take a "No questions asked" attitude for reaping the benefits of the lucky sperm club?

Greetings,

I have an interesting business where I actually go to junkyards and landfills to look for vintage electronics and electronic parts. I also search out vintage military surplus parts. I take these parts that are doing absolutely nothing and create equipment that can be used in the music recording industry. I match prices with the mass produced items that come from China and can do so easily.

Quick Lesson: Integrated computer chips are now cheaper to produce than a grain of rice. Those and other electrical parts are blasted out by asian companies at prices that would amaze anyone not in the business. For example, the heart of a modern mass produced microphone preamp is an opamp that cost less than .05 and is placed with the other parts, usually adding a few more dollars to the mix and is sold for as much as $800. The parts have an incredibly high failure rate and the item might last 5 years if you are lucky. Don't even think about getting it repaired if something goes wrong because it is not possible to remove items from the machine built circuit board.

I can build a superior tube amp with vintage parts made in the USA for the military for only $300. The US military demanded that its electronic be designed to last for 150 years. That means that the resistors, capacitors knobs and switches I use in my product will still be working 100 years from now. My product sounds superior to anything made today in China and I invite perspective clients to come to my facility with any piece of equipment they have and go head to head with my product.

What I've learned from all this is that most people do not value things that are hand made even if superior. I have to really educate my clients because they just don't know how to value a product that isn't backed up by 30 years of relentless branding even if their ears tell them which one is better.

I have little faith that this will change any time soon.