enough of those $1.39 black mens socks - made in China, of course. Wal-Mart has crappy stuff and you can find the same thing in the Dollar Stores, made in China, yes ma'am.

Americans have put themselves and their neighbors out of work, and handed their economic survival to China for decades now through Wal-Mart. And for what? Because they can't get enough of those inexpensive prepared fat convenience foods and cheap-ass clothes? Yep. That's why.

And ask everyone who shops at a Wal-Mart why they shop there. Among other things, here's what you'll hear, "I really hate to go there and spend my money because I don't like them, but there isn't anyplace else closer to shop."

Oh okay. It's not like you have to take a slow boat to China or anything, is it?

Not to pile on the questionable use of stats or anything, but comparing the total trade deficit to an individual country using is apples to oranges. The -$56.5b contains both goods and services and is seasonally adjusted. The China deficit is goods only and not seasonally adjusted.

Apples to apples comparison: China's -$27.8b deficit compared to the not-seasonally adjusted goods deficit of -$76.0b.

Still a hefty chunk, but not near half.

but this only if you are one of the 100K+ income a year people. I shop at wal mart and rarely buy organic because I can not afford to piss away money on stuff that costs more money just because it is " organic", etc. that, and well, I usually buy most of my clothes at places like wal mart because of lower prices, true. but not just that alone.

wal mart and K-mart seem to be the only dept stores that, not just have affordable clothes that interest me, but they seem to be the few that, unlike those so called " better dept stores" like fucking macy's with all their " new york fashion bullshit in misses and petites"; at least have plus sized clothing that fits the average woman in america! things like those teenage-looking denim mini skirts for summer, chic pull up women's pants, etc. appeal to me a lot more than that fifth ave. cocktail party snob-wear designed for starving models whom eat two ounce salads for dinner!

and what does it matter, anyway? both that high fashion " new york city shit" like nine west at macy's, the snotty homemakers designer shit at chicos costing $180 for a dress; as well as the dress by jacklin smith for under $ 20.00- are all made in the same place! CHINA!

in fact, as a struggling small upstart businesswoman with an online store recently relocated from "Fee-Bay" to my own website; it was suggested that I check out www.alibaba.com . A factory direct site better known as the " chinese eBay" I was told! everything you want from american and even confederate flags; to clothing, purses, all else; can be found from the many chinese, well as indian and other 3rd world; companies on this site.

thing is this, as a Ms. magazine reader, after having read how this alibaba.com funneled something like 15 million US dollars, so far; to the chinese government's police so they could beat up and " control" those labor protesters[ mostly women!]? I decided to get the hell out of this alibaba.com site!

but I am told that, in american retail business consisting of both " bricks and mortar" and online stores; CHINA is the way to go. that or other third world countries like india, peru, and many more.

and so, hearing john mc cain saying in that last debate, " we need to open up more free trade with our allies like peru and columbia and mexico unlike what barrack obama says. because this will create jobs here in america for those factories that export to other countries"; all I could say back was; " bullshit! what a lie! fuck you john mc cain!" about the only jobs that all this free trade seem to create here is retail jobs paying less than $10 an hour!

I gave up on turning over boxes and such to see where stuff is made too. America just doesn't make much of anything anymore. I've tried to be a little patriotic and buy stuff made in the USA, but over, and over, and over, you just don't find a single choice among products that is made here.

When you do it is kind of bittersweet, it so damn rare.

I believe that the following two statistics are not meaningful:

Fully half of the U.S. trade deficit is accounted for by one country -- China.

A rough estimate holds that fully 10 percent of the annual trade deficit between the U.S. and China is accounted for by one company -- Wal-Mart.

They are not meaningful for the same basic reason: the U.S. trade deficit is the sum of a large number of positive and negative components, so we cannot meaningfully compare one component to the whole (as though it were the sum of positive components).

For example, consider if we only traded with two countries: we had a $1000 surplus with one, and a $1001 deficit with the other. Our deficit with the second country would be 1000x our total deficit! When you say that China accounts for 50% of our total deficit, that makes it sound like a lot, but it could in fact be very little in the grand scheme of things. I think it would be better to compare our deficit with China against our total GDP (or China's).

Similarly, Walmart is not in the export business--they only import goods from china, so it is inappropriate to compare their deficit against the country's as a whole (including both imports and exports). It would be more meaningful to compare Walmart's imports against total imports.

When writers use statistics like this, I get the impression that they are just trying to manufacture a big, scary number in order to get me excited about whatever BS they are spewing. I don't appreciate it, and I actually stopped reading "Free Lunch" for this exact reason. I have a bit more experience in HTWW, so this won't turn me off.