The Cheap Crap Economy

David Sirota has a good post about why Walmart is a bad thing. People assume that low prices are a good thing, a sign of efficiency, capitalism doing its thing. No regard is given to the fact that those low prices are being subsidized by cheap foreign labour, unfair wages and lousy benefits. The blind-capitalist right-wing has so much faith in free market economics that none of this matters, so it is rarely talked about, except in do-gooder circles (like this one). But it does matter, because in the long run, doing what is best for Walmart's profits means the dumping of cheap crap on North American consumers, the depressing of wages and the loss of jobs. Eventually we won't have enough money to afford to buy all that cheap crap. It seems to be a law of capitalism that the people who work at a certain store could never afford to shop there. The problem is, for Walmart workers, there isn't a cheaper place to go.