Reply #69: The race to the bottom in terms of prices and wages is NOT good

[fob]

economics. Granted, it will generate profits for a goodly amount of time but what happens when they get to the bottom and the only way for wages to go lower is to buy an island and enslave the people. Will your friend THEN question the strategy?

Here's Mallwart's "plan"
Start out with American worker's working hard and selling American products in a giant one stop shop to get the amount spent per trip UP for a certain overhead.

Bring in smaller mfg'ers and increase their market share until they are pretty much entirely reliant on MW. Then negotiate pricing DOWNWARD which they HAVE to accept or go out of business. If they do go under, buy 'em out at bargain price, ship production overseas.

Cut prices, squeeze vendors, lower wages, provide no benefits (but hand out welfare packages with application), demand tax breaks from cities desperate for (any) jobs, Ship production overseas.

When you lower prices and margins you have to do more volume, at some point you will be unable to cut wages anymore (Us worker to Mexican worker to Chinese worker to SLAVE?) and rising costs in other areas (bush* oil cronies) will negate any growth in volume. Then what do you do? You close your giant store and leave that infrastructure to crumble and open up a SUPERGIANT store which allows you to "supersize" your race to the bottom.

Business by definition exists only to produce a profit, it has no human qualities to it and sees workers as a "cost" like the trash pick up service. That doesn't mean a business model HAS to be devoid of humanity. Mall-wart seems to think otherwise.