Originally Posted By: CharlieBauer
Seeing the threads and mentions of Harbor Freight, Walmart and made in China, I was wondering which is the lesser evil.
Walmart which sells lots of Made in China products but employs American workers.
Or buying direct from Chinese eBay sellers, cutting out Walmart, and employing USPS workers.
Choosing a "lesser evil" is still choosing evil.
While Walmart does employ American workers, the environment is frequently abhorrent: not only do they suffer low wages, no benefits and poor hours, poor management also causes much of the disrespect. There are countless stories about Walmart managers who disrespect their employees; one even told an African-American worker that he'd "like to put a rope around his neck"*. The Walmart corporate culture views its workers as almost sub-human.
Top that off with a store that had its "Made in USA" claims called into question when it was found to be intentionally deceiving consumers, and was forced to remove them from its website. At Walmart there are very few alternatives to the made in China products they sell. At least on Ebay you usually have a choice.
And purchasing direct from China via Ebay? No thanks. I am quite sure I can live without any Ebay "direct from China" goods.
I will concede that unless one lives like Ted Kaczynski it is almost impossible to come across some products that are made in China. However, it's also very easy to avoid them as much as possible. While I'm sure that there are some quality goods that come from China, unless I have no alternative I can't bring myself to financially support a communist country who funds cyber attacks on US companies and US networks, as well as a country that is no friend of free markets, and more interested in ignoring national norms rather than respecting them.
*NY Times article 12/11/14.