The point that has been missed is that companies don't set the demand and therefore the price. It is the consumer that determines on what, and therefore, where the money is spend. Americans have made the choice that they want cheap .......... Fill in the blank. In most cases quality doesn't really matter. Models are changing so quickly that a $200 plasma tv will be out of date long before it wears out, so consumers can afford to buy junk and then scrap it.

To supply this insatiable demand for cheap goods producers must go to where the labor is cheap, not necessarily efficient, but, cheap. It is the price of the end product that is important not the productivity of the individual worker. American workers are by far the most productive in the world. We are better that anyone in the EEU and Japan. The trouble is that we are very very expensive. About $1,500 of the price of every GM car is retiree's medical. This doesn't count retiree's pensions, or, worker's wages and benefits, just retiree's medical. With up front costs like these, and on going quality issues, even with our superior productivity, there is no way that US auto makers can be competitive.

The majority of the American consumers buy price first and quality second, if at all. Given that, Wal Mart will always out sell Niemon Marcus. I live is a small town in S. Tx. and have seen Wal Mart suck the retail life out of most of the towns in the area. Vibrant downtowns that used to be the hub of city life are now full of boarded up shop fronts. Aransas Pass had a Wal Mart move it 20 years ago. The first store was a mile or so from downtown. With in 5 years the downtown was nearly dead. Five years ago Wal Mart moved another 2 miles out of town. Now there is a Lowes, Walgreens, Pizza Hut, and hamburger joint in the area and nothing downtown. Where is the loyalty to the local shop owners? Where is the buy America ethos?