Walmart, U.S. Constitution don't mix very well

Walmart is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution. Like one, we can't like the other. Among things promised by the Constitution's preamble are "a more perfect Union," "Justice" with a capital "J," "domestic tranquility," "blessings of Liberty" with a capital "L."

Our Constitution was brought into being through ratification by the legislatures of all the states of the United States, on behalf of the people of each state, for their own benefit.

"A more perfect Union" implies all of us citizens. Not just Wall Street. Not just government workers. Not just Walmart owners. It's hard to have a more perfect Union when government policies drive production of goods and food to other countries.

Back in the 1960s Sam Walton had a great idea: Sell more things under one roof and use the power of competition to sell more at a lower price purchased in bigger volumes at lower costs from vendors. He exchanged better service from smaller shops for the convenience of finding more things in one place at lower prices.

Then Sam discovered goods made even cheaper in Taiwan, Korea, China, India, Mexico. Layers of workplace rules imposed by autocratic federal agencies "to protect workers" raised costs of U.S. production of goods and food. Sam learned that foreign suppliers didn't have to protect their workers. Then Mao, China's hard-core communist leader, died and China opened up to trade without giving up their communist dictatorship.

Suddenly economists discovered a new theory of "efficient markets." Successive presidents dissolved import duties and quotas on cheap goods made with cheap labor that U.S. labor had no desire to match. Average $30/hour plus benefits at home vs. under $1/hour plus no benefits in China. Foreign governments artificially debased their currencies so their export prices could further undercut our producers. U.S. presidents and congress helped them do that. Both Democrat and Republican. Justice? Blessings of Liberty? There's no tranquility in a household without a jobholder.

Now governments at all levels are surprised that American workers without jobs, and factory workers in China, don't pay U.S. income taxes, sales taxes, nor property taxes to pay for the politicians and bureaucrats who dreamed up all the workplace rules and preferential treatment for imports. Sound stupid so far? Stupid it is.

Walmart took full advantage, importing some 80 percent of their merchandise from China. Now China can dictate to them what will be made in China. Just as Chinese loans can dictate terms to the U.S. government.

Our companies and government can't control quality of imports. We've already had scares of lead, mercury, and tainted milk, on imported goods and produce.

Some folks vigorously defend their "right" to buy low-price Chinese goods from Walmart and other stores. Economists know $1 spent on retail imports deprives an American worker of the "right" to earn some 25 cents making the item, and generate two or three times that much in related American labor.

Competing with Walmart is still possible. Offer better quality and great friendly service in exchange for higher prices. Turn the inconvenience for a customer of visiting several shops into a greater pleasure than suffering a long walk across a vast parking lot and time wasted in finding a product in what amounts to a warehouse. Make shopping a pleasure. Offer coffee or smoothies and warm pastries, a place to sit, a warm welcome, pleasant conversation. Make small shops a community pleasure.

Buy American. Look at labels. Most of us have only so much money to spend. When possible forego an import that's not really needed. Buy something that puts bread on an American table, helping domestic tranquility and the blessings of Liberty. Our Constitution makes this country unlike any other. To nurture it we must place it and our countrymen above the "right" of American investors to add to their and other country's wealth by exploiting cheap labor abroad. Buy American.

Jack Van Dien is a Gardnerville resident