[Kresge]

Of course some cracks may finally help people realize what they are doing to their own economy.

What I mean is this:
If you demand to get paid more and more each year,
demand very good benefits with increases each year,
then go to Walmart so you can pay the very minimum for an item that can't be produced locally because of your own labor costs,
something has got to give eventually.

I know there are many more factors that govern the economy as a whole, but people seriously need to think about what they do. I'm not taking this as a perspective of "Buy American" but more as a concept in general. As consumers constantly demand continually lower prices they are eventually going to price themselves out of that market and out of a job.

I live on the edge of the Detroit area and it's very difficult for me to feel sorry for many of the union factory workers when they get laid off. They are buying $500,000+ houses in my area, driving $50,000+ new vehicles, and then treat their unemployment paychecks as vacation money for their cottages up north. I hope this is not that case in many other areas and am sure that there are laborers who need these jobs for all the complaining that goes on.

I devoutly believe that a company does not owe its employees anything if those same employees feel they owe nothing to their company. I wouldn't expect a CEO to give up their millions for running one of the largest companies in the world when it is highly doubtful that anyone in one of their factories would give that same person a dime if they were down on their luck.

On the other hand, I work for Home Depot and have been very impressed by the sense of being part of a company. They take very good care of their employees but nobody takes it for granted. There is a reciprocal relationship between corporate staff and retail staff. Just this year alone they have spent over $9million on their own employees for hurricane relief and other tragedies, some as seemingly minor as en employee needing surgery, etc. If we were unionized and had to go through hostile negotiations every year I believe the entire atmosphere of the company would change.