News-Record.com

Sad but true. Made me laugh though!

Here's an interesting tidbit: Apparently it costs about a penny to make a T-shirt in China (labor only), and about a quarter to make a t-shirt in America.

I probably wear out a couple dozen T-shirts a year. If we assume the 24 cent savings above is a dollar at the retail store, we have wiped out the entire t-shirt industry insisting on Everyday Low Prices that put an extra $24 buck in my pocket, which is 4 hours Walt-Mart time and about 1-1/2 hours Textile Workers of America time.

Sad but true. Too bad we're all too busy fretting over the Michael Jackson trial.

Heh. I worked in that building for 2 years on the "security" team. I still have dreams of walking patrols there after 25 years. BI did nothing to help me start a career after I graduated from college, so I grew to loathe the company and its building. Good riddance to both.

Eric, just because BI didn't personally help you start a career, that's no reason to be glad about the company's demise and all the lost jobs. My dad worked in that building for 10 years and BI helped him raise his family. I hope you did find a successful career elsewhere.

We have passed this baton to the third world because all of us consumers want cheap goods, myself included. I went to Wal-Mart last week and bought a 10 pack of socks for $7.00. Can't make socks in the U.S. for 70 cents a pair, much less sell them for that.

I saw the implosion last week. Symbolically it was sad for me. On a technical basis, it was amazing how well orchestrated they imploded the building.

They should have done the explosion a few years earlier while their were still high payed executives inside stealing all the remaining assets.

My father worked for BM for 30 years; he went to work ( Elm St. Weaving) one morning and a suit came in and told every one to leave, that location was closing.

The South became the textile manufacturing center because the raw materials were grown here and there was plenty of very cheap labor. Now the cheapest labor is in China so goodbye textile jobs.

Our elected officials have done absolutely nothing to save textile jobs indeed Dem and repub alike have sold us out. So southeners were share croppers, then textile and furniture workers and now walmart drudges - how low can we go.

I remember when Howard Coble first went to DC, he was going to save our jobs. Everyone who has a job saved by Howard please raise youe hands. A dem. president signed into law the trade agreement that sent tex factories to Mexico.

So I guess the explosion on Friendly Ave. is a kind of closure to those of us left behind to hear "the great sucking sound of jobs going south," or east.

Dan, I agree that my animosity to the company is illogical. I base my reaction to these events on my emotions, just as those with positive experiences base their nostalgia on theirs.

As to the problem of foreign imports... I used to believe that the free operation of the world markets should be allowed to run their course. Of course, now that virtually everything we have available to buy is made in the Far East, it may be too late to re-think that idea.

Bummer.

Maybe free trade works and Americans don't? There was a time when we would work for pennies. Now we have to pay for our giant SUV's, our 2500+ square foot homes with walk-in closets and garden tubs, everyone else's medical costs and our made in Thailand $90 golf shirts. Maybe WE are the problem.......

I think Dan has the perfect solution to the problem: go to Wal-Mart, buy the cheap socks, AND THEN whine about how Wal-Mart is destroying the world. That way you get cheap socks AND cheap self-approval from holding the correct opinion.

I don't shop at Wal-Mart because I don't like all the riff-raff there, so I'm not really the problem here. If you don't like Wal-Mart, don't shop there. I've never heard anyone say that they liked Wal-Mart, but apparently millions of people shop there for some reason.

News flash: it's a competitive world. If the U.S. can't compete with cheap Asian labor, then it can't compete with cheap Asian labor. Cheap labor brought the textile industry here a century ago and cheap labor made it leave. Sorry to see all those low-paying jobs disappear, but if you want to compete in the 21st century, compete in the 21st century. In 100 years, they'll probably be whining in Indonesia about the textile jobs leaving for Africa.

Actually, Brian, you are probably right in your last sentence. Currently, Mexicans and other Central Americans are hurting because their labor isn't cheap enough to compete with Southeast Asia's.

Yellowdog,

The great fallacy of your comments is that you mention "our jobs." How exactly do you suppose they are ours? We neither own the companies, nor are we employed by the companies. How, then, could those jobs possibly be ours?

The reasoning behind the phrase "our jobs" is just as absurd as statements about how Nader "stole" votes from Gore and Kerry, as if Gore and Kerry owned anyone's votes and were therefore entitled to receive them.

"They should have done the explosion a few years earlier while their were still high payed executives inside stealing all the remaining assets."
THAT has to be the most intelligent comment on this, imo, stupid subject yet. hahahahaha. Thanks "truth".

I guess I broke the first rule of fight club, huh?

Breaking the law, breaking the law... *said in my best beavis voice*