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(In a word, Mao would shit)

With the G-20 Summit going full blast, I ran across this great documentary produced by ABC Radio National Australia as part of their Background Briefing series from February 2006. It's a reminder that, as much as we complain of being flooded by goods from overseas, we're doing our level best to heap gobs of shameless consumerism all over the world as well.

We joke about MacDonalds' on the Champs-Elysees in Paris - but all the Wal-Marts popping up all over China are something else.

Stan Curry - Radio Australia Reporter: “Lined up in all their red uniforms, Wal-Mart workers begin their day with an ode to Wal-Mart. Ludwig Beethoven is probably turning in his grave. And Chairman Mao too, must be a little astonished at how his legacy is being spun.”

Clay Chandler (Fortune Magazine reporter): “ When you actually go see how they run their employees at their stores, what I was struck with was the similarities between the Chinese Communist Party Organizational pattern. They get these people together in groups, they organize them in very small cells, everybody is very aware of what everybody else is doing within their cell, and encouraged to kind of talk about each other. They sing songs together. They do little drills to create workers solidarity. They run around in red shirts. And they do Wal-Mart Company cheers. They look like nothing so much as the old Red Guard of the Cultural Revolution.”

It's interesting to see how increasingly Gordian our entanglements are becoming with the rest of the world on economic terms. We can't just assume the isolationists stance because it no longer is realistic and hasn't been for many years. Therefore, solutions to our economic situations are more complex than they ever were. Snap answers and judgments no longer need apply.

And then there's that issue of Immigration . . .

(I would urge you to check out ABC Radio Nationals website as well as streaming audio - they are one of the best and as I have said before, they offer information about our own country not generally available here. So in addition to the CBC and the BBC, add this one to your daily dial hopping for useful information).

RaceWire: Best photo from the 9/12 Tea Party

Harold Meyerson: The "values" of the largest private-sector employer in the U.S. are shaping our national economy -- and that's a very bad thing.

The Agonist: Monsanto

uggabugga: Interested in a deep-think read?

Multi Medium: Healthcare perspective from Kristof

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Delusions of Lucidity, Republican Dirty Tricks, Blue Heron Blast, Alien Truth

This is tremendous. As the largest employer in the country, their agreement will make a real difference to the congressional fight over healthcare reform. Again, an incremental step in the process, but it's a good sign:

WASHINGTON — Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, joined hands with a major labor union Tuesday to endorse the idea of requiring large companies to provide health insurance to their workers, a move that gives a boost to President Obama as he is pushing for health legislation on Capitol Hill.

“Not every business can make the same contribution, but everyone must make some contribution,” Wal-Mart’s chief executive, Michael T. Duke, wrote in a letter to White House and Congressional officials, adding that he favored “an employer mandate which is fair and broad in its coverage.”

The letter was issued jointly with Andrew W. Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which represents two million workers, many of them in the health care industry, and John D. Podesta, who ran Mr. Obama’s transition to the presidency and leads the Center for American Progress, a Democratic policy organization here.

But Wal-Mart’s embrace of the employer mandate may come at a price. In its letter, the company says that if Congress imposes a requirement that employers offer insurance, it must also offer a guarantee to business that health care costs will in fact be contained, perhaps through a so-called trigger mechanism that would impose reductions if certain spending targets were not met.

“We’re for an employer mandate, but we believe that it has to be accompanied by these measures that are really going to deliver on the savings,” said Leslie A. Dach, Wal-Mart’s top lobbyist, who met with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the proposal. “If any business is going to be asked to take on an employer mandate, to face changes in the tax laws, there should be some sense that the promise of the bill to reduce health costs will actually occur.”

The employer mandate is central to Mr. Obama’s plan for expanding health coverage to the nation’s 46 million uninsured, but many companies, including Wal-Mart, have long resisted the idea. But as health legislation moves through Congress, representatives of industry are becoming increasingly convinced that they must join forces with the administration to have a seat at the negotiating table.

The trade group representing pharmaceutical companies recently promised to cut the cost of prescription drugs by $80 billion over 10 years, and Democratic officials said hospitals were close to reaching a similar agreement on cost-cutting with the Obama administration. Mr. Emanuel said Tuesday afternoon that chief executives of other companies — he did not specify which — had also expressed interest in embracing an employer mandate.

“Everybody is now trying to get their seat on the train,” Mr. Emanuel said.

Remember when there was something wholesome and organic about camping out to buy concert tickets?

The Lefsetz Letter:

With the death of the CD, the Fayetteville, Arkansas company has decided to deliver what the public truly wants, tickets.

Aware of their failed online music strategy, said tickets will only be available in stores, delivering what Wal-Mart truly wants, foot traffic.

Shows will be offered on an act by act basis, everything will not be available. Rather, Wal-Mart will pick and choose which performers it wants to work with. And in exchange for making this deal, the Arkansas company will deliver tons of promotion, and cash.

First act to sign on the dotted line?

Bon Jovi.

Fair enough. Having apparently not learned that making anxious customers line up to get things on a first-come, first-serve basis might be a stupid idea after an employee was trampled to death on Black Friday, Wal-Mart will encourage this behavior by selling camping supplies and hot dogs (no beer!) to music fans hungry for a top lighter-swinging spot for "I'll Be There For You."

It's not all bad. This apparently may help actual fans get tickets that would ordinarily end up in the hands of scalpers, due to a host of regulations for concertgoers, like requiring that they show their Wal-Mart receipt to get into the concert.

The next band after Bon Jovi to go Wal-Mart exclusive? KISS. Totally not corporate at all, those guys...

Wall Street Journal:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings at which the retailer stresses the downside for workers if stores were to be unionized.

According to about a dozen Wal-Mart employees who attended such meetings in seven states, Wal-Mart executives claim that employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return, and may have to go on strike without compensation. Also, unionization could mean fewer jobs as labor costs rise.[..]

The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who run the meetings don't specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's election, but make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

"The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union,'" said a Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri. "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," she said.

This would be a great opportunity to recommend that you rent Robert Greenwald's documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices to see just how anti-union Wal-Mart truly is and what you compromise to get those super low prices.

The G Spot has more...