The consumer, through their productivity being siphoned off, has seen significant stagnation in terms of their real wage compared to the standards of living enjoyed by the post-war industrialized working class. This stagnation has lead to more price conscious consumers, who by necessity shop for the cheapest product available, which is available through these outsourced companies. Walmart was the biggest example. Many people had no choice on where they could afford to shop, which allowed Walmart to gain market dominance and force out less vertically integrated and violently anti-worker competition, leaving entire communities void of meaningful choice.

To put the blame for what was a multi-decade, multi trillion dollar open secret, on the workers seems wrong to me. What choice does someone making $7.25/hr (the minimum wage since 2009…) have in where they shop? They buy what they can, as they always have.

[–] Sunfoil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When these companies started moving their manufacturing, a choice could be made to buy domestically. That continued lack of discernment by the consumer compounded the problem. Everyone happily shopped at the big stores, watching their local shops dry up around them. Luckily these days I think people are starting to make the choices we all should have been making this entire time, and I find sustainably made / eco, zero waste plastic free, domestic products in every category at most supermarkets. It's also very easy with online retail to avoid Chinese rubbish and buy US/UK/EU made products for everything. It's 100% possible with some intentionality, financial literacy and self control to ethically consume while not being loaded. I do it. I'm not American though, Americans need to do something about every part of their society it seems.

[–] BartsBigBugBag@lemmy.tf 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Wages in the US haven’t grown since the 80s. The rise of big box Walmart stores was about a decade into that. Maybe where you are people had a choice, but here, people were already years into stagnation.

[–] Sunfoil@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

That's just symptomatic of Americans inability to advocate for themselves, either in the workplace or by what they buy. When Americans should have been unionizing and buying local, they were blissfully filling their houses with plastic crap and voting poorly. Also, small but important distinction; wages have grown as well as quality of life, just not in line with productivity.