OK I was on another discussion and I'm wondering...
Is any one else bothered by the big deal made about wallmart coming to Chicago, when what we really need is GOOD long term jobs here....
Why isn't daley trying to bring back at least SOME manufacturing here? I mean with so many people unemployed the cost of labour MUST be down, I know Schwinn is nothing more than a name BUT there must be some companies that would be willing to try, also since the price of land is down....How about SRAM? they are headquartered here.
So are we just a bunch of blind sheep that want our kids to play with lead painted toys from China because they are a buck? Or is anyone willing to pay more to have a non lead painted toy?
Isn't there a big drywall company with offices here in Chicago ? Why did China drywall show up in the south east with mystery stuff in it that MAY be toxic ?
I just think it's time for a real change
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I'm sorry but this is a really, really sloppy rationalization using completely made up numbers and I think it is not a very good representation of where the money goes. I'm not going to deny that buying locally made items in a local shop probably keeps more of each dollar spent in the local economy but I highly doubt the disparity is anywhere near what you are making it out to be.
I mean you double dipped wages in the local example; these are part of overhead. You did not account for the extra cost Target has of shipping stuff around and you are also sort of ignoring the fact that a bag sold at a local shop like Boulevard needs a much larger percentage of it's sales price put into overhead because the lower volume sold.
Maria Boustead said:Beyond studies, it makes sense. Let's say you buy a $100 item from Target in Chicago. Probably about $20 stays in Chicago to pay for the overhead of having a store here, while $50 goes to China to pay for the item and the rest goes to Target HQ in Minneapolis to spend on HQ overhead and for buying more things from China. In comparison, if you buy $100 Po Campo bag from a Chicago store, the store keeps $50 and spends it on its overhead and buying more local product, while we get the other $50 and give it to Chicagoans to pay for their wages. There IS a difference.
To bring this back to chainlink a bit, in my opinion massive improvements in bike and public transit infrastructure would attract high-skilled knowledge workers to the city and good jobs would follow. But that's another topic for another day.
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