JamesK

For comparison, our council tax is £1700 this year for a fairly average 4 bed detached (about 1800ft, no basement) in the South of England. Swings/roundabouts...

James

Tangram

Jeez !

finallygotout

I didn't say wal-mart cares what you wear, I was talking about living here in general. In the UK, most people are all up on their fashion, and you get looked at funny sometimes if you don't dress up, by snobs

Wal-mart is a taiwanese company The camera you said you've got in your car, where was it made, bet you didn't bother checking that? I couldn't care where the product is made, as long as I don't have to get into debt buying it

Posidrive

All well and good unless you want a car that is both affordable to buy and run and reliable.

Canada doesn't make cars, or so I believe

US cars are cheap but guzzle gas and do not have a great reputation for reliability. Newer models may be more reliable but I would never buy a new car, might just as well burn 35% of the value straight away. Apart for a Mustang or Corvette that appeal to the side of me that has never grown up, they all look pretty vile as well.

EU cars are expensive to buy and insure. Even BMW and Merc reliability is not what it used to be/

So that leaves Japanese cars like by Subaru. And I know whose AWD system I would trust. Especially with Winter arriving.

iaink

Try telling that to all the people in Ontario making Toyotas, Hondas, Chevies, Dodges, Fords etc etc. Even the ones made south of the border have significant canadian content.

dbd

Wal-Mart is a US based multinational that sells primarily goods from one or the other of the Chinas.

Rich_007

Don't they make [i.e. assemble] Buicks in ON....supposed to have won numerous awards for quality etc ? One of, or the, best plans in the whole of North'Merica apparently ? Dudes must be doing some good work there.

Rich.

iaink

The Oshawa car plant is among the best unionised plants anyway!
Buick / Chevy / Pontiac. Its all "Badge Engineering" so I should have just said "GM"

iaink

Walmart actively advertise to say that they sell locally made (well, "Locally" for "canadian made" is a very relative term) as much as possible, the theory being that buying locally that money is then available in the local economy to come back to the local WalMart. No Walmarts in China (yet?), so money they pay for chinese goods is not going to come back to them via a Chinese Walmart store.

How true that is is anyones guess. My problem with Walmart is they treat their staff like shit and do their best to destroy the downtown smalltown businesses by undercutting them. Sometimes it makes sense to shop at these bigbox stores, but i always feel kind of dirty afterwards, like I've cheated on a friend!

For these reasons alone, given the choice I'd rather buy cheap shoddy goods at Zellers or Crappy Tire than at WalMart.

Rich_007

Our local hut is selling Levis $37+ the dreaded. Same style as UK, same source (China). OK for work & garden.

Rich.

Posidrive

OK, so I stand corrected. I would class these as either Japanese or US though, regardless of where they are assembled. Perhaps I should have bought a Honda since my wife has had a Honda as her previous two cars. I don't think that they make a decent AWD though. Toyotas are overpriced for what they are and as for the others we've had two Fords and would never touch another US car because of it.

dbd

Walmart is well established in China. The product, Tide for Cold Water, which is now being sold in Canada was developed at the request of Walmart for them to sell in China; relatively few people there have access to hot water for washing clothes.

Their claim to source goods locally is, in my view, nonsense.

iaink

Me too.

Doesn't surprise me that Walmarts in China too. Frankly this whole buy locally made thing is bullshit anyway. Canada is a net exporter of goods, so where would the economy be if that sentiment worked both ways and all those importers of canadian goods (like cars to the US) decided to "stay at home" as it were. We live in a global economy and nothing short of global warfare if going to change that now. I dont mind buying foreign goods, but Id like to think the people I'm buying them from are not being screwed by their employer, and I try not to buy products where I know someone is getting exploited.

You get what you pay for up to a point anyway. Chinese goods may be cheaper, but I cant think of a single chinese thing I have bought that was half decent quality. My Levis are proudly made in Mexico! (On sale for $40 at Sears) When I came here Canadian 501s were made in Canada, I guess its a sign of the times that they are made elsewhere now.

SANDRAPAUL

I have been following the comparitive methods of attracting business to several countries for some time. Why make this here. Why make that there. One major factor it seems (and I may be shot down) is government incentive through tax incentives, or mutually beneficial deals that bring in work. As regards the talent, hard work, or indgentuity of each national workforce I have no real idea. The future to me is a multi facted society that can offer both service industries with a healthy manufacturing and raw material base that encompases the whole. Not just service sectors. The German finance minister, and parting Chancellor put the nail in the UK coffin as far as I am concerned. Removing the ability of a whole nations ability to 'make' things is a crime - the UK is heading fast in this direction. Instead of taxing private small companies to death there should be tax and money incentives to increase workforces that use the hands rather than reduce them. Over the last 7 years we have seen 10,000 manufacturing based jobs lost each month in the UK. This has been replaced by 2.5 million civil servant based professions - each one whom will vote New Labour as to not do so is to vote oneself out of a job. This is buying votes for power, and only power which will do no good in the long run.

My good natured wife who is as postive as they come even now comments on the roles that game show contestants put forward as their occupations. I recall the days when a social worker was a social worker. We now have community officer, community liason delegate, people's assistant to the community, lesbian minority care worker for the underprivaleged (pays 26,000 pounds a year but no one knows what they do including the person doing the job), society care manager, and it goes on and on. Apart from the lesbian element they all do the same work - its a scam called 'REFORM'.

(Damn it - I went off track again)

SANDRAPAUL

Wallmart, Tesco, HSBC is only doing to the Chinese, etc what 'they' are doing to the so called civilised west. They sell us cheap bras, knickers, and the like. I see no reason why they should be stopped. There is a solution to balancing the world. If we all got paid peanuts as we had the cost of living that was peanuts we would all be on the same footing. The only people stopping it are Banks, Loan Companies (Sharks) and Mortgage Specialists - the Corporates that really run the world.