In response to prefernottodoso,

I don't watch a lot of television - so I was going through to see what was on. I just happened to see on Friday at the end of the (ACA) program, that an element on K-Mart would be on & it looked questionable.

I wasn't 100% sure on the content, so I waited for the story and it looked like a K-Mart commercial - and how everything is wonderful.

It was showing how everything 'made in China' is fine when:

"Since the 1990's there has been an increasing number of apartments built in China which remain empty. By 2010 approximately 65 million apartments, capable of housing some 250 million people, were unoccupied, due to these being too expensive for the majority of Chinese to purchase or rent with millions of urban Chinese living in slums".

Most of what you see and hear on "A Current Affair" is nothing more than a form of advertising disguised as currant affairs.
Just don;t watch it.
You may as well watch an infomercial.

It's called globalisation. Manufacturing is shifted to debased slave countries to undercut wages, working conditions and social and environmental conditions in decent countries with the effect that inexorably the decent countries lose their conditions until they are no longer decent. Our pollies set us on this path (without consulting us) decades ago. Abbott is accelerating the downward spiral. What can an individual do? I don't think singling out K-Mart helps. However where possible all purchasing should favour the Made in Australia brand and all free trade pacts with slave countries (e.g.Asia) should be politically resisted.

Kmart are big advertisers on Channel 9. So anything presented about Kmart as "current affairs" will naturally be biased. One problem Kmart has is a bad press about what they pay people in theses sweatshops.
Wesfarmers (Kmart) are pathetic payers to the majority of their Australian staff, but there are exceptions;

The chief executive of conglomerate Wesfarmers, Richard Goyder, saw his total salary increase by more than $1 million to $8.01 million last financial year, but the payout is still dwarfed by the remuneration paid to Coles boss Ian McLeod whose pay was $14.8 million in 20011-12.

Can someone post the pay rate for the turkey running Kmart. I think it equals about 10 million Chinese pay packets. Beside lots of stuff in Kmart comes from that mega rich country Bangladesh, who are even cheaper than China.

To properly understand our spending habits, the main driver behind cheap imported goods, we need to go back say forty odd years.

Back then, mid 70's, we saw some major changes here in Oz.

Colour TV was launched, then came the likes of video rentals, albeit, a few years later, then eventually, the mobile phone.

All these items had one thing in common, they all competed for a share of the disposable dollar. Combine this with the 'keep up with the Jone's mentality' that had also crept in to many of our lives, and all of a sudden, we were left with less disposable income.

Then along came the 'buy now, pay latter' schemes, you know, interest free and no repayments for four years, another sector claiming it's stake.

We then saw the introduction of discount air fairs.

Now while these were great, they also meant that one could pack up and go away for the weekend at a moments notice. Of cause the air fair was only the start, because then came accommodation, meals etc etc. More disposable income gone.

So, because now days most of us have at least one mobile, an Internet connection and a plasma or two, combined with increased costs of living and our much more frequent short stay holidays, something had to give.

One such something, was clothing.

So, unless we see real wages increase dramiticly (which they can't) consumers will continue to seek out savings where ever they can because human nature often dictates that it's better to save where possible rather than do without.

Funny part is, while most people won't pay for decent clothing, they are happy to shell out $45 per liter for a latte. It's a weird world at times.

So Nathan, if you are waiting to see a return to how things were forty, fifty odd years ago, when the chair you sat on didn't match the one your siblings had,Nor did you care, my tip is, don't hold your breath because those days are gone.

backwards/butcher;..<<..Funny part is, while most people won't pay for decent clothing, they are happy to shell out $45 per liter for a latte. It's a weird world at times.>>

how about 20 dollars for potatoes;kilo?
LIKE CRISPS?

OR 2000 a litre for printer ink?

MATE THE 70.S I REMEMBER IT WELL 99 CENT LPS
AND 99 DOLLAR F8 PROIECTORS[AT THE TIME A TRAINEEE MANAGER TAKING HOME 39 DOLLARS

[WHEN ONLY 10 YEARS AGO TRADE,mAN TOOk HOME..9 POUNDS..A FEW BOb SIX AND THREE PENCE..*[OF COURSE WITH A THRI*PENCE YA COULD SPLuRGE
HECK EVEN A PENNYS WORTH

OF FIRE CRACKERS PLEASE
and a penny bunger*

<..>>So Nathan, if you are waiting to see a return to how things were forty, fifty odd years ago, when the chair you sat on didn't match the one your siblings had,Nor did you care, my tip is, don't hold your breath because those days are gone.>>

INVESTMENT DEPENDS ON QUALITY..AND RAREITY
COMBINED WITH DESIRABILITY..AND OPPERTUINITY*