Levi Strauss announces intention to close six plants (U.S. plants)

Associated Press / SFGate

[MarkWar]

>The American people DID choose .... by voting with their dollars. We make decisions with each product we buy.

That sounds good, but you know it's nonsense. When people buy products, they just buy products. The vast bulk of Americans -- probably the vast bulk of the world -- never even considers that there is any political consequence to the merchandise they buy. And it's not because they're sheeple. It's because they are 24/7 indoctrinated by media telling them that consumerism is a one dimensional environment totally separate from politics.

The Fortune 500 do not visible divide themselves into two camps and say "Buy our products to support domestic production and buy their products to support globalism." On the contrary, the Fortune 500 spend billions of dollars every advertising the unqualified benefits of global trade and present a united front in that effort, not to mention the probably equally large amount spent to deride and marginalize "isolationists" and "nationalists" and, now, "terrorists" who would dissent from the WTO dogma.

Mark W.

[MarkWar]

>You cry and moan everytime a company moves, expecting the government to do something about it. News flash for you. Perhaps if the government did less the jobs wouldn't go away. Labor laws to 'protect the worker'(sounds kind of like 'it's for the children' to me) need to laxed.

First of all, I never said the government should do something about it. You're not responding to my post, your responding to some rant you hear inside your head. The "government" is little more than a fringe growth off the Fortune 500.

Secondly, why do you think those ridiculous "labor laws" got passed in the first place? Why do you think all the resources (social, political, financial) were made available for labor activists?! You dope! Those horrible labor laws got passed because they HELP corporations present a dialectic view of the world -- business/labor -- to the population at large, and then justify their deconstruction of American enterprise...

Mark W.

[Richard Kimball]

I'm wondering if they didn't start a backlash several years ago when they dropped their support for the BSA.

Absolutely agree, and this is one of the best-known but almost illegal to talk about aspects of their decline. I hadn't bought anything except Levis from junior high until the BSA thing. Since then, I have never bought anything from Levi.

This aspect is seldom mentioned, just as the "gay days" at Disney are never mentioned as a reason for declining attendence at Disney theme parks.

Levi has completely abandoned middle America, which was the core customer base, and markets to the "heroin chic" crowd now. All you have to do is look at their commercials. You seldom see a model in a Levis ad that doesn't look like a drug addict.

I really hate this, as they always made great blue jeans.

[conserve-it]

"Secondly, why do you think those ridiculous "labor laws" got passed in the first place? Why do you think all the resources (social, political, financial) were made available for labor activists?! You dope! Those horrible labor laws got passed because they HELP corporations present a dialectic view of the world -- business/labor -- to the population at large, and then justify their deconstruction of American enterprise..."

VERBATIM

[connectthedots]

I really hate this, as they always made great blue jeans.

Bought my first pair of Wrangles two weeks ago; mush better than Levis. (Hadn't bought Levis or 'Dockers' is years).

[PatrioticAmerican]

Later that day, Levi announced that their "outsourcing" supplier (whom they own 100% of) will open a new plant in El Salvador, where, according to levi officials, costs will be drastically reduced, making for higher profits.

...and in another, unrelated, announcement, El Salvador has announced that children under the age of 10 will be allowed to work in textile iundustries with their parent's permission.

[Lee Heggy]

Those first jeans were made of hemp denim and they didn't bust out at the knees or become threadbare in a few months. Clothing made from that stuff would last years and years. The cotton-synthetic mixtures currently used are designed to wear out. It's a shame that another fine old American firm is getting ready to bite the dust. Doubly so since it's not due to their product as much as poor leadership and mush-brained thinking in the PC department.

[DouglasKC]

I'm wondering if they didn't start a backlash several years ago when they dropped their support for the BSA. I was a big fan of their until that moment, when I haven't bought anything of theirs since.

Ditto, and I don't think we were alone...

[Charles Martel]

Wealth is created only by engaging in value-added activities. By the same token, Service sector activities do not create wealth, they merely transfer, redistribute and eventually dissipate wealth as consumption. Thus, as value-added activities move offshore and the U.S. labor force shifts to the Service Sector, wealth is dissipated, not created. And the U.S. standard of living declines as a result.

But we'll still be the source of 24/7 news (CNN), entertainment (Hollywood) and education (liberal training camps/universities).

I do believe that the above is easily the most depressing sentence I've ever typed.

[Willie Green]

I do believe that the above is easily the most depressing sentence I've ever typed.

Yep. It sure can't get much worse!