First and foremost, I'll be honest - I've been known to occasionally walk into Walmart - usually when I've been scrapped for cash and needed something cheap on the fly, or when I was in college and needed a plunger at 2 a.m. and knew Walmart was the only store open at the time.

Be that as it may, for a number of years now, I've made a conscious effort to avoid Walmart at all costs, for numerous reasons.  Most importantly, though, as reported by the AFL-CIO, Walmart is the largest importer of foreign-made goods in the United States. Through it's trade deficit with China, Walmart has been directly responsible for the loss of almost 200,000 American jobs from 2001-2006: www.epi.org/publications/entry/ib235/, and I've read that many believe this to be a very conservative estimate. Estimates also suggest that 70% of products that Walmart sells are made in China.

Obviously, Walmart alone is not responsible for these issues, as the U.S. government has allowed much of this to happen with low tariffs on Chinese goods, not to mention the massive purchase of US debt in past years to deinflate their own currency.  However, I pick on Walmart because the vast majority of Americans shop at the merchandise giant.

I'm not crying that we should always "buy American," as there are plenty of reputable companies outside of the United States, but let's be honest, the vast majority of products we get from China are cheap, yet we Americans seem to love cheap stuff.  I was in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago for a business meeting and had some free time, but not very much spending money, so I decided to walk into the "largest souveneir store in America" for kicks and giggles.  Not only was virtually everything in the store tacky & cheap - it was all made in China.

So, for those of you complaining that our economy is in shambles, do us all a favor - boycott cheap stuff, boycott Walmart & most importantly, boycott CHINA.

You get what you pay for.