Dan Johnson: 'Outsourcing prosperity: When the middle class is gone, who'll
shop at Wal-Mart?'

Dan Johnson, Memphis Flyer

The last time I was in an economics class, America was only a dozen or so
years removed from a period of trade surpluses and virtual isolation. German
and Japanese compact cars had made inroads but were still considered a bit
of a novelty -- until the real hammer fell in the form of the so-called Arab
oil embargo

More than a decade later, about the time Sony bought Columbia Pictures and
an investment group including the Mitsubishi family became the owner of
Rockefeller Center in New York, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal were
encouraging all of us to learn Japanese -- or else. The Japanese had already
crushed the American electronics manufacturers and, as they gathered up all
the monies associated with that victory, they were working on the remains of
the automakers.

Now China has proven to be an extremely quick study -- to the point where it
has become the new bully on the block. It is defining the ground rules and
near-invisible profit margins for manufacturers and retailers alike with the
help of its new best buddy from Arkansas, Wal-Mart.