I had someone whining to me the other day about how all the jobs are going to China and such, and my remark, as always, was that when you decide to return to the work ethic of your forefathers who worked themselves into an early grave just to make sure their family had enough food to eat, instead of thinking your job ought to buy you the fanciest car and the biggest house, etc. then some of those jobs might come back to the US. He stared at me like I was crazy. I said you have billions of starving Chinese who will gladly trade a day's labor for a handful of rice and warm corner upon which to lay their bamboo mat. There used to be a time when we had plenty of people in the US who would gladly trade a day's labor for enough to buy a slab of bacon and a bag of beans.

Umm, Tig, what in the world does your story have to do with a Canadian WalMart store being shut down?

"There used to be a time when we had plenty of people in the US who would gladly trade a day’s labor for enough to buy a slab of bacon and a bag of beans."

That time is now, and those people are called immigrants. In many parts of the country, just go to any latino immigrant neighborhood and find the 7-11 where the day laborers hang out for work.

Ahem. You don't need to be an immigrant to be happy to earn enough for your basic subsistance. You only need to be self-employed.

'"I'm a mother of two children and I'm separated from my husband. It's very difficult." '

'The world owes me a living'

The next thing will be some Canadian lawmakers sticking their nose in to prevent store closings which will just prevent store openings. The people don't really understand basic economics.

Pithy Kate, very, very pithy.

Well said.