The Cost of Empire - Sword and Dollar: excerpt 3

nor do the benefits of this empire trickle down to the American consumer in any appreciable way - generally the big companies sell the goods made abroad at as high a price as possible on American markets - corporations move to Asia and Africa to increase their profits, not to produce lower-priced goods that will save money for American consumers - they pay as little as they can in wages abroad but still charge as much as they can when they sell the goods at home.

from one-half to two-thirds of the major winter and early spring vegetables consumed in the United States are imported from poor countries, principally Mexico, where the land and labor cost a fraction of what they do in the USA - yet these vegetables are not sold at cheaper prices than homegrown produce - likewise, the General Electric household appliances made by young women in South Korea and Singapore who work for subsistence wages, and the Admiral International color television sets assembled by low-paid workers in Taiwan do not cost less than when they were made in the USA - as the president of Admiral noted, the move to Taiwan "won't affect pricing state-side but it should improve the company's profit structure, otherwise we wouldn't be making the move."

The Cost of Empire - Sword and Dollar: excerpt 3