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FLOW [2]‘s Michael Strong explains Wal-Mart’s role in lifting hundreds of thousands of Chinese people out of poverty [3].
Between 1990 and 2002 more than 174 million people escaped poverty in China, about 1.2 million per month. [4]With an estimated $23 billion in Chinese exports in 2005 (out of a total of $713 billion in manufacturing exports), [5]Wal-Mart might well be single-handedly responsible for bringing about
38,000 people out of poverty in China each month, about 460,000 per
year.
There are estimates that 70 percent of Wal-Mart’s products are made in China. [6]One writer vividly suggests that "One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a
vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the
American market." [7]Even without considering the $263 billion in consumer savings that
Wal-Mart provides for low-income Americans, or the millions lifted out
of poverty by Wal-Mart in other developing nations, it is unlikely that
there is any single organization on the planet that alleviates poverty
so effectively for so many people. [8]Moreover, insofar as China’s rapid manufacturing growth has been
associated with a decline in its status as a global arms dealer,
Wal-Mart has also done more than its share in contributing to global
peace.