Where in the world do people love Wal-Mart?

Today, Verdantic visited a Wal-Mart in XiaMen, China. Fortunately, it's 80 degrees and sunny in Southern China. Unfortunately, the pollution is more evident than ever when it's hot and muggy. As for the economic climate here, the current stimulus package in China jump-started its stock markets this week. By offering vouchers to millions of rural citizens to buy TVs and household appliances, the market reacted positively. On my visit to Wal-Mart, I stood at the precipice of the great environmental nightmare: China's rising middle class. Now equipped with purchasing power, they are quickly changing their consumption habits to mirror the American way of life. Although Wal-Mart is way over priced here, they deliver the American dream with authenticity intact. Seeing the outdated SUV trend that has captured the hearts and envy of the Chinese population and an IKEA selling shitty disposable furniture in DaLian yesterday was not encouraging either. Typically, doing business abroad requires the utmost sensitivity to local customs and culture, but in a market that seeks the American system of comfort and status symbols, the more wasteful and extravagant the better. Unlike India and China, who will see a 5% and 6% growth in GDP this year, Americans will see our failed model manifested in two emerging economies from the sidelines. What we're about to see is two economies—representing a third of the world’s population—being built on the reliance of consumerism and materialism. That is worrisome.