2. So...cheap food means scale it up really big (agrabusiness)
3. And cheap non-food mean outsourced manufacturing (because people want big salaries to buy lots of cheap crap)
...and perhaps that's where it started, that last bit:
People want big salaries (or paychecks, or pay - whatever), so they can buy more stuff (there's also the whole "easy credit" thing - but that's another discussion). They want that stuff cheaper. So businesses searched for ways to make it cheaper: Scale stuff up, have fewer employees (or pay them less), and outsource manufacturing.
1. Walmart - always lower prices (people want cheap crap)
2. So...cheap food means scale it up really big (agrabusiness)
3. And cheap non-food mean outsourced manufacturing (because people want big salaries to buy lots of cheap crap)
...and perhaps that's where it started, that last bit:
People want big salaries (or paychecks, or pay - whatever), so they can buy more stuff (there's also the whole "easy credit" thing - but that's another discussion). They want that stuff cheaper. So businesses searched for ways to make it cheaper: Scale stuff up, have fewer employees (or pay them less), and outsource manufacturing.
Classic death spiral.
/I know I am over-simplifying things here...