Wal-Mart is Evil
Wal-Mart is evil. I hate Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart in so many ways stands for everything America is not: capitalism, entrepreneurship, social mobility, dreaming big, success, employment, the list goes on and on.
Take the last one for example, employment. Isn't it outrageous that some people are forced to work at Wal-Mart and get paid well above the minimum wage instead of being allowed to go on unemployed with no way of providing for their families?
How about sending jobs overseas to China? What an awful idea. Why use cheaper labor in China to produce cheaper goods that the whole world benefits from when you could use overpriced American labor and raise commodity prices out of the reach of poor people? China is really such a horrible place anyways. In fact, dealing with any country besides America is really a terrible idea and completely goes against the concepts of international trade, free markets, and competition.
I also hate the way Wal-Mart forces its suppliers to bid against each other in what is basically a fight to sell to Wal-Mart at lower prices so that Wal-Mart can sell to consumers at lower prices. I think that kind of competition is terrible because then the suppliers don't make as much money and the consumers get cheaper prices.
What's worse though is that Wal-Mart is the only company in the world that does this. Obviously, none of its competitors does anything like this at all to try to steal shares of the market. If only Wal-Mart just disappeared. Then all our problems would be solved and there would never be any corporation that would rise to fill its place and take over its share of the market.
What happened to all the tiny mom-and-pop stores that sold everything at prices ten times higher than they were really worth? What happened to the good old days when a farm boy from the Midwest growing up during the Great Depression with no Ivy League education and no previously amassed family fortune could start his own business, rise up against the odds, run head-to-head with corporate giants, and become the most successful businessman in the world? What happened to America?
Wal-Mart is anti-capitalist, anti-democratic, and anti-American. Its efficiency, its productiveness, its competitiveness, its effectiveness is nauseating. Wal-Mart is evil. And I'm glad that a good number of Americans feel exactly the same way.
5 comments:
Alright, so Wal-Mart isn't the cuprit. Don't hate the player, hate the game, right? You can't blame Wal-Mart for figuring out the most economically efficient way to function in the free-market sytem. Capitalism doesn't have room for morals -- it's amoral, not immoral.
Imagine this: you live in a small town. Say this town is in a leading agricultural state. Wal-Mart moves into your town, and all other little (they don't necessarily have to be mom and pop stores) retail stores vanish. Your left with a huge Wal-Mart at the center of the town. All life and culture revolves around this Wal-Mart, teenagers hang out there at night, people shop for vacuum-cleaners at 11 PM at night.
The homogenization of culture that Wal-Mart produces in small towns is almost haunting, leaving us with thousands of little ghost-towns in which Wal-Mart is the pulse of the town.
I think this is scary, and although I know that Wal-Mart is only "playing by the rules", there must be some restrictions that can be imposed on it. If companies merely played by the rules of a free-market economy, there would be no such thing as minimum wage, improved worker health care, there would monopolies, etc.
First off, thanks for your post. If I knew who you were, I'd thank you in person. You are smart, too.
Here's the thing: your arguments contradict each other. On the one hand, you argue that what Wal-Mart in particular is doing is not quite right and that something has to be done about it. It's more than just a matter of blaming the system and letting Wal-Mart continue as long as it "plays by the rules." You use big words like homogenization and vacuum-cleaners and the point is well taken.
On the other hand, in the last sentence you point out some of the external regulations that are imposed on the free-market system to prevent exploitation and stuff by monopolies. The free-market system is far from perfect and these regulations deal with those imperfections.
So here's the contradiction: you say, "It's not just the game, it's Wal-Mart," and then you turn around and say, "But look at how the game's been altered to make it work." You're perfectly right in your last sentence when you say, "If companies merely played by the rules of a free-market economy, there would be no such thing as minimum wage, etc." But they're not playing by the rules of a free-market economy. They're playing by the rules of a partially regulated free-market economy. And it's those regulations that are meant to fix problems in the system.
What I'm really trying to say is, okay, if you really think homogenization of culture, etc. is not right, then change the system. Throw in more regulations. Fix the problem in the big picture. Don't just target one particular company. Sure, you can use Wal-Mart as an example, but in the end we can't just slam Wal-Mart. If we want change, it's got to be through the system.
Until then, Wal-Mart pays well above minimum wage. If you don't think that's enough money to live off of, then raise the minimum wage. If you just ding Wal-Mart, then some other fast-growing company's going to come along and pay workers low wages and eventually steal market share from Wal-Mart. Then you have a new Wal-Mart. So instead, change the system. QED.
Thanks again for your post and sorry for being redundantdantdant.
Well, first of all, I'm not even going to try to argue with an Econ major about the pros and cons of Wal-Mart. Second of all, I hope your "Wal-Mart is Evil" post was sarcastic (as my intuition tells me deep in my loins), because it offered some convincing points on why Wal-Mart is *not* evil. Granted, some of these points are arguable, but I'm not the one to do it. Anonymous is.
Rather, I would like to point out that, in my opinion, Wal-Mart is not the disease here. It is merely the symptom. The cultural repercussions of Wal-Mart's existence are profound when we look at how we are perceived internationally: our entire society is built around cheap, LARGE quantities of goods (often in excess of what any human being SHOULD have) delivered in a fast, accessible manner. It would be folly to assume that Wal-Mart is the cause of this; to eliminate Wal-Mart or restrict it is merely to suppress the disease's symptoms.
The disease I keep making vague references to, as you may have guessed, is the very *current* form of Capitalism we espouse. You call for reform to this system, or even a total rehaul. Fine. How? That's the killer question. Fix the system, and Wal-Mart will fix itself. Or, better yet, Wal-Mart will stay, and other countries will be able to have Wal-Marts of their own (or similar companies). Other people will be able to afford the necessities of life. Other households might not have to make a decision between paying the rent and feeding their children, because cheap, accessible goods are everywhere.
Obviously my ideas in the preceding paragraph portray a bit of a utopia, but the main point is this: if Wal-Mart prices, accessibility, and job opportunities were only available as readily in other countries, then other countries' warped perception of the USA as a bloated, life-sucking giant would get a little liposuction of its own.
Hope everything I tried to say was clear.
Now that you have replied, I feel the time is right to reveal my identity. I am Zorgon Fitzpatrick III from Planet Snizzle-Urg. I am on a study abroad program from the University of Zog and am currently studying at the University of Chicago.
Please forgive me for my ignorance of earthling slang, but what does it means to "ding" Wal-Mart? Furthermore, you talk about changing the system and not Wal-Mart. I agree with that and I'm sorry if it seemed otherwise in my post. I was just using Wal-Mart as an example. In the end, whether or not we blame Wal-Mart or the system is just details - the real question is, is it really possible to curb the economic entrepreneurialism that Wal-Mart exemplifies without drastically changing the economic basis of our society?
Thank you for your time. We hear on Snizzle-Urg await your next blog with great eagerness.
in the next issue of the mainsheet, michael krekel says something about walmart.
cool, huh.
i really don't know enough on the matter to comment.
Post a Comment