A new Wal-Mart destroys jobs by putting local merchants out of business. The jobs Wal-Mart creates are fewer, lower-paying and mostly part-time. Wal-Mart exploits workers. The average hourly worker makes just $18,000 dollars a year. Meanwhile, in 2002, the corporation raked in $6.6 billion in profits. Wal-Mart has known for years that many of its stores violate child labor laws and state regulations requiring work breaks - but has done little, if anything, to stop it.
I'm not a big fan of any monopolistic behavior in corporations, but it does tend to benefit the consumer. Walmart offers lower prices than others, there's really no effective way to persuade consumers to pay MORE for the same product. Good things do come from Walmart's death grip on the US goods market: It fosters innovation to produce cheaper products more efficiently, it prevents price-fixing that might occur in a more limited market, and it allows lower income consumers to get more for their dollar. See, there's an upside to every smiley-faced evil cloud.
ReplyDelete