I know intuitively Wal-Mart seems harmless. Low prices, efficiency, capitalism, low inflation. Those are all good things, right?
Nope. Not when taken to an extreme. Not when an unchecked monopoly overtakes a market.
Wal-Mart folks has destroyed America. You just don't realize it yet, because it sure is fun to get stuff for so much cheaper than it used to be. Especially when so many things are so much more than they used to be (healthcare, college, homes, day care, movies, etc). Wal-Mart seemed like the only way to stay ahead for most people.
What people don't realize though is that Wal-Mart has destroyed the middle class. Wal-Mart has destroyed the American manufacturing base, and tens of thousands of small to medium sized American businesses. Wal-Mart has killed the character of American towns. And Wal-Mart caused the housing bubble, by creating a massive trade imbalance which caused China to reinvest their reserves in US t-bills, thus deflating interest rates and inflating home prices.
Wal-Mart is evil. And people who shop at Wal-Mart need to see that they're hurting America every time they walk through those doors.
Here's an interesting take on the catch-22 caused by our addiction to low prices and Chinese crap.
“The China trade deficit really reflects the state of the global economy: China is the world’s factory and the U.S. is its supermarket,” Gereffi said. “It’s not caused by any nefarious Chinese strategy.” Gereffi said efforts to improve conditions in the U.S. by finding fault with China’s monetary or labor practices are misplaced. Answers to American challenges are best found at home, he said.
“Pressing China to let the yuan appreciate -- the current policy of the American government -- even if successful, would contribute only slightly to an already steady U.S. economy,” he said. “Far more fruitful would be addressing the anxieties of American workers about job security, retirement and health care with new ways of providing the social supports once found in pensions, lifelong employment, company health insurance, Social Security and Medicare.
“Cheap Chinese goods and labor have pitted the American consumer, in love with inexpensive goods, against the American worker, in fear of cheap labor,” Gereffi said. “Unfortunately, these are often two sides of the same coin: America’s workers are also its consumers. It’s time to stop fighting with ourselves on this front
