Comments on: Don’t Hate on Wal-Mart

By: Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 19:29:24 +0000

People point to Walmart and cry “anti-union”.
Unions enable disfavored people to live satisfactorly without addressing their disfavor. This way their family’s problems are never resolved. Without the union they would have to accept the heirarchy, their own inferiority.
Unions serve to empower.
Walmart is anti-union because they are good. They try to help people address and resolve their problems by creating an enviornment where there are fewer hurdles.

Media ridicule and lawsuits are creations to reinforce people’s belief that Walmart is evil in a subsegment of the industry dominated by the middle and lower classes.
Low-cost disfavored Chinese labor is utilized by corporate america to maximize margins. They all do it. Only WalMart gets fingered because they are the ones who help, and those who seek to create confusion in the marketplace want to eliminate the vast middle class who have a real chance and instead stick with lower classes who may not work otherwise. So they dirty him up while allowing the others to appear clean.

The coining of the term “Uncle Sam” was a clue alluding to this::Sam Walton’s WalMart is one of few saviors of the peasant class.

By: Newley

Newley — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:48:40 +0000

Miguel: haven’t seen the show, nope. But I’d like to check it out. I’m pretty sure I know, just from the title, what the answer to the question is, as far as Frontline is concerned: “no.”

As for China, I see great hypocracy in US trade policy: Bush and his gang are all for “free markets” in cases where we can sell our expensive stuff to poorer countries (i.e. NAFTA), but when it comes to China’s cheap labor and cheap goods, we change our tune.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:41:22 +0000

Newley: Did you happen to see the Frontline program on Wal-Mart? It was, as is so often the case with Frontline, excellent. Especially with respect to how China fits into the mix. Definitely worth checking out. Here’s the overview and a link to the site.

FRONTLINE explores the relationship between U.S. job losses and the American consumer’s insatiable desire for bargains in “Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” Through interviews with retail executives, product manufacturers, economists, and trade experts, correspondent Hedrick Smith examines the growing controversy over the Wal-Mart way of doing business and asks whether a single retail giant has changed the American economy.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/