Everyday of the Year: Walmart Wins

Our crazy friend Keith Olberman used to have a feature on his show called The Worst Person of the World. The typical winners would be Conservative politicians, with multuple awards going to the Limbaugh, O'Reilly set.

I occasionally will note a business that I believe deserves negative scrutiny. The truth is however that despite whatever some silly pizza maker might say on any given day, what union is being broken by Caterpillar for example, the winner of the worst business in the world is always Walmart.

The list goes on an on. I always tell my wife do not shop at Walmart. I am the worst kind of consumer however, I pretend to have morals yet my wife goes to Walmart to save money and I just go along with it. I guess I am going to have to tell her that it is ok to spend more and stay away.

To write what Walmart does wrong would take longer than my hands can hold out. Here are a few highlights.

- By paying there workers a wage that one cannot live on they do more to contribute to the lower standard of living in this company for folks who actually work than any other company.

- By being such a large retailer and by paying bottom tier wages they reduce the wages for certainly other retail workers but in reality for all unskilled labor in a community.

- Anti Union Activities

- Consistent Discrimination of Women in Advancement Opportunities

- By having such a disproportionate share of the market Walmart has the ability to make or break any business that supplies them or does not supply them. Entertainers cannot have a successful recording without selling at Walmart. Other companies are forced to sell to Walmart at such incredibly low margins that they are in a Catch 22. Either sell to Walmart and then be in such financial straits you then have to lower your costs, labor costs primarily, or do not sell to Walmart and go broke for lack of sales. For an example look up the Vlassic pickle story. It is one of thousands.

` Everytime you hear someone speak of the Chinese trade deficit or imbalance remember that the biggest reason is Walmart. Walmart buys more from China than most countries an certainly more than any other company in America. This might save you fifteen cents on a shirt but it also means that an American worker is not making the product and God forbid you consider the conditions of the workers whose products you are buying.

One could go on an on and statistics can be presented to make one see how much wealth has been amassed.

Here are just a couple.

The Walton family, Sam's descendants, have an accumulated wealth that is equal to the wealth of the bottom forty one percent of households in America. Think about that number while you eat your lunch today. It should also be noted of course that great preponderance of those people in that forty one percent do much of their primary shopping at Walmart.

It is the modern day equivalent of a sharecroppers or company store in a coal town.

What does it mean. On the way to our families Thanksgiving party my son, I must have been doing my Wlamrt spiel, said why are they so bad. Two hours later, actually five minutes, after hearing my brief highlights of the evil they do he said " But they are winning, they are getting all the money they want, so they do not care what people like you think." He was no being rude he was just stating it from his understanding, that is, money is good, they are making lots of money, and most people seem to think what they do is a good thing. "

It was a depressing day for me. When I was seventeen I was an idealist, Now in my forties I also am an idealist. My son, however, he only sees the winners and losers and wonders in an unvarnished answer why being a winner is bad. My Dad used to tell me that he hoped " I would be rich enough to be a Republican." For me watching my son grow up with, what I think, is an unhealthy desire for material things, I hope someday he is rich enough to be a liberal. Perhaps that is where we are for the most part in this country. It is only the very well off, not a group I am part of, who can truly afford to be liberal.

That in itself might be the saddest statement of all.