I'm not entirely sure that the economic impact is the best reason that Wal-Mart is bad for society, yet it definitely is supported with the most facts. (Personally, I dislike the unethical policies used to just get ahead: the cheating people from wages, unequal pay, etc.) In any case, the economy is effected by the existance of Wal-Mart and especially with the economy as unstable as it is now, this is very important. True to their word, Wal-Mart provides cheap goods for people across the world. Thanks to this Wal-Mart has a gross income of .. well, billions of dollars. Instead of pumping that money back into the economy, by paying workers well, (giving them money to spend on other products, completing the natural economic cycle) Wal-Mart essentially sits on the money and lets it grow. Furthermore, the Walton family has given less than one percent of their wealth to charity, compared to Bill Gates who has given fifty-eight percent of his wealth to charity. Wal-Mart is not just cheating workers when they erase times from their work cards or force them to work overtime for free, they are cheating society at large.
Wal-Mart does create jobs to help unemployment, that much is true. With their outsourcing to make products and then hiring laborers at cheapest prices possible to sell their goods, it is no wonder small towns protest and petition to not have Wal-Marts intrude in their space. Not only does it take away from Mom-and-Pop shops, but anytime a Wal-Mart moves into a town, they push down the values of the stores there because sooner or later there is going to be a bunch of empty buildings that are not going to all sell (with Wal-Mart as a competition many stores do not survive).
Wal-Mart argues that the jobs the create and the money they generate helps the economy, even is beneficial in this economic crisis we are currently in. However, this is just as misleading as their "save money, live better" slogan. While customers might be saving money in the short term, their lives are not being "bettered" as implied. In fact many employees cannot even afford the clothes/goods sold at Wal-Mart because their wages are too low and they cannot splurge that much. That alone should tell people there is a problem here; something is not right.
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3 comments:
Hey blog buddy! Good post. All of your arguments make sense and are well-supported, especially the one about charity. I also really liked that semicolon at the end there, being a lover of the semicolon myself. I do have a few suggestions though. I think this is the kind of topic where statistics will be really helpful to the reader. So once you write your essay, make sure to get some pie charts and stuff like that if you haven't already, even though she probably won't let us use pictures. One other little thing (because I have OCD with things like this) is you said effect instead of affect. I'll let it slide...this time.
Your argument is starting out very well. I definately agree that statistics and such would make things easier for the reader. Also, what are Walmart's wages compared to the wages of other stores (Target or K-mart, for instance) and how do the working conditions compare to those of Target or K-mart? Those were just some things I was wondering as I was reading your post, and whoever is reading your finished paper would probably wonder about that as well.
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