Countdown

28 November, 2006

The current trend.

There seems to be a growing trend spreading.. It is all over the talk shows. Quite frankly, as an American, it kind of bothers me.

The trend I'm referring to is the defamation of Wal*Mart.

It seems that it's becoming popular to say that the largest retail chain is destroying the fabric of the US economy.

It seems to me that it is sour grapes. They are upset that Sam Walton was smarter than they are.

Isn't it just that Wal*Mart has embraced the idea of capitalism and does a better job than most.

Refresh my memory.. what is capitalism? Is it you do your best, unless your best is better than someone else's best?

Perhaps it's let the government put restrictions on one entity who earns more than another?

Oh yea, it's the idea that the goal is to do your best, and if someone does something better, than you find a better way to do it.

The nay-sayers blame Wal*Mart for putting small businesses out of business. But is that really the case? They say that their business practice is unfair, but is selling something for less than someone else really unfair?

Whether or not you agree with the business practices of Wal*Mart, you can't disparage them from doing anything they can (within the law) to make as large of a profit as they can. Doing anything less would be unfair to the shareholders and employees. Disparaging Wal*Mart is un-American, and stinks of communism.

It's obvious that Americans approve of Wal*Mart, or at least we tolerate them, otherwise, we wouldn't be flocking to give them our money. It must not be that important that they are 'running mom and pop shops out of business', or perhaps, they aren't. Didn't we go through this when grocery stores, butcher shops and bakeries started going away in favor of a larger supermarket?

I say good for them. I'm going to do much of my Christmas shopping to support one of America's icons. A company that openly opposes unions, a company that choses not to settle law suits to discourage frivolous suits.

All this, and the best prices and best selection. Oh yea, they re-incorporated the 'C' word in their advertising.. they actually said 'Merry Christmas' in a commercial. Keep up the good work Wal*Mart!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I coudln't disagree more. Wal*Mart isn't what John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith or Milton Freidman had in mind when they advocated for free trade. The point of capitalism is actually to reduce the cost of living by improving efficency via competition. That said, Wal*Mart does do a good job of keeping prices low for their customers. However, they use poor tactics to accomplish that goal. They frequently refuse to allow employees overtime and cut short hours to prevent them the benefits of full-time status (State of Maryland vs Wal-Mart Inc). More over, because of their large clout they can manipulate their suppliers to cut their prices too. If you are so dependent on one retail outlet for your business there cannot be competition. Without competition capitalism is really just monopolies. Also, many of the products Wal*Mart sells are import from China (Wal*Mart refuses to divulge the exact percentage but it is estimated at 80%), which is a communist country. If your supporting Wal*Mart on the stance that it's American and free trade then how do you answer that? Thank you