Is It Wal-Mart They Really Hate?

Amarxica.com ^ | 4/6/06 | John Reit

[libertarianPA]

Just when I think my admiration for the nation's number one retailer couldn't grow any more, Wal-Mart recently announced that it plans to build more than 50 stores in plighted urban neighborhoods over the next two years. All told, the expansion will create 15,000 to 25,000 jobs in these areas. Not surprisingly, the anti-Wal-Mart sites - wakeupwalmart.com, walmart-blows.com, walmartmovie.com, etc. - aren't mentioning the story. Am I surprised? Not at all. The fact is that in the mind of socialists, there is nothing good about Wal-Mart… or with what it represents.

Theoretically, these militant haters should go to the office of the retail giant's CEO and kiss his feet for providing so much opportunity to those who truly need it. Instead, they remain predictably silent. With the opening of a new Wal-Mart store, a liberal will not see the positives. They'll simply see: 1. a threat to local businesses, and 2. low paying jobs, with little or no health benefits, that the locals are "forced" to take and keep forever and ever. Let's examine each of these fears for a moment.

[Graybeard58]

Because Wal-Mart embodies everything that's right about the free market system, it is one of the largest barriers between liberals and their socialist Utopia. With blind optimism, I dream of a day when the voice of those who would rather see America fail will be silenced by people who understand that those who produce the wealth are the best chance the poor have - people who understand that companies like Wal-Mart are our salvation, not our problem.

[rellimpank]

--I like to contrast the way Wal-mart survived Katrina, compared to any other organization--government or non-profit--

[mlc9852]

I think we should put Wal-Mart in charge of homeland security! They responded much faster to NO than any government agency.

[BooksForTheRight.com]

They (socialists) are against any kind of enterprise because it involves private property. Socialists aren't happy until all property is in the clutches of the collectivity.

[midwyf]

I really think there is a liberal faction who want to keep other folks beneath them. That way they can talk about what they "do" for the little people (eg: handouts). The problem with Wal-Mart is they are the great equalizerand that inhibits their "betterism.
Some libs want to stop housing developments "to protect the environment", which in reality keeps them in and others out. They want roadless areas "to save the ecosytem", but they never consider that they affect it themselves. They do not want oil wwells drilled, but they themselvs are entitled to use all of the fuel they wish.

[Onelifetogive]

Socialists aren't happy until all property is in the clutches of the collectivity.

...and the collectivity is in the hands of the socialists!

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The same ones who demonize Wal-Mart for paying low wages and having substandard health care coverage, results in a social and tax drain due to the government having to pay for Wal-Mart employee's health care and financial assistance.

Why are these same ones glorifying, giving a free pass and support to employer's of illegals whom give no benefits whatsoever?

The new screw Americans law which appears likely, states, there will be no penalties for those who freely give aid and help to illegals and will not be prosecuted. Does this mean that we could pool our money to buss illegals to MA, inform them that Senator Kennedy will welcome them to Martha's Vineyard?

How about the cities and communities who have declared themselves illegal immigrant sanctuaries, can we give aid to insure illegals get to these places where they will be welcomed with open arms. Can we print up brochures and advertise in Mexico these places of sanctuary will welcome all illegals who get there, and will protect and care for them?

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

The ones seeking to pass the bill in the senate want to insure there will always be a permanent underclass in America. This so they can exploit them, while simpering they want to protect them. It is the new slavery unfolding before our very eyes.

[rmh47]

Hypothetically speaking, let's assume that Anytown, USA...has 10 small Mom & Pop stores. Collectively, they sell everything that could be bought at one Wal-Mart. Each of these stores employs five people. That makes 50 people who are gainfully employed thanks to these businesses. There aren't a lot of jobs to go around in this small community. Thus, another 300 or 400 able-bodied but low-skilled workers are looking for employment...in such a concentrated rural area, the options are few and far between.

Wal-Mart comes to town one day and announces it is planning to open up a store in the area. The majority of Anytown's liberal citizens initiate a petition to block the move. ...Eventually, the people get their way and Wal-Mart must look elsewhere...Fifty Mom and Pop employees have saved their jobs. ...However, those 300 to 400 unemployed citizens are still looking for jobs the next day.

The author's first point is bogus. If fifty employees at ten "Mom and Pop" stores can sell everything that a Wal-Mart does using 300 to 400 "associates," then those "Mom and Pop" stores are vastly more efficient and can offer lower prices, higher wages, and create higher profits. The author's comparison is invalid.

[rikkir]

"The same ones who demonize Wal-Mart for paying low wages and having substandard health care coverage, results in a social and tax drain due to the government having to pay for Wal-Mart employee's health care and financial assistance."

Plain and simple, these people are full of bull cookies. My wife works for Sam's Club. She has been there about 1 1/2 years. She started part time for $8.40 per hour. Notice that's above minimum wage. She is now a Supervisor (what they call a COS)making $10.40 per hour. She will start MIT (management in training) this year which puts her on the fast track to $40k as asst mgr, and $60-70k as General Mgr.
Any body want to know how? Drum roll please. Here's the big secret. No she doesn't "know" any body. No she doesn't have a college degree. She shows up for work everyday, on time, and takes pride in doing her job the best she can. That's it.
She is probably considered a "brown noser" by 1/2 to 3/4 of the people who show up half the time, come in late, gripe and complain the whole time they're there. She has a work ethic that pushes her to the top over people who have been there twice as long.
The "us" against "them" attitude in the American workplace is what's going to destroy this country. It's probably why we have the immigration problem that we do. We have the labor unions to thank for the absolute worthlessness of the American workforce today. They have successfully convinced most Americans that their company is evil and is just out to screw them, that their bosses are evil, are out to screw them over (and got to be boss because they "brown nosed" or cheated, or knew someone, it couldn't possibly be that they worked harder) and that the evil company, and the evil boss is just there to use them as slaves, and make their life miserable.
It's not by accident that this is happening. The left in this country has been using incremental ism for 70 plus years to turn the US socialist, and they are on the verge of success.
It won't matter what we do about immigration, or the WOT, if we don't teach America history, civics, economics, and how to work again, because this country will collapse in on it's own failed economy. Too bad the institutions we have to instruct our children about these things are the leaders in the effort to accomplish just that, destroy America.
Sorry about the diatribe, maybe I should start a blog. It just frustrates me that even we Conservatives seem to be screaming at each other about the illegal problem, and nobody is asking why they have been able to get the jobs when they come here. Seems like the answer to most of our pressing issues is to heal the wound from the inside, and the outside skin would heal itself. If Americans were willing to be proud of any job they had, the illegals wouldn't have any where to immigrate to.

[libertarianPA]

those "Mom and Pop" stores are vastly more efficient and can offer lower prices, higher wages, and create higher profits

The stores don't work as one unit. Each individual store can't handle the volume that Wal-Mart can. They also don't have the buyers and merchandisers to find the variety of products.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

Agree totally with you, and good luck to your wife. Although with her work ethic, luck will have little to with it.

Wife & I are Sam's Club members, shop there at least twice a month.

[rmh47]

The stores don't work as one unit. Each individual store can't handle the volume that Wal-Mart can. They also don't have the buyers and merchandisers to find the variety of products.

According to the hypothetical set up by the author of the article, ten stores with five employees each, fifty total, sold everything that the Wal-Mart would to the members of that community. When the community prevented the Wal-Mart from opening a store there, it kept Wal-Mart from hiring three to four hundred employees. This is illogical. The author's hypothetical set up is bogus.

I was attempting to point this out. If it takes 300 to 400 Wal-Mart employees to do what fifty can at "Mom and Pops," then the M & P's are, by definition, more eficient, at least when it comes to employing labor. So much more efficient that any advantage imaginable in reducing other costs of production would be overwhelmed by the six to eight times greater labor efficiency. This is obviously not the case in the real world. Ergo, the author's hypothetical set up is ridiculous.

[RobberbaronPA]

You have tunnel vision. I suspect you are a liberal, because they are born with tunnel vision. Wal-Marts bring with them business transactions from a wider geographical area than the 10 small Mom and Pop stores can ever hope to serve. Mom and Pop stores are inefficient by their very nature, and so no one is going to drive to a town with only Mom and Pop stores, who charge high prices and have a poor assortment of choices. Any place you find a Wal-Mart, you will find cars in the parking lot, which have traveled from outside, sometimes way outside, the town limits of the town in which the Mom and Pop stores operate. Listen and learn and prosper with Capitalism and give up your attachment to an economic system that can only bring poverty and stagnation as it did in the Soviet Union, in Cuba, and as it will in the burgeoning socialistic states in the Southern hemisphere.

[RobberbaronPA]

Another thought occurred to me that would never occur to a liberal. In addition to drawing business from outside the limited area served by the Mom and Pop stores, the Wal-Mart stores would deliver the entire assortment of goods, previously supplied by the Mom and Pop stores, at a lower cost. With the money they save, the local residents can now buy additional goods from the Wal-Mart, which they could not previously afford to purchase. This is how the efficiency of Capitalism continuously improves our standard of living. You may be tempted to reply that you feel you still can't reconcile the fifty Mom and Pop employees to the 300 Wal-Mart employees. You may be tempted to assert that the increased traffic flow from outside of town, and the marginal increase in the towns-folks' purchasing power do not account for the 250 employee increase. If you do, I will just as earnestly assert that they do, and since it is a hypothetical, it is the concept of efficiency that is important, and not the working out of hypothetical numbers precisely. You should think about coming over to Capitalism. You will do better, as will all of your family, as will all other of our citizens.