Is Wal-Mart the Root of All Evil? [View All]

[AuntiePinko]

Dear Auntie Pinko,

Why do people hate Wal-Mart so much? Yes, it would be better if they could pay people more and provide health insurance, but I think that in a lot of ways they make up for their sins by keeping their prices so low that people can afford to shop there even if they aren’t rich. I don’t know what I would do about school clothes for my kids if we didn’t have a Wal-Mart, and their groceries are always cheaper than the regular stores for real, name-brand items.

Many families are too poor to pay full prices at regular stores, even for the basics, much less a few luxuries like DVDs and sports equipment. Or even toys. My kids would have a sad Christmas if I couldn’t shop at Wal-Mart, because there’s no way I could afford to buy them much if I had to pay regular prices. My husband and I are just barely making it and we are saving to buy our own home. If it weren’t for Wal-Mart’s cheap prices we wouldn’t be able to save at all. I am liberal in a lot of things but I really get ticked off when I see liberals who don’t seem to have any trouble shopping at Crate and Barrel telling me I shouldn’t shop at Wal-Mart.

Allison
Rosario, WA


Dear Allison,

While I agree with you that some people are a little insensitive and judgmental about preaching the anti-Wal-Mart gospel, there are many reasons to dislike how the retail giant operates. In the short term, “I don’t have much money, so I shop at Wal-Mart,” makes sense. But those opposing the economic model Wal-Mart has created understand the long-term consequences: “I shop at Wal-Mart, so I don’t have much money.” Participating in the ‘race to the bottom’ ultimately lowers wages for everyone working in the consumer goods manufacturing and retail sectors, feeds the job-exporting frenzy, and squeezes small owner-operated businesses out of existence.

However, it’s unfair to blame just Wal-Mart. The problem is widespread and pervasive, the effect of an economy reliant on an ever-accelerating cycle of consumption and corporate profits to maintain itself. By removing restraints like union bargaining power, higher tax rates on corporate profits, and regulations, we’ve let this cycle spiral out of control to where the health of the economy depends on constantly pushing labor costs downwards, resulting in far too many people who can’t afford to shop anywhere but at Wal-Mart.

The desire to succeed, to accrue wealth and acquire stuff, is normal and helps sustain human economies and societies. It’s a very powerful engine, but like anything with vast power, when it is out of control it can do terrible damage. Americans rely on stuff to an unhealthy degree, and our desire to make stuff, lots of stuff, available to everybody, has made us vulnerable to a form of consumer exploitation that is harming our country’s security, our resilience, and the very infrastructure that supports us. In valuing cheap consumer goods so highly, we have enabled a small minority of our fellow-citizens to own and control a huge percentage of our national wealth. And they, not unnaturally, use that wealth mainly for the personal benefit of themselves and their families.

And so we’ve started a cycle where those who control all that wealth and power use it to perpetuate the system that benefits them. They use the fantasy of ‘anyone can get rich, even you, and when you get rich you don’t want to be forced to use any of it to pay taxes or support the government, do you?’ And the soothing anodyne of cheap consumer goods to maintains a minimum comfort level even as they drain real wealth— economic security— from the rest of society. Devaluing and disempowering a government that was formed to protect everyone’s ability to benefit from the economy, they divert the resources that should be maintaining our infrastructure into military contracts and sweetheart deals that increase their profits.

The last time this spiral escalated out of control in our country it took some tremendous financial crashes and a long, hard, sometimes even bloody struggle to recalibrate the economy. What emerged wasn’t as efficient at creating vast fortunes of wealth for the few, but it did a better job of ensuring that large numbers of workers achieved some wealth— the power to acquire assets, retire comfortably, fund higher education for their children, and other investments that constituted real financial security. In the process, we built an infrastructure of transportation, public utilities, communications, and other vital elements that was the envy of the world.

It sounds as though you have healthy priorities for your family, Allison, and if saving to buy a house (an important investment in your family’s economic security) means that you have to shop at Wal-Mart for now, that may be the best trade-off you can manage. We are all caught in the escalating spiral of high profits and low wages. We will all suffer from the economic disasters this will ultimately produce, and we all have to make some compromises to survive. But while it can be counterproductive and insensitive to heap blame on each other for the choices we make, the anti-Wal-Mart activists have a grasp on the long-term priorities we all need to share. Wal-Mart is part of the problem, a large part, and shopping there does perpetuate it, even while it may be the best option available for some folks.

Please don’t lose sight of the fact that even while they may be irritating you with the apparent ‘liberal hypocrisy’ of condemning your choices while they have the means to make other choices, the anti-Wal-Mart activists are working to make the economic picture better for everyone, including you. Thanks for asking Auntie Pinko, Allison!