Is Wal Mart good for America?

recently I saw this great PBS Frontline documentary about Wal Mart and the negative impact they have on the economy as a whole. It can be watched below.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl.../walmart/view/

They move in, sell things at a very reduced price, driving all competitors out of business and then raise the prices to whatever they want while paying peanuts to their workers.

On top of that they make sure most of their workers never work over 40 hours so they are considered part time and qualify for government health care even though they can darn well afford health care themselves.

And they do this through magic, right?

Geez...dont shop there then. If the majority wants walmart in their town, you've been outvoted. Welcome to democracy.

I will never understand this walmart Jihad that all the liberals seem to have started. They are delivering what people want. Why is that a bad thing?

They are partners with China who make most of their goods using slaves. No one can compete with slaves.

Another bad thing about them are their suppliers. Most suppliers in order to stay in business have to sell to Walmart. The very few things that Walmart has to buy from U.S. suppliers are very coveted contracts. Walmart knows they are in the drivers seat and tells these suppliers they cannot sell these goods to anyone else or at least must sell them at higher prices. Most of the time walmart tells them what they will pay them for the items. All that is supposed to be illegal but who enforces laws against big corporations anymore?

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If you like cheap slave made goods then fine but don't come around later bashing slavery when you yourself support it.

If it is that big of a deal, dont shop there. No extra laws necessary. Vote with your feet.

If you want to blame someone, blame the people that shop there. Walmart isnt any different from any other business. They are simply better capitalists than the competition.

Well, the place I'd start asking questions, is how much do they pay in taxes?

First off, if you Google on "Wal-Mart taxes" or "WalMart taxes", you'll quickly see a pattern emerging - every time Wal-Mart opens a new store, they "negotiate" for tax breaks from the local community. Here, check this search page: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=wal-mart+taxes

Maryland did an interesting thing, with respect to Wal-Mart, which you can read about here: http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/1385.html

Here's a rather amusing and whimsical piece: http://judicial-inc.biz/wal_mart_health_care.htm

Here's another noteworthy piece: http://reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/...rters_road.php

And finally, the Walton family has spent huge money on lobbying to repeal the federal estate tax (yes, they're one of the few people actually affected by it).

Does that answer your question?

Walmart isn't capitalists in any way, shape or form. They stack the deck against free competition. They are Communist or Fascist if anything. They are state approved and sponsored. We have monopoly laws that they ignore. They should have been broke up long ago. In fact there are many companies that need to be broke up.

It depends on what you mean by "good".

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