Don't Blame Wal-Mart (gov regulation alert!)

nytimes.com ^ | 2/28/05 | ROBERT B. REICH

[paudio]

BOWING to intense pressure from neighborhood and labor groups, a real estate developer has just given up plans to include a Wal-Mart store in a mall in Queens, thereby blocking Wal-Mart's plan to open its first store in New York City. In the eyes of Wal-Mart's detractors, the Arkansas-based chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: it pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only $9.68 an hour, doesn't provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions, has a checkered history on labor law and turns main streets into ghost towns by sucking business away from small retailers.

But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

[paudio]

The early part is OK, until he suggests the 'way out'.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

What do you expect? Look who wrote the article!

[Racehorse]

As the cliche goes, even a broken clock tells the right time twice a day.

I only shop at Wal-Mart when there is absolutely, utterly, completely no other choice. And, there's one just a few miles down the road--dirty, shoddy and filled with cheap foreign goods.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Mr. Reich, Wal-Mart has done more to raise the standard-of-living of working class people than all government programs combined.

[GW and Twins Pawpaw]

I buy the bulk, but not all, of my groceries at Wally World because I get the same thing for less cost than at the pricier stores. I use a pharmacy from a 'pricier' store because I appreciate their customer service. Ain't America great? We have things available here to suit everyone's tastes!

[goldstategop]

For a liberal, Robert Reich is thoughtful. He makes a good discussion of the trade-offs between lower prices and higher wages and benefits. That's something few on the Left do. They blame Wal-mart as though what Wal-mart is doing is occuring in a vacuum. Reich points out that Wal-mart is simply responding to consumer demands for goods at affordable prices. Its not like they're holding a gun at people's heads and forcing them to shop there. If we want to strike a balance and have higher wages and benefits, we'll have to face the fact we'll have to pay what the market demands to provide them - namely pay more for the goods we buy so the workers at the retail stores are paid what we think they're worth. And that's the sort of discussion we need to be having. Reich's right; its easy for the Left to portray Wal-mart as a villain. They aren't.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[Loyal Buckeye]

I'm sure Wal-Mart would dispute many of Mr. Reiiiccchhh's "facts".

[Racehorse]

Ain't America great? We have things available here to suit everyone's tastes!

Yep.  Sure is.

But please, do carefully check the expiration date on those perishable items.  :-)

[paudio]

...filled with cheap foreign goods.

This is bad?

[goldstategop]

Read my last post. Wal-mart would cite Reich's article as proof that this the way people want things in this country. I look for goods that I can afford. When I travel by air, I look for the cheapest way to get to where I want to go. Yes, we've become a Wal-mart nation. We want affordability and that comes with a price. Its not like the government can legislate higher wages and benefits. They have to be paid for and a company must pass those costs on the consumer. Its an old truism of economics. As a fact, it may escape the notice of lazy liberal ideologues who are long on rhetoric and oblivious to reality but it hasn't escaped Reich's attention. He does get it.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[Racehorse]

I inherited my laptop from my dear sainted mother, and I plan to pass it on to my son!

Why not?  I passed along my TI94/A to my son years ago.  I suppose their babies will use it as a starter game machine.

[old and tired]

Reich says in the article that the average wage of a Wal-Mart worker $9.68 an hour? Is that the average salary of employees? Or is that what a "typical Wal-Mart worker" would earn?

[Loyal Buckeye]

I agree with your statements.

My posting was directed more to the "facts" Reich included in his article, such as ..."[Wal-Mart] doesn't provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions..."

I'm confident that these and other "facts" he cites would not stand up to scrutiny.

[Smartaleck]

"Mr. Reich, Wal-Mart has done more to raise the standard-of-living of working class people than all government programs combined."

Not to mention the many many people it employees which would be ....half if they were unionized?

[AmericanChef]

I just love that the writer thinks keeping unions out is a bad thing. If WalMart brought in union workers, they'd have to raise their prices or hire fewer people, plain and simple. How would either be a good thing?

[goldstategop]

Wal-mart does those things but they don't do them because all they want to do is make money. Its not as simple a picture as the one of the ruthless capitalist exploiting the oppressed worker. As even Reich admits, the picture is more complicated. But people who don't like Wal-mart will never sit down to hear the full truth.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[Coldwater Creek]

I don't know where you live, but Wal-Mart in my part of the country is wonderful, big, bright and clean. Almost everything that we purchase today is made out of the country ( which bothers me) but I can live with it to have goods that I can afford to buy on a limited income.

[Racehorse]

This is bad?

For some of us, yes.  Clearly, for many others it is not.  Like GW and Twins Pawpaw wrote, "Ain't America great? We have things available here to suit everyone's tastes!"

Depends on what you treasure, I suppose.

[Smartaleck]

"Why not? I passed along my TI94/A to my son years ago."

Is that like passing along an abacus rather than a $2.00 electronic calculator? LOL