The New Age of Wal-Mart

Such a blatantly biased news story can hardly be taken seriously as a piece of investigative journalism. The audience should be left to judge for themselves whether Wal-Mart is too big for the United States' or global economies instead of being led to conclusions by targeted negative constructions and choice of musical composition. However, after watching this reverse-infomercial for the second time, I still believe Wal-Mart is a responsible corporation and I still disagree with the story's ridiculous bias and attack on capitalism itself.

Many complaints about Wal-Mart rise from concerns about associates' wages and benefits. Although most consumers applaud Wal-Mart for cutting costs to provide a good product at low cost, many end their support of such a system when the workforce is streamlined for efficiency. Not entering any illogical realm of corporate responsibility and altruism, the workforce is simply another factor that determines the supply cost and in turn the end cost for the consumer. If workers in any industry demand higher prices through unions or other means and there is qualified labor overseas willing to work for less, then any responsible capitalist corporation should choose to delegate labor overseas. Their responsibility to the market is to provide for the consumer at the best value possible. However, when associates of the company do not abide by such rules, they drive labor overseas, increase the price of commodities, and therefore increase the cost of living, making it harder for low-income consumers like themselves to subside on an equivalent income.

When Wal-Mart was blamed for giving workers low wages and poor benefits, the program went on to explain that Wal-Mart is still the best example of capitalism today. After bashing Wal-Mart with what must only loosely be called a piece of journalism, CNBC went on to relate Wal-Mart directly to capitalism, attacking capitalism as a whole. My support of Wal-Mart relies on support of capitalism, which is one of the easiest ideologies to defend. Capitalism maintains low prices for consumers through efficient trade and competition. Any complaint of extreme low incomes because of capitalism is unfounded because of the extreme low prices of commodities provided by it, making contributing members of society able to afford a living.

This news piece on Wal-Mart is not only poorly and unfairly presented, but even the simple ideals behind its bias are completely skewed. Not only is this program an attack on Wal-Mart, but it is an attack on capitalism and American society as a whole. Although I did not mind watching this video once more for comedic value, I am simply disgusted by such infantile and unfounded attacks on American capitalism. Frankly, I will not stand to hear David Faber bash the United States of America. Wal-Mart is a corporation founded on providing necessary goods to the consumer for the most competitive prices. The least we as a society can do is to support such a system and not force originally domestic labor overseas, raising prices and hurting the American workforce. Wal-Mart has held up its end of the deal, if we want to thrive on the success of Wal-Mart and capitalism as a whole, all that American society has to do is continue to participate and realize the significance and benefits of Wal-Mart.