Wal-Mart: A Story of Corporate Power Destroying Common Good

Is Wal-Mart beneficial for America ? Many Americans say no, Wal-Mart is not good for America. However, many more say that the low prices Wal-Mart delivers are convenient for so many Americans. What started as an "all American" retail store has turned into a multi-national corporation. Traces of Wal-Mart can be found in almost every country around the world. Wal-Mart is becoming extremely powerful and even controls most of the producer market in America . Its power and extent make Wal-Mart a very controversial subject. Many people want "high-quality" goods at an affordable price. However, Wal-Mart destroys the U.S. economy, ruins the environment, and treats its workers horribly.

Wal-Mart is disastrous in America . When a Wal-Mart enters a small community "the number of small retailers (fewer than twenty employees) falls" (Fishman, 2006b, p. 144). They go out of business. The smaller businesses have no chance of competing with a superpower corporation like Wal-Mart. When smaller businesses die out, employees are fired and left jobless. Eventually, people have no choice but to shop at Wal-Mart. When local businesses go out of business, their local owners are also left broke. Since Wal-Mart becomes the only available business to shop at, people cannot shop locally. When people don't shop locally, the money does not stay within the boundaries of the county but is instead transferred all over the world. When money leaves the community, the economy decreases and Wal-Mart becomes more powerful. Super Wal-Mart is even more powerful decreasing the number of sales from national businesses such as Safeway and Albertsons. When a super Wal-Mart enters a community, people start to shop there because of its convenience and super lower prices. In one study Wal-Mart has caused a "supermarket [to loose] 17 percent of its sales" (Fishman, 2006b, p. 159). When super markets loose 17 percent of their sales, people are laid off. The government then has to pay for the individual's unemployment salary. On top of all that Wal-Mart outsources to other countries creating job losses here in America . Thus Wal-Mart causes the government, company, and individual to all loose money. Wal-Mart's low prices ruin the economy on the local scale and national scale.

Wal-Mart also destroys the environment. Many of the products Wal-Mart sells are made in other countries such as China and Bangladesh. After the products are made they are then shipped to the U.S. using boats. Boats, like most other vehicles, run off of oil. Wal-Mart uses tons of oil every time a boat is shipped to America . Not only does this waste our fuel sources, it also is disastrous for the atmosphere. When the fuel is burned,carbon dioxide is formed, blocking heat from escaping the ozone, and thus contributing to global warming. Global warming is one of the biggest problems of the 21^st century and Wal-Mart is making it even worse. Not only is it wasting fuel, ruining the atmosphere, but it also contributes to theoccasional oil spills that occur all over the world. The oil spill then kills so many species of marine wild life. Wal-Mart is not helping America. They are destroying our environment, ruining the natural flow of the world.

Even though Wal-Mart is becoming more "green" it still destroys the environment (Snider, 2008, p. 8). "They use environmentalists as tokens to shield themselves from criticism" says Al Norman, head of a project called "Wal-Busters" (Snider, 2008, p. 8). Wal-Mart tries to shield themselves from true environmental reform but the public can still find Wal-Mart toys enlaced with lead. Wal-Mart does not care about the environment, they are just trying to make a profit with environmental groups off their backs.

Their aquaculture practices are even in question. They breed salmon at a very high concentration. The "salmon feces and food pellets are stripping the water of oxygen, killing other marine life and spreading disease" (Barrionuevo, 2008, p. 2). Due to Wal-Mart's malpractices, many other species of fish and marine life are dying out, especially off the coast of Chile, where most of their fishing farms are located. The salmon aren't even of high quality; they are laced with tons of antibiotics. These antibiotics have been known to cause cancer and diseases within humans. Wal-Mart does not care about the public or the public good. They only care about money, and thus Wal-Mart is destroying the environment and creating health problems.

Who even makes the products that so many people buy from Wal-Mart? The same people who will never even be able to afford Wal-Mart's "low prices." They come from all over the world, especially Asia . Wal-Mart does not want pay their workers. They want free labor and that is virtually what they get. In Bangladesh , a former Wal-Mart factory worker, Robina Akther only made "13 cents an hour- fourteen hours of work a day, $26.98 a month" (Fishman, 2006a, p. 185). In America , the federal minimum wage is $ 7.25 an hour. That is more than she would make in one day. She also had to work a fourteen hour day with no overtime, which is very illegal here in the United States . However, since Wal-Mart employees factory workers in Asia, they do not have to obey by the rules of the U.S. But, Wal-Mart does not even obey by the rules of other countries. Robina Akther "was not even provided with the basic wages, overtime pay, and protection from physical abuse that Bangladeshi law provides" (Fishman, 2006a, p. 186). Wal-Mart has absolutely no respect for humans or other countries. It solely cares about money. When they treat workers horribly, they make more money. When they disobey national laws, they make more money.
Wal-Mart destroys the U.S. economy by destroying local business and even other national businesses. It ruins the environment, by puttingcarbon dioxide into the atmosphere and ruining ecosystems. Wal-Mart even treats its workers horribly. They are overworked and underpaid. What good does Wal-Mart do? They provide low prices at the extent of outsourcing our jobs, destroying local businesses, decreasing the national economy, ridding universal human rights, contributing to global warming, ruining marine habitats, creating human health problems, providing lead enlaced toys, and disobeying laws of other countries. What do you think? Is Wal-Mart Good for America ?

Works Cited
Barrionuevo, A. (2008, March 27). Virus kills Chile's salmon and indicts its fishing methods. The New York Times, p. A6+

Fishman, C. (2006). Salmon, shirts, and the meaning of low prices. In The Wal-Mart effect: How the world's most powerful company reallyworks- and how it's transforming the American economy (pp. 167-195). New York: Penguin Press.

Fishman, C. (2006). What do we actually know about Wal-Mart? In The Wal-Mart effect: How the world's most powerful company reallyworks- and how it's transforming the American economy (pp. 167-195). New York: Penguin Press.

Snider, B. (2008, January 6). Werbach at Wal-Mart? SFGate.com.