Wal Mart Options

[sixfive]

Wal-Mart is often seen as a microcosm of the globalization process. Using its enormous retailing power it has been able to provide an array of consumer goods at rock bottom prices. However, it has also been widely criticized for paying low wages, a lack of adequate benefits, and driving small retailers out of business. So too, Globalization has been praised for lifting millions of people from poverty in China and India, but denounced for failing to improve the lot of most of the world’s poor, undermining living standards in developed countries as industries have migrated overseas to exploit low wage labor, and for unleashing industrial developments that have damaged the global environment. Do you believe that the impact of WalMart and the larger process of Globalization has been largely positive or negative?

[sixfive]

my fluffed up post for mandatory school discussion board to make look longer and essay structured:


The United States is undoubtedly a nation of consumption. Two-thirds of the GDP comes from consumption, and companies like Wal-Mart have been of assistance to this. Wal-Mart is an American corporate giant. It's been long debated whether or not Wal-Mart is good for the economy or bad for the ecnoomy. While they help the developing world develop and the American household get more for cheaper, it also puts a lot of Americans out of business. But is that necessarily a bad thing?

Wal-Mart has become the store where you can buy almost anything you need for cheap. This would be attractive to anyone in any situation, so as long as they're selling for more than it costs to make, everyone will benefit from this. Instead of making multiple trips to multiple locations, you can just stop at Wal-Mart, and seeing how big and common Wal-Mart has become, it's typically a very convenient trip to make. Aside from benefiting the American household, it benefits all those around the world, notably China. It buys a good deal of goods from China, giving the Chinese people a lot of business and economic stimulation they would not have had previously.

On the flip side, what about all the Americans who go out of business due to Wal-Mart? They simply can't compete with the Wal-Mart level prices and availability. They go out of business, and we have more unemployed Americans. This looks bad, but it isn't all grim and doom. There's an economic theory which for the life of me I can't seem to remember the name of, but it basically states that todays jobs are being destroyed and outsourced in order for past holders of those jobs to train for a job that has not been created yet. This is a cycle that must be seen positively. If everyone gets stuck doing the same thing, there won't be any progression. Wal-Mart is bringing the rest of the world up progressively, and we must take a step ahead and continue to create more skilled jobs with higher benefits, pay, and output.

I think overall Wal-Mart is something that puts weaker businesses out of business, while the stronger ones flourish. Weaker business either have to adjust or go to something new they're better at, or attain a higher level of skill through higher learning institutions. Bad things now may turn into good things later, and I believe that Wal-Mart, whether they saw it coming or not, is responsible for future innovation.