Week 13: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

I think there are pluses and minuses to Wal-Mart.  The pluses include creating jobs for Americans at the stores that they open and having low prices that most people can afford.  The minuses include hurting manufacturers by telling them how and what to sell and taking away factory jobs for many Americans in order to get cheaper goods overseas. 

I do not think that we can only blame Wal-Mart for these problems of leaving Americans without jobs because many other companies do the exact same thing.  I do not understand a lot about economics but I do understand that America is about producing goods that consumers want at competitive prices.  America has a higher minimum wage than other places.  Companies have to pay American workers more money.  That means that they have to charge consumers more for a product in order to make a profit.  That ultimately leads to giving those factory jobs to workers in other countries that take much lower wages.  For the standpoint of the company it makes more sense because they save on production, get to sell their products for less, sell more, and make a bigger profit.  However, we seem to forget who that really ends up hurting.  It ends up hurting Americans.  I would like to see a bigger push for things to be made in America.  Yes, that would mean paying a little more for a product but I know it would be quality and it would mean that someone in America has a job. 

It would be nice to see an American company get back its values to help Americans.  Everyone is so driven by profit that we forget to take care of our own first.  I do not think that we can place all the blame on Wal-Mart but it is the biggest retailer in America.  I think about all those jobs that Americans would have if they would bring factory jobs back here and it makes me sad that they are only concerned with making money.  There are plenty of companies out there that could hire American workers instead of foreign ones.  I think the good that Wal-Mart brings to America is outweighed by the negatives that it brings.