Is It Wal-Mart They Really Hate?
by John Reit (April 6, 2006)

Just when I think my admiration for the nation's number one retailer couldn't grow any more, Wal-Mart recently announced that it plans to build more than 50 stores in plighted urban neighborhoods over the next two years. All told, the expansion will create 15,000 to 25,000 jobs in these areas. Not surprisingly, the anti-Wal-Mart sites - wakeupwalmart.com, walmart-blows.com, walmartmovie.com, etc. - aren't mentioning the story. Am I surprised? Not at all. The fact is that in the mind of socialists, there is nothing good about Wal-Mart… or with what it represents.

Theoretically, these militant haters should go to the office of the retail giant's CEO and kiss his feet for providing so much opportunity to those who truly need it. Instead, they remain predictably silent. With the opening of a new Wal-Mart store, a liberal will not see the positives. They'll simply see: 1. a threat to local businesses, and 2. low paying jobs, with little or no health benefits, that the locals are "forced" to take and keep forever and ever. Let's examine each of these fears for a moment.

Hypothetically speaking, let's assume that Anytown, USA contains a mostly liberal population, and has 10 small Mom & Pop stores. Collectively, they don't even come close to sell the variety of brands and products that could be bought at one Wal-Mart. Each of these stores employs five people. That makes 50 people who are gainfully employed thanks to these businesses. There aren't a lot of jobs to go around in this small community. Thus, another 300 or 400 able-bodied but low-skilled workers are looking for employment - some are high school students looking to save money for college, housewives looking to earn some extra spending money, or yes, even the heads families who are ashamed to be collecting public assistance. However, in such a concentrated rural area, the options are few and far between.

Wal-Mart comes to town one day and announces it is planning to open up a store in the area. The majority of Anytown's liberal citizens initiate a petition to block the move. They've heard about Wal-Mart's unfair employment practices and ruination of local businesses and want no part of it. Eventually, the people get their way and Wal-Mart must look elsewhere. The people have won their moral victory. Fifty Mom and Pop employees have saved their jobs from the proverbial guillotine. However, those 300 to 400 unemployed citizens are still looking for jobs the next day.

Not only did 300 people miss out on these jobs, so did hundreds of others. When a company like Wal-Mart employs people in a small town who previously had little to no money, guess what happens? Other businesses come to town looking to separate those people from their newly earned capital. Those businesses need employees. Some of them will offer better pay and more benefits than Wal-Mart - and so turns the wheel of capitalism. But because principle became more important than people, this community will never experience that kind of prosperity and growth.

Let's look at the second liberal fear - low paying jobs with few benefits. This might sound cliché, but no one is forced to work at Wal-Mart. And no one is bound to that job for life if they decide to take it, just like no one must work at McDonald's or Burger King forever - both also pay what's considered a "low" wage. But let's look at a bigger issue; why are these jobs automatically considered in terms of "lifetime?"

A position that requires practically no skills pays a low wage because almost anyone can do them. If I have no skills and take a job at Wal-Mart as a stockperson, I don't have much leverage. I can get angry with management one day, quit, and they'll have my replacement the next day producing the exact same results. Now you could say that I was particularly punctual and never went over my break times. But that's a work ethic, not a skill. You're either a slacker, or you're not. The question then becomes not why doesn't Wal-Mart pay its employees more, but what can I do to increase my skills? That way, if I decide to leave my next employer, they might try to keep me because of what I offer.

The point is, a job as a Wal-Mart associate, or any other low-wage job, should not be considered one's future. It should be either a means to earn extra money, a way to keep one's self busy, or most important for a young unskilled laborer, a stepping-stone.

This mindset is what affects the urban culture most. Many members of this community turn to drugs, gangs, or government assistance because they don't view a job at Wal-Mart or McDonald's for what it should be - an opportunity. They do not see it as a temporary situation while they attend college and better their skills, which lead to better opportunity. With tunnel vision, they simply see a job that doesn't pay well. Thanks to the morals glorified by the MTV culture, young people believe they deserve a certain standard of living… and they deserve it right now. And a job at Wal-Mart will certainly not get them what they want when they want it.

If liberals really cared about the poor, they would start preaching this to the disillusioned youth rather than worry about what they view as unfair labor practices of Wal-Mart. The company should be touted as a small step toward better things instead of a barrier to what they "deserve."

But as always, it's principle, not the poor, that liberals really care about. They're more interested in attaining their perfect, classless society. They would rather everyone starve than have capitalism thrive. By its nature, capitalism is an imperfect system in which those who work hard prosper while those unwilling to produce are subject to fewer rewards. Those who embrace the values of the MTV culture are entitled to the exact same compensations as those who value the ideals of Adam Smith or Milton Friedman. The only viable solution to a liberal is an economy in which those who don't produce acquire the exact same standard of living as those who do - even if that means bringing the producers down.

Because Wal-Mart embodies everything that's right about the free market system, it is one of the largest barriers between liberals and their socialist Utopia. With blind optimism, I dream of a day when the voice of those who would rather see America fail will be silenced by people who understand that those who produce the wealth are the best chance the poor have - people who understand that companies like Wal-Mart are our salvation, not our problem.