Learning to Love Wal-Mart
Its happened again – they've gone and opened up another Wal-Mart nearby. Since its the new year, and we're supposed to confess our past weaknesses and strive to do better this year, allow me to confess this: I'm learning to love Wal-Mart.
Rather, I love what Wal-Mart gives me - low prices. Although that ought to be enough to entice any consumer to devote most of his retail dollar to the nearest Wal-Mart store, the company has many other things to recommend it. It employs 1.3 million worldwide. It earns for its shareholders more than the entire GDP of Switzerland. It sells boxes of Corn Flakes for 56% less than the competition. In short, Wal-Mart is a force for good.
But if doomsayers are to be believed, Wal-Mart is destroying the American way of life. We've all head cries about “Wal-Mart-ization”. Big Box retail stores like Wal-Mart and Home Deopt are crushing competition from small local shops, replacing high wage - often union - jobs with minimum wage jobs, and supporting even cheaper "slave" labor abroad. Indeed, most of this is true. My only question is: what's the problem?
The problem is that few people are willing or able to grasp one of the most basic economic principles – no pain no gain. In a progressive, dynamic, and relatively free-market economy like ours there are winners and losers. The winners – if they are entreprenuers or companies – get rich and grow. If they are consumers and employees, they get cheaper, better products and services, and a higher wage and standard of living. The losing companies and their employees, of course, get nothing but a failed business and a pink slip, and a whole lot of bitterness at “cruel” competition.
This is precicely the story surrounding Wal-Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart has caused some pain, particularly by ruining smaller businesses that couldn't compete, and by importing most of its merchandise from China, which further reduces American employment. But isn't this what unemployment insurance is for? And job retraining? And the Small Business Administration? And the myriad other government support programs for displaced workers and failed entreprenuers? Why are these taxpayer-funded cushions not enough for the malcontented? We may never know.
The bright side of Wal-Mart - and it far outweighs the dark side – is that for every single malcontent, there are literally thousands of consumers benefiting enormously from Wal-Mart's chief value proposition – its low prices. Ask yourself, do you really want to live in a 1950s world where few families could afford TVs and nice appliances, and people brushed their teeth with baking soda? If not, you should thank heaven for companies like Wal-Mart and the economic progress they represent. All the trade union people, anti-globalization types, and intellectual and media elites want one thing – to halt that progress and make you poorer.
And as for your own New Year's Resolution – try letting go of that guilt you feel when you walk into Wal-Mart next time.