Employee

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

In the month of October 2012 the unemployment rate rose to 7.9 percent (Bradford, 2012, para. 2). Some would argue that one of the causes to the high unemployment rate is caused by American jobs being shipped over seas. The PBS Frontline special on Wal-Mart in 2004 sheds light on the company’s core business practices that have evolved it into a corporate juggernaut. It seems Wal-Mart has learned how to converge information technology and the expansion of global workers into a generator of cash flow. The special focuses on how Wal-Mart’s non-negotiable bargaining power over manufacturers has caused shift on cheap labor manufacturing practices based on American consumer’s never-ending desire to consume at a bargain price.

In the 1990s, trade agreements were signed between the U.S. and China, which opened an untapped market of 1.2 billion people as an enormous source for producing American-made goods (Frontline, 2004, para. 8). The cost-effective Chinese labor force has proved invaluable to Wal-Mart’s business model. Although, some experts would say Wal-Mart’s low prices have caused “a clash between the interests of Americans as workers and the desires of Americans as consumers” (Frontline, 2004, para. 13). At the Economic Policy Institute, economist Larry Mishel believes “the dynamics that create lower prices at Wal-Mart and other places are also undercutting the ability of many, many workers to earn decent wages and benefits and have a stable life” (Frontline, 2003, para. 14). Another argument is Wal-Mart is doing exactly what American consumers want and expect. They want and expect to pay low prices without sacrificing quality in their consumer products.

In 2008, a study concluded by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, learned that between 1985 and 2003, there were 89 counties showing personal income, overall employment and retail employment grew faster when a county had a Wal-Mart inside its area (Van Riper, 2008, para....