What’s good for Wal-Mart is good for America?

[flashl]

Wal-Mart: The New Washington

OBAMA, Clinton, McCain, Romney ... Wal-Mart?

The nation’s largest private employer sure sounds like it’s running for president these days.

It’s making sweeping commitments to reduce America’s energy use and improve its health care system. It’s obsessively polling voters, boasting of a higher favorability rating than Congress. It’s even touting an “economic stimulus plan for American shoppers” in the form of steep price cuts made last week. (Four 12-packs of Pepsi? $10.)

That last one may be slightly tongue in cheek — even discount retailers have a sense of humor — but the bigger message is not: after years of running afoul of the United States government on labor and environmental issues, Wal-Mart now aspires to be like the government, bursting through political logjams and offering big-picture solutions to intractable problems.

...

Not everyone, however, is convinced that what’s good for Wal-Mart is good for America. Critics still contend that, because of its enormous size, the retailer’s low-price business model has depressed wages and exported manufacturing jobs overseas, hurting Americans as much as helping them.

NY Times

[angrycarpenter]

1. If they really cared

They would pay their employees well. And Maybe start a made in America store brand and put some people back to work. I know I would pay more for an American made product if only that option was available. I know they should stop pressuring American companies to sell ever cheaper. They have the power to start us back making our own products here.