Great Wal of...Kentucky, or something.

I, as many of you know, proudly own and display a collection of eccentric (maybe plain weird is more accurate) t-shirts. The purpose of these shirts ranges from fishing for a laugh to referring to an inside joke to stating my beliefs. This August, lightning struck again.

Upon Googling “Walmart sucks boycott anti tshirt,” I found this: http://www.fatamerican.tv/shirtpage/sweat-shop.htm

While some people will giggle at my shirt, I take it very seriously. Anyone who knows me, even at a superficial level, finds out I do not shop at Wal-Mart, and more than casually protest when other people do.

I do not object to the American consumer buying goods at bargain prices. As Stephen Colbert puts it, he wants to “be able to pay just $1.95 for a twelve pack of tube socks.” Just as water seeks the lowest level, and electricity seeks that ground, consumers seek the lowest prices. And why wouldn’t they?

According to Wal-Mart spokewoman Sarah Clark, a working family could save $2,300 by shopping at Wal-Mart. I’m all for that. That’s great.

But, as Senator Byron Dorgan points out in his well-researched book Take this Job and Ship it, $2,300 “doesn’t go very far if Wal-Mart costs you your job, health benefits, and/or forces your local taxes higher.”

Dorgan is right. Yes, Wal-Mart has the cheapest prices around, but to say that the price of your two-gallon tub of reduced fat mayonnaise is the only factor that should influence your shopping is simplistic and unwise. Commercial purchases are complex, going far beyond the price tag into the ethical and macroeconomic spheres as well. Although Wal-Mart is good for shoppers, it is bad for American workers, and even worse for our country.

In 2005, Wal-Mart tallied $258 billion in sales (or $40 of purchases from every person on the planet). Wal-Mart is the biggest private employer in the USA, providing 1.2 million jobs (1.5 million globally). Americans has 3,000 American stores, and plans to open 1,000 more in the next five years.

This sheer corporate girth has never been seen as a good thing. Standard Oil and the railroad barons of the late 19th century were enemies of the public and the government, despite originally being deemed “convenient,” “money-saving,” and “signs of progress.” History proved that all three of these claims to be false, and it will do so again with Wal-Mart.

Is Wal-Mart a trust? A cornerer of the market? A monopoly in the making? Just about. Forget K-Mart and Target, Wal-Mart’s economic might is greater than 161 countries. Also, Wal-Mart is China’s eighth largest trading partner, just ahead of Russia, Canada, and Australia (the first largest, second largest, and sixth largest countries in the world, respectively). By 2007, it is predicted that Wal-Mart will control 35% of both the grocery and pharmacy industries.

Wal-Mart’s current power is nothing short of hazardous to our economy and the American way of life. How powerful is Wal-Mart? Well, when a store in Québec voted to join a union, instead of negotiating or bargaining with employees, Wal-Mart acted with absolution.

They closed the store.

Maybe the reason that Wal-Mart gives you smiley-face stickers when you go to their store is so you’ll ignore the frowns of entrapment and despair on the faces of their workers.

Some workers even got to have sleep-overs at Wal-Mart! In 2003, in a raid of 60 stores across 21 states, 245 illegal immigrants were found to be working for the company. Many of these workers slept in the backs of their stores (maybe that’s why your Wal-Mart sheets and pillow seemed already broken-in).

According to a UC-Berkeley study, Wal-Mart associates (euphemism for employees, it’s classier this way) earn 31% less than surrounding employers. These surrounding employers however, can do little to resist the retail giant.

For every Wal-Mart Supercenter that opens (1,400 nationwide), statistics show, two grocery stores close. Huffy Bicycles, an all-American brand, moved a factory of 900 workers to China to keep prices below Wal-Mart’s acceptable threshold. Etch-A-Sketch, who was ordered to keep prices under $10, had to move their Ohio factory of 200 to China. These two toys are now Chinese-made, and their employees were left without jobs. But they could skip on down to Wal-Mart and don that sharp blue smock, so all is well.

In total, 70% of Wal-Mart’s products are made in China. American companies cannot compete with sweatshop prices and American workers cannot compete with sweatshop wages. But, as Colbert points out, “If we have a permanent underclass working for sub-poverty wages, we won’t have to send our jobs away to the third world countries to stay competitive, we’ll have a third world country right here.”

The Democratic Staff of the committee on education and the workforce estimates that
a Wal-Mart of 200 employees costs federal taxpayers $420,750 a year in social welfare expenses. This is about $2,103 an employee (remember that number about saving $2,300?). Extrapolate this out over the 3,000 stores and 1.2 million dollar employees, and before you know it…there’s an extra, hidden tax on your tube socks, Stephen.

An internal Wal-Mart memo from 2005 stated that “46% of Associates children are either on Medicare or uninsured.” Wal-Mart’s health care plan requires a 35% employee contribution (more than double most major corporations) and thus, less than half of employees can afford the company plan. So we pay for it. Is this a sign of progress? Convenient? Money-saving? Or is this the same type of crap that we tried to stamp in the 1890s?

You know how I feel. Now suck it up and pay the extra dollar for those tube socks. Do the right thing.