Wal-Mart and its Affect on the American Economy

Wal-Mart has been a huge debate subject in the news since it began to pop up in large quantities across the entire United States. The majority of that conversation focused on the negative impacts that Wal-Mart has on the communities and economies in which its super stores are located. Richard Vedder and Wendell Cox take a different approach and while they recognizes the downfalls and negative impacts that Wal-Mart can have, he focuses more on proving that the positives that Wal-Mart has on economies and communities outweigh those negatives.

The main criticisms of Wal-Mart involve: low labor compensation, loss of jobs, impact on competitors and communities, contributing to the trade deficit, as well as insensitivity to the environment. Wal-Mart has been publically accused for its mistreatment of workers, these claims mainly including low wages and lack of benefits. Critics argue that these force Wal-Mart employees to rely on public assistance programs, making the local economy worse off than before. It is also argued that this carries over to other stores who are forced to compete with Wal-Mart and lower their own worker’s wages and benefits in response, thus making the impact even larger. Another major criticism of the Wal-Mart superstores is that they cause local companies to go out of business because they do not have the necessary resources to be able to compete with Wal-Mart’s everyday low prices. As a result, the workers that were employed by these local companies become unemployed, thus having a negative affect on the particular local economy in which the Wal-Mart moves into. In addition, Wal-Mart opposers state that since Wal-Mart imports a lot of the goods in which it sells, that they are directly contributing to the cou...

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...er, ultimately improving the consumer’s quality of life.

There have been many criticisms and outrages about Wal-Mart and its growing presence, as many people who oppose the company believe it brings nothing but negative outcomes to communities and economies around the United States. This claim is not true as Wal-Mart may have some downfalls and unintended negative effects but overall proves to have a positive affect on the economy of the United States as a whole. Wal-Mart pays its employees comparable rates, gives them comparable benefits, has little to no effect on surrounding small businesses (often times even having positive effects), does not play a negative role in the unemployment problem in the U.S., and provides communities with employment, access to cheap goods, and provides low income consumers with the opportunity to increase their quality of life.