Tired of Wal-Mart haters!

I am taking an Introduction to Politics class this semester (had class this evening in fact) and I am so sick of hearing negative comments about Wal-Mart (in reference to globalization). People randomly spout off obscene facts regarding employment practices, benefit and salary information, and the community impact of this behemoth organization. I actually like the company and just wish that I had "bought in" back when all the Waltons did - only to become billionaires.

Unfortunately, my ignorance or lack of factual information prevented me from countering a lot of the crazy facts people came up with to prove how Wal-Mart is corrupting the world. Well that's changed. I sat down to read Sunday's newspaper (yeah I know today is Wednesday) and there was a guest commentary in the editorial section from our local Sam's Club General Manager. Wally Amerson did a good job of countering the negative propaganda that is obviously running rampant through some circles, especially the overly liberal and excessively vocal young adult age group (18-30). He cited walmartfacts.com as a source for a lot of his statistics. Both links that I provided are worth at least looking at - if you can spend time looking for all the things that Wal-Mart does wrong, at least take a minute to look at things from their perspective. Amerson mentions in his oped that a lot of this propaganda is propagated by unions and this actually makes a lot of sense. Unions are actually organizations that collect dues from their members. Imagine if a union was successful at unionizing Wal-Mart employees. That right there spells plenty of motivation for ruthless tactics aimed to undermine the integrity of a corporation in the public eye.

Needless to say - I won't stop shopping at Wal-Mart. Everyone talks about globalization as if it is something yet to come. I believe that it is here and any attempt to turn it around would end up crippling the global economy. If anti-WalMart-ers want to hold up Wal-Mart as the example of what globalization "has done" - I could only hope that all global corporations are run as successfully as Wal-Mart. If you feel like you are missing out and that Wal-Mart is taking all the jobs and only making the rich richer - well buy some Wal-Mart stock and put a sock in it!

The rich get richer because they are smart with money and usually pass on this socially and economically valuable skill to future generations. Likewise, the poor get poorer because they are not smart with money and manage it irresponsibly, also passing on their mismanagement skills to future generations. If you don't like your economic status, educate yourself and aim to do better - don't blame it on other people, businesses, cities, states, federal government, and please, stop blaming Wal-Mart!