Walmart
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 11/20/2004 - 12:09
Over at useless and pointless knowledgefound via Blog Explosion, they have a survey which asks if Wal-Mart is:
A) A monster of mythic proportions crushing the soul out of honest, hard-working, store-owning Americans everywhere,
or,
B) The product of hard work in a competitive market and a poster-child for capitalism.
One person commented, "I refer to Wal-mart as the great Satan." Another responded, "the great Satan? buddy, you need to re-evaluate your perception of ultimate evil. Hitler? Stalin? Lenin? Polpot? Is all their combined wickedness overshadowed by a floating yellow dot that really only wants to save you money on a dvd player?"
In terms of reframing discussions, I put this up as a comment:
"Wal-mart is:
The product of hard work in a competitive market and a poster-child for capitalism... gone amuck... destroying local businesses, using horrible employment policies... and ultimately turning into A monster of mythic proportions crushing the soul out of honest, hard-working, store-owning Americans everywhere,.
Is it the great Satan? Perhaps. It is easy to see the evils of Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, and Polpot. However, the real evils come in friendly guises. They promote greed and materialism over love of God and love of one's neighbor."
Walmart sucks
Submitted by Anonymous on Sat, 11/20/2004 - 14:34.I think the second commentor underestimates the evil that is Walmart. I do not think of it as the "ultimate evil" but it definitely does its part. Aside from the fact that they have been exposed for egregious labor violations, they manufacture products that are cheap and shitty, which takes advantage of poor people. Those who are generally already struggling to make ends meet tend to shop at Walmart and buy their crappily made products for cheap and when the shoddy shit breaks, falls apart or ceases to function altogether, not terribly long after purchase, the poor person/family who purchased this crap is forced to buy a replacement. In the long run, this costs people a lot more money. People who can't afford it. It's such a scam. And I think those things are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this particular corporation. But they certainly wouldn't be the only ones. I do try not to give my money to these kinds of corporations. For the record though, Target IS better. The quality of their products is much higher, and I generally consider them to be less nefarious than Walmart on the corporate scale.
Maria
www.bybeautydamned.net
(Not so) Useless and Pointless Debate
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 11/22/2004 - 16:34.When I posted the survey, I certainly did not expect to get the reaction that I've seen. It has gone on to be a 19 post debate on the good and evil inherent in the Wal-Mart corporation and the Walton family. So far the post has gotten 19 comments, which is by far a record at Useless and Pointless Knowledge.
Anyhow, thank you for visiting, and I hope that you come back. Thank you also for the kind words and link on you blog, and for your insight into the matter of Wal-Mart ethics.
Luke @ Useless and Pointless Knowledge.
wal mart
Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 11/26/2004 - 18:28.i'm not a big box kinda guy...heck i'm not much of a consumer at all but the person who said "you need to re-evaluate your perception of ultimate evil. Hitler? Stalin? Lenin? Polpot? Is all their combined wickedness overshadowed by a floating yellow dot that really only wants to save you money on a dvd player?" makes a pretty good point.
makes for interesting reading as i bop from site to site