So this is going to be another psudo-political rant.
I just watched Is Wal-Mart Good for America on PBS. It's really interesting, (you should click that link, and you can watch the whole thing online). However, it is extreemly biased. They don't even really make an attempt to show the positive things that Wal-Mart has done. Wal-Mart has helped create revenue by providing jobs and by providing products at a low price - which also lowers the cost of living for lower/middle class Americans, putting more money in their pockets and in the market.
A big part of the documentary was about how Wal-Mart buys most of its products from China. However, what one must consider is that in the 90's, Wal-Mart started slipping a lot. In fact, it was on a downward decline. Their only way of keeping afloat was to go to China when Clinton opened up trade. Imagine if Wal-Mart had not done that. If the trend had continued, they would have gone under. If Wal-Mart went under, our market would have suffered an extreem blow that would have been hard to recover from. Wal-Mart is doing what is best for them, and as a result America profits.
Now I'm not saying Wal-Mart is perfect, or that their business conduct is always acceptable. I'm simply saying that there are two sides to everything, it's not pure evil as this documentary may have you believe. They are playing the market, like any company or business, and since they are sucessful, it's easy to point out their flaws. Now, they may not always play by the rules sometimes, but they're not pure evil.
On a slightly similar note: China, as you may recall, is a Communist country. However, we have open trade with them. Cuba is Communist, and yet we have an embargo on them...because they're Communist. Does this make sense to anyone else? The US embargo on Cuba is just stupid, and hurts both countries. How is it that after all these years our nation can't realize that free and open trade is GOOD and helps our economy and other countries?
Today's moral is: Think Libertarian.
oh, and here's today's photo:
Despite some gramatic trouble, I think it's a good message.
