Essay About Wal-Mart And Cato Institute

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Wal-Mart is not bad for Americas economy.
When I ask myself the question if I believe Wal-Mart is good or bad for America, many different ideas come to mind. I think that Wal-Mart is entitled to do business in any manner that they please. We have established a country purely based on entrepreneurship, whether it be selling goods that have been imported from China or selling lemonade on a street corner. Americans have the ability to conduct business in many different forms, as long as certain rules are obeyed and taxes are paid. When it comes to Wal-Mart specifically, I think that they are good for America. According to the CATO Institute, “100 million people who go to Wal-Mart every week. Those people go there because they think they can get a better deal there than anywhere else.” If a business is providing products at a lower cost and the consumers are happy, than I believe that it is good for America. When people start talking about China taking our jobs, I would have to say that I disagree. China may be taking a few jobs from America, but I think that one result of this is that other jobs are being created. This is a point that the CATO Institute made which I agree with. They said that since Americans are saving money on goods, it causes consumers to spend that money in other places which in turn creates more jobs in different areas of business. Lichtenstein uses a comparison between Wal-Mart and the GM models. I think that this is a poor comparison. Labor unions in the United States have created artificially high wages and set the standard way to high. As a result, products tend to cost more to make up for the labor expense. Also, I do not think it is fair that a high school graduate working at GM can make $90,000 and the average college graduate is making a measly $30,000 salary. I think that Wal-Mart may be more beneficial in lowering this high wage standard