# Walmart - Good or bad for America?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/331197>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 15, 2005, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/331197 "2005-11-15T19:13:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/331197/81 "2005-11-21T20:20:57Z")

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> [@DoctorJ](#):
>
> The employees of those smaller stores are probably getting minimum wage with little to no benefits, so it would be hard to argue that those at Wal-Mart are worse off. It’s unfortunate that it takes money out of the community, but in a place that produces no retail goods at all, that’s bound to happen anyway.

One difference- there are owners. A town with twenty mom’n’pops may have forty minimum wage workers, but they’ve also got twenty owners buying nice houses, donating to the volunteer firehouse and otherwise enriching the community- they know their livlihood relies on the community. Additionally, each of those employees stands a good chance of being a business owner on day. The whole “work hard, learn all you can, and one day you’ll own a business of your own” thing really works in this model.

In the Wallmart model, you’ve got fifty-five people working for minimum wage and maybe five in managment positions. WalMart makes it a policy that manager must be willing to change stores frequently. These managers are no longer invested in the community and unlikely to get involved in civic things. Also, nobody expects to some day own WalMart. You’ve killed the American dream in one town.

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**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/331197/82 "2005-11-21T20:55:15Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> You’ve killed the American dream in one town.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

As long as the idiots define the American Dream to be the ownership of a _retail_ outfit and a retail outfit only, then yeah. :rolleyes:

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2005, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/walmart-good-or-bad-for-america/331197/83 "2005-11-21T20:59:08Z")

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> [@JohnT](#):
>
> :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
> 
> As long as the idiots define the American Dream to be the ownership of a _retail_ outfit and a retail outfit only, then yeah. :rolleyes:

Well, you’ve probably also killed any wholesale or manufacturing outlet.

So, you’re stuck with services.

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