Wal*Mart blesses individuals, kills communities
"academics estimate a new Wal-Mart eliminates a job and a half for every job it creates."
"taxpayers are covering the health care costs of uninsured Wal-Mart workers and buying school lunches for their children."
"counties with Wal-Marts have grown poorer than surrounding counties, and the more Wal-Marts they had, the faster they grew poor."
Wal-Mart has transferred American jobs abroad, and sponsored sweatshops around the world.
In other words, communities suffer a leeched economy, but individuals benefit from lower prices. Always.
From Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
Another reason to buy local.
"taxpayers are covering the health care costs of uninsured Wal-Mart workers and buying school lunches for their children."
"counties with Wal-Marts have grown poorer than surrounding counties, and the more Wal-Marts they had, the faster they grew poor."
Wal-Mart has transferred American jobs abroad, and sponsored sweatshops around the world.
In other words, communities suffer a leeched economy, but individuals benefit from lower prices. Always.
From Deep Economy by Bill McKibben
Another reason to buy local.
Is Target any better than WalMart? Our Targets and I think Target in general is a lot nicer, they build in nicer neighborhoods and they attract...ahem...nicer (cleaner, richer, etc) people. Any info on that? Our Target also sells lots of local brands. Just a wonderment I guess.
ReplyDeleteI've heard that Target doesn't kill small towns. I think they fall into some of the same traps, though.
ReplyDeleteThis article says that they are pretty much the same:
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13508
The key is to try to buy locally. Food would be the most important thing to buy locally. Local food is better for your health, better for the environment, and better for national security.
Buying other things locally is almost impossible, (Wendell Berry says that our nation doesn't even know how to make a pair of shoes), but I think it could make a comeback.
If Target sells local items, that is a step in the right direction.
If you happen to live next to a multinational corporation, (you mentioned you lived by a large tomato grower), that is not your local farmer. They are multinational. The owner does not live in or care about your community.
Locally produced items are more expensive, because they weren't made by slaves.