Wal-Mart: Embodiment of the Capitalist Spirit

Everyone knows that Wal-Mart is one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the market – but just how much influence does Wal-Mart really have? Senior writer of Fast Company, Charles Fishman’s article, “The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know” discusses the extent to which Wal-Mart affects the capitalist system in America. My personal opinion of Wal-Mart is that I believe its size and influence is too great. When one corporation has so much influence that it can use the term of “competition” in order to further profits for themselves and pressure smaller companies and business to conform to their rules it boils down to an overlord playing with pawns on a chessboard. But while, Wal-Mart is closing down “Mom and Dad” stores due to their inability to compete – which proponents of Wal-Mart argue that is fair in the eyes of capitalism – the fact of the matter is that Wal-Mart presents jobs for those of us who were unable to qualify for high end jobs that require thousands and thousands of dollars to fuel a college education and for those who simply don’t fit into the capitalist society. Let’s face it, some of us are just …”weird” and can’t function well in certain environments. But the negatives outweigh the positives for me, with such power in the economy selling products earning 244.5 billion a year (Ackley 535) and with that being a relatively old piece of information, who knows how much Wal-Mart’s profits are. What struck me as the most outrage was a statement by an executive Paul Kelly, “‘If Wal-Mart takes something the wrong way, it’s like Saddam Hussein. You don’t want to piss them off,’” an example of the extent how much Wal-Mart has its partners in leash and cage. Ultimately, things are going fine the way as it is now (on second thought, maybe not with the recession) but sooner or later I believe one of two things will happen: either Wal-Mart will have to face massive government regulations and its power will be toppled, or Wal-Mart will grow unchecked through loopholes and government head turning and become a monopoly – a repeat of history in America.