Walmart and Capitalism

Support your friends and neighbors and local businesses.

You are not a clone, so why shop at one?

"The High Cost of Low Prices"

A film by Robert Greenwald

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Walmart Blog

Capitalism

"Capitalism arose from industrialism without any particular framework or values. It was sometimes given lofty virtues by observers, much as conservatives do to this day, but social and environmental values were never intrinsic. Capitalism simply emerged.
No one said, wouldn't it be cool to have a juggernaut economy of unprecedented productive capacity that destroys the capacity of every living system on Earth, where over 90 percent of the world's wealth would be concentrated in the hands of 2 percent of the people, and the other 98 percent wouldn't mind because they were being anesthesized by shopping or the eventual prospect of having more material goods.
My comment that capitalism might be a good idea is a rhetorical jab at the extreme internal contradictions of the present system. It is, in Hazel Henderson's words, a system where the divine rights of kings have been replaced by the divine rights of capital (money)".

"I am certain of only one thing; that business as we know it is destroying the Earth including all cultures and living systems, and never before has there been a system so ubiquitous, so destructive, and so well managed. It is our creation."

"Our goal has been money - period. We got it. ...

So the good news is that when Americans set a goal, they usually achieve it. The problem is that we set such petty goals."

Paul Hawken, "YES" magazine, Summer, 1999, "Corporate Futures", pg 40.

Thom Hartmann

| Stop Them From Eating My Town

In Chapter 3 of Thom Hartmann's "Rebooting the American Dream" (serialized exclusively on Truthout), the author looks at how chain stores run by "corporate Godzillas" are crowding out local businesses and endangering communities. He offers proven recommendations - from elsewhere in the world and from this country's past - to encourage entrepreneurship, keep small businesses healthy and stop giant corporations from "eating your town next"!

The Shils Report
Study done by Edward Shils, PhD - Wharton Entrepreneurial Center of The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. This report is the basis for many of the other studies quoted in the "Bigger Boxes"program. This report provides an "evidentiary basis for making antitrust claims against the superstore chains for unlawful destruction of the town and small businesses."

New Rules
Why NEW RULES? Because the old ones don't work any longer. They undermine local economies, subvert democracy, weaken our sense of community, and ignore the costs of our decisions on the next generation.
All human societies are governed by rules. We make the rules and the rules make us. Thus, the heart of this web site is a growing storehouse of community and local economy-building rules - laws, regulations, and ordinances - because these are the concrete expression of our values. They channel entrepreneurial energy and investment capital and scientific genius. The New Rules Project identifies rules that honor a sense of place and prize rootedness, continuity and stability as well as innovation and enterprise.

As You Sow.....

Wal-Mart vs. Women

Walmart Watch
Keeping an eye on the largestretailer in the world.

Storewars on PBS

LA Times Story on Wal-Mart
A good series in the Los Angles Times "The Walmart Effect" with many
detailed facts about Walmart huge impact on the economy of the USA
and local communities. They focus on the effort of Walmart in Las
Vegas, Nevada and now Walmart's efforts to move into the California
market, both of which are being strongly opposed by union organizers.

Pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart (BOYCOTT) and to ask your friends
and families not to buy from Wal-Mart until the chain:
*Pays its one million workers a living wage
*Provides affordable health insurance to its employees
*Stops discriminating against women
*Stops attacking employees who want to be represented by a union
*Ceases forcing unpaid overtime on its employees
*Stops pressuring suppliers to lower their labor costs.

Walmart Class Action Website
Non-profit public interest and women's legal groups, along with nationally respected private employee rights law firms, have filed a class action suit against Wal-Mart (including Sam's Clubs) charging that Wal-Mart discriminates against women in promotions, jobs assignments, training, and pay throughout the United States.