WalMart Are They Socially Responsible

10 Pages 2561 Words

they cannot truly stay as a private organisation. By its very existence and competitive success, it rezones cities, determines the real minimum wage, channels capital throughout the world and conducts a kind of international diplomacy with a range of nations.

He likens Wal-Mart to General Motors claiming that was the last time a U.S. corporation had such power, which was 50 years ago. General Motors was the largest and most profitable U.S. corporation. It was a major player in many areas from aircraft production to household appliances and the GM Acceptance Corporation was by far the largest retail credit institution in the United States. Like Wal-Mart today, GM had no competition that could threaten its dominance. GM's sales at the time amounted to about 2% of U.S. GDP — which is just about where Wal-Mart stands today. (Lichtenstein, 2005)

However unlike Wal-Mart, General Motors was proud to provide high wages. It provided wages so that the employee could be the breadwinner and in doing so pulled the entire countries economy up in the 1950’s. Wal-Mart pays an average wage of $9.98 per hour. While this is much higher than America’s minimum wage of $5.15 per hour it is not near enough to assist in the country’s economic recovery. In fact Wal-Mart employees in California earn 31 per cent less than the industry average and many of them rely on state-funded safety nets. Wal-Mart explains this away by claiming that two-thirds of there employees are senior citizens, college students or second income providers.

Wal-Mart is also anti-unionists. Their wages and benefits are rigorously controlled and are increasingly imitated by all those organisations within Wal-Mart's competitive reach. Unions would help to raise wages and working conditions. “Wal-Mart is a rapacious corporation that pays sub-poverty-level wages” (Hall, 2005:4) Lichtenstein says in Hall’s article. While he admits that they do offer health benef...