I know it's politically incorrect to admit that one shops at Wal-Mart, but yes I do, along with millions of my other economic siblings. While they may indeed offer poor salaries, no health insurance, and bring the "big box blight" to a community the fact remains that their prices help us po-folk maintain at least a modicum of the American Dream.
It's been reported that Wal-Mart saves it's consumers over $16 billion a year. It does this not only by keeping prices down in its own stores, but by providing tough competition whereby other retailers must lower their prices to maintain pace with the retail giant. While some will claim this forces many locally-owned and operated stores out of business, it also helps a community's low-income families make ends meet.
The blame for all this, however, should not rest upon a company with the insight to recognize the economic realities in this country and the intuitiveness to enact a marketing plan to take advantage of it. No, the blame should fall upon the legislators in our country who's callous disregard for the poor and lower middle class has pushed millions of American citizens into an economic corner where they have no choice but to take advantage of the Wal-Marts of this land.
In the 50s and 60s, a family with two wage earners was unusual. In households that both the husband and wife held a job, this was a matter of choice. Usually these were childless households or ones where the children had left the nest. Both husband and wife chose to have a career in order to build a larger nest egg for their retirement.
But in today's economic reality, both husband and wife are forced to work or bills could not be paid. A house could not be afforded. The children would never be able to see the inside of a college. With outsourcing and the lowering of family incomes, the cost of health care, and the stress of making ends meet that often forces families apart, is it any wonder that stores like Wal-Mart have become a necessity? Where would America's lower middle class be without them?
The other situation that has brought the middle class to its collective knees is credit cards. From the time a person reaches 18 years of age, they are inundated with ads that offer credit. Just sign up and it's like "found money." Well, that "found money" has forced countless millions into bankruptcy in this country. You can write it off to greed. You can write it off to stupidity. But the truth is, we are told to spend, spend, spend, and are given the means to do so. Not with higher wages, but with more credit. And we're encouraged to use it without regard to the problems it causes. It's as if gambling were legal, state supported and advertised on TV. Opps...it is, isn't it??
Of course our legislators have found a way to stop the bankruptcies. They passed a bill that simply won't allow it. The credit card companies were overjoyed. Our elected officials have passed bills that cut taxes for the rich, moved jobs out of our country, and supported lobbyists and ultra-wealthy corporations in their efforts to make even more money than they could possibly need. Yet we keep putting the same dawgs back into office year after year and they keep sticking the knives into our collective backs, deeper and deeper. Who's at fault for this? We are.
So now it's reached a point where we literally HAVE to shop at the Wal-Marts or we don't survive. Usually it's the upper class that doesn't want these stores in their neighborhoods. We po-folk need them and we know it.
As the old Pea Picker sang, "I owe my soul to the company store."
