Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price
The title says it all: Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price. The worlds largest corporation is known for its low prices. Without those, all the ludicrous propaganda (and they are sure laying it on thick now) in the world could not build a retail company to that size. People shop there, in the billions, to save money. But what is the cost? The cost is countless towns across this country that have either no downtown or no town, at all, wiped out, left with an empty box store and empty promises. The cost is countless Chinese women and girls working twenty hours at a time at a sewing machine. The cost is making widow Walton and the four kids five of the richest people on the planet.
Walmart uses harassment and intimidation to prevent unions from forming at their sites. There is no unionization at any Walmart, except in Germany, because their government actually protects its citizens from corporate exploitation. There is an atmosphere of secrecy, lying and paranoia pervasive throughout the company. Ex-managers told about the techniques they were forced to use to cheat the workers. But, no current Walmart employees would talk.
Workers are systematically demeaned and demoted. Discrimination runs rampant and blatant. Women and minorities have barely scraped the lowest rungs of management. Workers are typically forced to work off the clock, for free. They refuse to pay overtime. They keep the weekly hours so low that workers must stay on public assistance.
Walmart externalizes its costs not only through making the state pick up the cost of its health care, but from the enormous amount of direct subsidy it has received from states and innocent towns that welcomed them with open arms. Walmart comes in like stealth and cuts incredibly favorable deals based on glossy promises with town councils before the Chamber of Commerce even knows what's happening. Rarely do they even find out the subsidies Walmart got.
There are problems in their parking lots, which seem to attract crime since they are large, dim and not monitored. Walmart spends its money protecting the merchandise. Once you pay for the stuff, you're on your own. Again, this costs a town in police time that the taxpayers have to pay for.
I commend Robert Greenwald for making this film, which is part of a movement to stop Walmart. He's doing a thankless job, and could be making lots more money doing other types of films. He is shining a bright light on a huge social problem.
I wish he made it easier to glean the facts. I think filmmakers, who usually focus on entertaining, often underestimate the statistics and facts that are so important to educating people about social issues. While involved in the anti-nuke movement in the 80's, facts were a huge part of the dissemination and education. I really wanted to have a place on this DVD I could go to and find out exactly how much the Waltons have, and how the revenues flow in the company. Greenwald said he went to great pains to make sure every statement was supported by research, but they came in two-second bursts between lots and lots of personal whining, and frankly, as sympathetic as I am, it was too much.
I think he should have done a bit more than mock the company and tug our heartstrings with idyllic visions of small town life. He does a disservice by appearing too biased and should have taken a more intelligent approach, offering real argument to points that Walmart could legitimately make in its own defense, such as the fact that it takes those on the lowest rungs of society and gives them at least some minimal leg up. Had he made the facts more central, I would have mentioned them here and they would become much more a part of the conversation.
I haven't been to a McDonalds since watching Super-Size Me and this film isn't exactly making me want to run to my nearest Walmart, which, fortunately, is not in my town. That's OK, Walmart probably wasn't that upset about losing Palo Alto. They prefer to exploit the poor. Whether they buy there, which they do, or work there or sweat their life away making the crap we all need so desperately... the poor are at Walmart... and are paying a very high price.
Walmart uses harassment and intimidation to prevent unions from forming at their sites. There is no unionization at any Walmart, except in Germany, because their government actually protects its citizens from corporate exploitation. There is an atmosphere of secrecy, lying and paranoia pervasive throughout the company. Ex-managers told about the techniques they were forced to use to cheat the workers. But, no current Walmart employees would talk.
Workers are systematically demeaned and demoted. Discrimination runs rampant and blatant. Women and minorities have barely scraped the lowest rungs of management. Workers are typically forced to work off the clock, for free. They refuse to pay overtime. They keep the weekly hours so low that workers must stay on public assistance.
Walmart externalizes its costs not only through making the state pick up the cost of its health care, but from the enormous amount of direct subsidy it has received from states and innocent towns that welcomed them with open arms. Walmart comes in like stealth and cuts incredibly favorable deals based on glossy promises with town councils before the Chamber of Commerce even knows what's happening. Rarely do they even find out the subsidies Walmart got.
There are problems in their parking lots, which seem to attract crime since they are large, dim and not monitored. Walmart spends its money protecting the merchandise. Once you pay for the stuff, you're on your own. Again, this costs a town in police time that the taxpayers have to pay for.
I commend Robert Greenwald for making this film, which is part of a movement to stop Walmart. He's doing a thankless job, and could be making lots more money doing other types of films. He is shining a bright light on a huge social problem.
I wish he made it easier to glean the facts. I think filmmakers, who usually focus on entertaining, often underestimate the statistics and facts that are so important to educating people about social issues. While involved in the anti-nuke movement in the 80's, facts were a huge part of the dissemination and education. I really wanted to have a place on this DVD I could go to and find out exactly how much the Waltons have, and how the revenues flow in the company. Greenwald said he went to great pains to make sure every statement was supported by research, but they came in two-second bursts between lots and lots of personal whining, and frankly, as sympathetic as I am, it was too much.
I think he should have done a bit more than mock the company and tug our heartstrings with idyllic visions of small town life. He does a disservice by appearing too biased and should have taken a more intelligent approach, offering real argument to points that Walmart could legitimately make in its own defense, such as the fact that it takes those on the lowest rungs of society and gives them at least some minimal leg up. Had he made the facts more central, I would have mentioned them here and they would become much more a part of the conversation.
I haven't been to a McDonalds since watching Super-Size Me and this film isn't exactly making me want to run to my nearest Walmart, which, fortunately, is not in my town. That's OK, Walmart probably wasn't that upset about losing Palo Alto. They prefer to exploit the poor. Whether they buy there, which they do, or work there or sweat their life away making the crap we all need so desperately... the poor are at Walmart... and are paying a very high price.
posted by Intervision at 3:32 PM
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