Watch this video before you read. It's funny, but the issue is pretty serious.


Big wholesale retail chains like Costco and K-Mart are really bad for business. Yes, I know that goes against all conventional forms of thinking, including the ideas drilled into our heads in AP Economics class. After all, isn't it a good thing that they cut down costs and increase profits? Aren't people better off with the lower prices?

Not always.

Companies legally have only one responsibility, and that's to increase profits. They'll do that any way they can, and they'll make sure it's legal by manipulating all the politicians through lobbying. Gee, I wonder why lobbying is also legal? If it's not legal, have fun taking on their lawyers. Did I mention the media is also on their side?

I'll use Wal-Mart for my example because Wal-Mart does it better than anyone else.

You go to Wal-Mart to buy a lot of crap for rock bottom prices. This goes on for several years as the amount of junk in your storage space accumulates. One day you find out that your job is being outsourced to sweatshop labor in some third world country you didn't even know existed. They have to do this to stay competitive, because the stuff you make at your company is too expensive to compete with Wal-Mart.

You lose your job. Tax dollars are paying for your unemployment benefits while you look for another job. You see that the jobs that are open won't pay as much as your old job did and these new jobs have almost no benefits. You take the job anyway because you need the money and there's nothing better for you to do.

With the reduced pay and tough economic times, you really have to be careful about how much money you spend. You have to give up improvements on your house, so the contractors lose work. You can't afford to eat out anymore, so all the family restaurants lose money.

Because you don't have any money, you have to go shopping where it's cheap. Good old Wal-Mart. Thank God it always manages to lower prices no matter how bad the recession or how high the inflation is.

You were working at a golf course. That closed down because people couldn't afford to go golfing anymore. You take some more unemployment checks and find another job. This one pays below minimum wage and has deplorable working conditions. Still, you work here anyway because you need the money.

With the reduced pay, you have to get rid of your health insurance; it's too expensive. It's also too expensive to do just about anything else and you keep going deeper and deeper into debt. Thankfully, you can still shop at Wal-Mart for all of your daily needs.

From here, you lose another job, your wife needs a kidney transplant, and the bank forecloses on your house because you can't pay the mortgage. Then you continue the downward spiral into oblivion.

Everyone who has ever shopped at these kinds of stores deserves at least some of the blame. As I said earlier, the only responsibility that corporations have is the increase profits. They'll do this any way they can. That's why they outsource. They're not evil greedy fat cats. Well, they are, but there's nothing immoral or wrong with what they're doing. Businesses are supposed to increase their profits any way they can.

Trying to stop the companies from laying people off and outsourcing won't work. No matter how many tax breaks and subsidies you give them, they'll go wherever they can make the most money.

If you want to change the system, don't whine and complain and then expect the government to take care of everything. Do something about it. Stop buying stuff from these stores. Yeah, the things in small stores may be more expensive, and maybe you won't find a year's worth of supplies in one store. Still, every time you buy from a small store, you pay for goods and services than you do when you buy wholesale. Also buy things that are made in your own country.

Politicians suck. Believe me, I know. If you want them to represent your interests, do something about it. If they're not acting based on what you want, vote for someone better. Politicians wouldn't be so corrupt if an overwhelming majority of the population turned out to vote in non-Presidential years and constantly scrutinized their every move.

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