by Audrea Cesar

Created on: January 29, 2009

Yes, Wal-Mart is bad for America. Not just Wal-Mart but the whole mentality that cheaper is better and buying from sweatshops are okay as long as there is a big profit to be made. America is going from the land of plenty to the land of mass amounts of junk because of companies like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart buys almost all of its goods from countries like China and sells them way cheaper so it is almost impossible for any small American made goods business to compete.

America got rich by being an industrious nation. We employed many hard working people in factories. We created quality products that were worth the money people paid for them. Then we realized it was cheaper to pay a child in a 3rd world country pennies a day to slave in a sweatshop and thus, we could sell items cheaper in stores like -. Then we begin to wonder why we have such a hard time finding American made goods. But instead of looking harder, we reap the benefits of the sale and buy more cheap items, mostly stuff we do not need anyways. Then we look around wondering why there are fewer and fewer jobs.

My mother had a vacuum cleaner that must have been from the 70s. It was loud and used a lot of electricity, but it still worked great for a long time. She decided to buy a new one. No matter which model she has bought, it seems like the life span is about a year for these cheaply made imported vacuum cleaners. This is the problem we face now. We have grown accustomed to an everything is disposable, if it breaks, I will just go to Walmart and buy another cheap one. It is a vicious cycle. People spend so much extra money on things they do not need because they think they are getting a good deal. How many people look at closets full of cheap clothing and still do not believe they have anything to wear.

America is in a terrible financial spot at the moment. It does not seem like the government can bail us out of this one. People need to take action into their own hands. Shopping locally and supporting small businesses helps the whole community. It is very rare that any large corportation cuts their CEOs salaries before they lay off staff to try to cut expenses.

If we want to improve our own economical crisis, we need to start building and buying American made goods. We need to stop making CEOs of companies like Wal-mart richer, and start re-developing the middle class. I refuse to shop at Wal-mart.

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