Is Wal-Mart good for the global economy?

Résumé du document

Wal-Mart is the world largest retailer and one of the largest companies in the world, in terms of revenue. It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and currently it is the largest private employer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. From a financial point of view, Wal-Mart is one of the most successful companies ever and like many other successful businesses, Wal-Mart has been targeted by a number of critics. I will answer the question by analyzing the pros and cons that surrounds Wal-Mart.

Extraits

[...] He argues that, on one hand, Wal-Mart provides more than 1 million jobs to the American people, and on the other hand, thanks to their low prices Wal-Mart helps the poor people to access to the consumption. But Wal-Mart banks about $10 billion a year in profits, it is among the most profitable entities on the planet. So we can be sceptic about Wal-Mart wages policy and about his usefulness for the American economy. In a way, Wal-Mart permit to create wealth by providing jobs but those are precarious. [...]

[...] Is Wal-Mart good for the global economy? Wal-Mart is the world largest retailer and one of the largest companies in the world, based on its revenue. It was founded by Sam Walton in 1962 and nowadays it is the largest private employer in the United States, Mexico and Canada. From a financial point of view, Wal-Mart is one of the most successful companies ever but like many other successful businesses, Wal-Mart is the target of lot of criticisms. I will answer the question by giving Wal-Mart's main advantages and main inconvenient. [...]

[...] For most observers, Wal-Mart employees are the victims of an economic exploitation. Even though it provides salaries higher than the legal minimum wage, Wal-Mart pays their employees an average of only $ 9.68 an hour. It is about 20% less than at other retail stores. In addition, Wal-Mart does not pay overtime, some employees are forced to do work 40 hours per week without being paid. Furthermore, it does not provide most of them health insurance, keeps out unions, Health care benefits are just provided for people working for Wal-Mart more than two years but because there is a high turnover rate (about just a few employees could received those benefits, most of them are executives. [...]

[...] It is paradoxical because on the other hand, Wal-Mart represents a great partner for the development of poorer countries such as China. Even if it provides lot of jobs to American people, Wal-Mart is responsible of a lot of job losses (toward the abroad manufacturing and the competition made to smaller retailers. That is why I think Wal-Mart should make and effort in order to help the poorer workers to have a decent way of living by providing them a better work condition (better wages, better health care programs). [...]

[...] But for Wal-Mart advocates, the fact that such a big company has chosen China is a good thing for this country. Wal-Mart has been criticized for failure to maintain adequate supervision over its foreign suppliers From Wal-Mart advocates' point of view, we should not compare the different level of wage levels between United States and China because this is not a useful way to assess the fairness of a trade policy. For them, the overseas manufacturing create jobs and provide to the host country an opportunity to improve the quality of life for its employees and then the entire population We have seen at the end of the twentieth century that a lot of “Occidental” companies have invested in under developed countries such as China. [...]