The enemy is us.

• Author: Brown, Greg
• Position: The Wal-Mart Effect; Charles Fishman - Rese

The Wal-Mart Effect By Charles Fishman Penguin US$25.00

The driving force of economics is self-interest. People, companies, institutions--all make choices that serve their own ends, often in total disregard of how those choices affect others. You can argue about whether this is moral, immoral or amoral, but self-interest is the motor of our economy.

Reaction to the result has been the primary modern driver of social change: unions, government regulation, welfare systems, charity, environmentalism and labor law all are the result of collective reaction to the perception of harm from capitalism. Dickensian smokestacks led to child-labor laws. Boom-and-bust capitalism drove governments toward communism, with horrifying results.

But what should a consumer do when the perceived harm is not so easy to identify? Global warming is increasingly real to us, but the obvious answer--an immediate stepdown in energy consumption--seems likely to inflict equally immediate pain. Cold houses, parked cars and idle factories are not realistic answers, and more efficient ways of living and working seem always to be decades away. In the same way, global giant Wal-Mart presents us with a quandary. Permanent discounts put money in our pockets. As Wal-Mart grows, our power to acquire grows with it, even if salaries do not. Inflation is tamped down. Poor people see their standard of living rise. How could that be bad? (Full disclosure: This magazine has twice awarded Wal-Mart executives its annual business award for just these kinds of reasons.)

Charles Fishman, in The Wal-Mart Effect, asks those questions in great detail. He interviews former executives and suppliers and talks to companies that have been squeezed hard by Bentonville. It's telling stuff: Companies change packaging, skimp on design, move factories--even cede market to competitors--to keep up with legendarily hard-nosed Wal-Mart buyers.

People suffer, too. Outsourced goods come from factories abroad, where it's harder to track labor standards. Small towns lose businesses, and the conditions of the Wal-Mart jobs...