The Wal-Mart effect.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Brief article

With Wal-Mart, the question is, does the good outweigh the bad? The good is low prices that help low-income customers, fight inflation, and have caused the company to grow to the point that it gives jobs to over one million Americans.

The bad is that it pays low wages with lousy benefits, destroys downtowns by forcing morn-and-pop businesses to close, and creates unemployment by pushing its suppliers so hard to lower prices that it drives them into bankruptcy. I hope you saw the excellent article by Barry C. Lynn in...