Silly Love,

I won't get into the right vs wrong argument, because I feel that somewhat narrows the analysis so to speak.

Walmarts aren't good, However,

you are correct in that yes, working class and working poor do go to Walmarts because of the cheap prices...

and on This aspect, you touch on something however, that is rarely touched upon, and that is the lack of consciousness in this nation, expecially among the poor/working poor And the lure of

"consumerism", which in my opinion IS the NUMBER ONE OPIATE IN THIS NATION AND INCREASINGLY AROUND THE WORLD....

and this aspect, I believe Chomsky does quite well dissecting and his anaylsis on this fact is right on the money.

And I believe too this is where its extremely important to understand how the market works in that area of marketing to the masses, how marketing uses psychology to not just lure individuals to consume, but how those techniques are used to instill into people via manipulation of needs and desires to get people to 'believe that this is the purpose and duty, and that is to consume' to meet some requirement of social conformity and acceptance.

I dont have time to get into this into depth right now, but Parenti, Michael wrote an exceptional book about this, "Democracy for the Few" and its one of the best anaylsis done on the social controls used via corporations to 'control the masses'.

And Walmart is just a segment of that control, or manifestation, its not what I would call a round table of cigar smoking men conspiring to take over the world, no, but the result of how capitalism in this modern day works.

As for workers in Walmart, a huge percentage of those workers are womyn, single mothers, and young people, and elderly. And I do believe there has been quite a few lawsuits against Walmart based on discrimination, locking employers in, etc. It however, playing devil's advocate here, does provide employment when alternative is welfare....

however, funny thing is, majority of womyn working at Walmart, still need that welfare, in food stamps (Quest Cards), etc.

The turn over rates too, are somewhat high, and I think that alone speaks volumes...

realize however, that the effects of such employment will vary depending on region, rural vs urban. My issue with the rural regions, in how Walmarts monopolize local economies and drive out small businesses, is that the effects are far more disastrous than just small businesses being driven out...

the younger generations leave to more urban areas where there are job opportunities which in the long term of things hurts the rural towns, and I know of one, in Texas, that when I was a child, was somewhat of a growing town, well Walmart moved in, now its practically a ghost town, and who has taken place of the workers, immigrant employment.

Now I'm not anti-immigrant, I'm pro-worker (on both sides of the border, another topic, another time) but what has happened to this small town is that due to the low wages of the immigrant population, housing has gone down, businesses have all but dried up, and there is no growth, not real growth. The town is basically now a six mile long truckstop.

What the process has succeeded in however, is the divide among workers and peoples, and racism is flourishing, unfortunately, and its feeding into the overall racism we are seeing in America, that ultra-nationalism (similar to many parts of Europe and Russia, due to globalization and transnational monopolies).

Due to the low wages of workers, then sure, of Course, they will need to consume those goods, that are low price, but where does this provide, for economic growth?

Basically what you wind up with is poor buying from poor, by the millions, and someone is getting rich due to it....and more fall into that poor economic class due to the inability to form small and med size businesses (speaking from capitalist view here) and incintive dies. Then what you have, is more price cuts, meaning more wage cuts, therefore, more slave labor overseas, in areas where uh, they don't shop at Walmarts.

And on another note, yes, you are correct, Walmart and Kmart parking lots in many cities are full of Families I might add, living in cars...

and when the days of small businesses, communities, and when competition was somewhat healthy and Not monopolized, yes, you didn't See the numbers of homeless families living in their lots...

and Why was that?

Just speaking from a free and fair market point of view (not even speaking from socialist view here), one can see that monopoly of business, what I term as Corporate Feudalism, has done nothing, but create a world of slavery via wage and consumption, and a world of wealth and hoarding of resources, land, real estate, etc.

And yes, the desire to consume, is helping it along...

on that, you are correct.