In recent years more and more people have become critical of Wal-Mart - specifically, the way in which the company drives down wages, pressures suppliers, runs small companies out of business, and has become rather wasteful in how it does business. But did you know that if you oppose a Wal-Mart moving into your area you are actually unAmerican? Yes, it's true!

Jay Nordlinger explains in the Los Angeles Times:

Who are these enemies [of Wal-Mart]? Democratic politicians, union leaders, left-wing pundits, a few right-wing pundits (concerned for localism), snobs, sentimentalists, economic ignoramuses. ... This is a store that sells every product under the sun at low, low prices to ordinary folks. Wal-Mart is gloriously, unashamedly, star-spangledly American. I hope it's not too McCarthyite to suggest that those who despise Wal-Mart are the very ones who may not be so crazy about the United States tout court.

Nordlinger touts the fact that "90% of Wal-Mart employees have [health insurance]. Fifty percent of those get it through the company, according to a spokesman; the rest get it through their parents (they may be teenagers), through Medicare or some previous employer's plan (they may be semi-retired), through their spouses — wherever."

What Nordlinger doesn't tell you is that the insurance plans don't cover things like children's vaccinations, flu shots or eye exams, they have a $1,000 deductible, and employees pay one-third of the cost - assuming they can afford that much. This is a plan for catastrophic health problems, not day-to-day health coverage. And how many Wal-Mart employees do get their coverage though government programs like Medicare? That matters a lot because the more Wal-Mart employees who rely on government programs, the more the "low prices" are a matter of cost-shifting, not cost-cutting.

Sally Lieber writes in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Wal-Mart provides its workers with access to a Web-based service that allows a county social services worker to immediately verify income and employment. Such access can help to qualify workers quickly for Medi-Cal benefits, food stamps and other taxpayer-funded aid. While the use of this fast-tracked system may help deliver government services to those who qualify for them; it can also raises a number of concerns: In an environment of low wages and meager benefits, it can be seen as encouraging big business to make taxpayer-funded services a part of their business plan.

Andy Miller writes in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance [for children whose parents cannot afford or don't have access to those benefits] in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores. That's about 14 times the number for next highest employer: Publix, with 734. ... Wal-Mart, with 42,000 workers in the state in 2002, had about one child in the health care program for every four employees. The ratio for Publix was one child in PeachCare for every 22 employees. For Shaw, it was one for every 30 employees, and for Mohawk, one for every 26 workers.

 

About half of Wal-Mart's U.S. workers are covered under the company medical plan, considered a low participation rate for large companies. ... Twenty-five percent or fewer of Wal-Mart employees work part time, the company said. They aren't eligible for family coverage and aren't offered individual coverage until they work for the company for two years. Full-time workers must wait three to six months for coverage.

Wal-Mart says its average spending on medical benefits per employee is $3,100 per year. That's less than the industry average — about $4,400 for large retailers — as calculated by Mercer Human Resource Consulting. ... Wal-Mart employees pay about one-third of their health care premiums. That's typical of retailers and exceeds the 20 percent paid by an average Fortune 500 company worker, said Gliebe.

According to Nordlinger, if you as a consumer and as a voter decide you don't want a particular store in your community, then you just don't love America at all. It's simply anti-American to object to a business that creates dozens of minimum-wage, overworked positions in a community while at the same time destroying competing businesses. After all, Wal-Mart is what America is all about.

Read More:

• Guide to Ethics and Morality