I know that Wal-Mart has been discussed in the past, but the last thread I found was over three years old, and Wally World has grown a lot since
then.
When you think of shadow governments, you think of guys in a smoke filled room that do nothing but sit around and plan ways to make the US do what
they want. But Wal-Mart is the new money, and they're not sitting around. They're about as active as you can get.
The beast of Bentonville has a lot of clout, not only with how much they can sway politics in their favor, but how much they can shape society at the
grassroots level. They come into a town and there follow charges of preditory pricing to drive the Mom and Pop stores out of business. Now maybe it's
sour grapes, but maybe it isn't.
They have the best lawyers that money can buy, and they win almost always. In Wisconsin they settled a suit brought by the Department of Agriculture,
Trade and Consumer Protection out of court, and kept on truckin'. We used to call that a bribe, when it benifited someone besides the people that
were hurt.
en.wikipedia.org...
And as of 2004, they were spending $18Billion dollars a year with China, making them the eighth largest trading partner with that nation. They were
spending more than Canada, or Russia, or Australia, all industrialized nations. When you get that big, you have the same kind of economic power as
many nations in the world.
Their current Executive Officer, H.Lee Scott, told the New York Times that running the company was "like runing for president of the United States."
A clear indication that he was well aware of just how much power he controled. It reminded me of the John Lennon statement that the Beatles were more
popular than Jesus Christ.
topics.nytimes.com...
Shouldn't our government use the anti-trust laws, and the monopoly laws to break up Wal-Mart, the same way they did Ma Bell? But can they, is the
question? Is Wal-Mart now so big and powerful that they control supply and supplier to such an extent that they can defy these laws? Could they, or do
they even now, blackmail the US economically into leting them have a free hand to rape every small town they enter?
Is Wal-Mart the poster child for the corporate overlords of days to come?