Wal-Mart contributes to poverty
I know. I sound like a broken record. Evil Wal-Mart. Blah. Blah. Blah. But really some social scientists did a study, and it appears Wal-Mart really does make people more poor. “After controlling for other factors determining changes in the poverty rate over time, we find that both counties with more initial Wal-Mart stores and with more additions of stores between 1987 and 1998 experienced greater increases (or smaller decreases) in family poverty rates during the 1990’s economic boom period,” Stephan Goetz a Professor of Agricultural and Regional Economics at The Pennsylvania State University states.
Go back and read that again. Do you get what it’s saying. If a Wal-Mart moves in near you it is highly likely that poverty rates in your area will actually increase. Best case scenario, they will decrease at a lower rate than in other areas near you (but farther away from Wal-Mart).
See? You’re not really saving money. You THINK you’re saving money, but somehow Wal-Mart manages to suck the money right out of a town by selling stuff that people THINK they can afford. The net result? Fewer Mom and Pop stores and more people who can only afford to shop at Wal-Mart.
The California town of Hercules gets it. They’re the latest town to ban Wal-Mart.
