America and Wal-Mart

What is America like?

I will hear this question more than a hundred times while in Romania this December. And I know there are millions others that want to know the answer to this question. People have dreams about the Promise land, and many of them are misconceptions. I can only relate to myself 4-5 years ago. So every time I try to answer this question I get bogged down under piles of details. Direct comparison doesn't work because America is so different than anything else. Examples don't work either because America is so diverse. Well, the other day I watched a documentary about Wal-Mart on PBS and I thought it was the best short lesson on America that I have seen so far.

You can go to http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/ and read the interviews, main points and discussion. After Friday they will have the entire show in video format, so if you have a good internet connection you can try to watch it online. I rarely find things that I get excited about anymore, and I felt like I needed to shout to the entire world about this documentary. If by any chance you have the slightest curiosity about what drives America, what makes America move forward you have to see this show.

If you don't have time to sit down and waste (in your opinion) an hour of your life or if your internet is too slow then I can try to sum it up in a few words here. The show is about Wal-Mart the No. 1 company in the world. The company is founded in Bentonville, Arkansas a few miles north of Fayetteville, where I study at University of Arkansas. Wal-Mart grew exponentially over the past 10 years. It started with a little grocery store in the 70's and now has 40% of the retail market of America. Yeas, entire America, the biggest consumer market in the world. Last year Wal-Mart had sales of 250 billion dollars, more than the budget of some countries, more than the sum of its 3 or 4 competitors.

America= capitalism+succes+profit+image and Wal-Mart is nothing less. It sounds like Wal-Mart is perfect, right? Well not quite. How is this success achieved? How are the profits really made? How big is the greed that generates success, what are the repercussions of these profits, and what is society's net gain out of the whole deal? I can't give a definite answer to this one, but you can make your own opinion after you watch the documentary. It's a really close call, I tell you. I am sure it will make some people excited about the smarts of Wal-Mart and others disgusted with this cunny and merciless system we like to call capitalism.