How Wal-Mart is Remaking our World

Bullying people from your town to China

Jim Hightower, Hightower Lowdown, April 26, 2002� www.jimhightower.com

Corporations rule. No other institution comes close to matching the power that the 500 biggest corporations have amassed over us. The clout of all 535 members of Congress is nothing compared to the individual and collective power of these predatory behemoths that now roam the globe, working their will over all competing interests.

The aloof and pampered executives who run today's autocratic and secretive corporate states have effectively become our sovereigns. From who gets health care to who pays taxes, from what's on the news to what's in our food, they have usurped the people's democratic authority and now make these broad social decisions in private, based solely on the interests of their corporations. Their attitude was forged back in 1882, when the villainous old robber baron William Henry Vanderbilt spat out: "The public be damned! I'm working for my stockholders."

The media and politicians won't discuss this, for obvious reasons, but we must if we're actually to be a self-governing people. That's why the Lowdown is launching this occasional series of corporate profiles. And why not start with the biggest and one of the worst actors?

The beast from Bentonville

Wal-Mart is now the world's biggest corporation, having passed ExxonMobil for the top slot. It hauls off a stunning $220 billion a year from We the People (more in revenues than the entire GDP of Israel and Ireland combined).

Wal-Mart cultivates an aw-shucks, we're-just-folks-from-Arkansas image of neighborly small-town shopkeepers trying to sell stuff cheaply to you and yours. Behind its soft homespun ads, however, is what one union leader calls "this devouring beast" of a corporation that ruthlessly stomps on workers, neighborhoods, competitors, and suppliers.

Despite its claim that it slashes profits to the bone in order to deliver "Always Low Prices," Wal-Mart banks about $7 billion a year in profits, ranking it among the most profitable entities on the planet.

Of the 10 richest people in the world, five are Waltons-the ruling family of the Wal-Mart empire. S. Robson Walton is ranked by London's "Rich List 2001" as the wealthiest human on the planet, having sacked up more than $65 billion (�45.3 billion) in personal wealth and topping Bill Gates as No. 1.

Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way-by roughing people up. The corporate ethos emanating from the Bentonville headquarters dictates two guiding principles for all managers: extract the very last penny possible from human toil, and squeeze the last dime from every supplier.

With more than one million employees (three times more than General Motors), this far-flung retailer is the country's largest private employer, and it intends to remake the image of the American workplace in

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Meanwhile everyone should be doing as much as possible to extend the development of our thinking on all these subjects. Brian reminded us that E mail discussions can be a useful way forward. He also reminded us of the importance of contributing articles to Sustainable Economics which he has worked so hard to keep going during a long period of very sparse contributions from Green Party members.

Another important matter which we must keep in mind is the need to promote our ideas OUTSIDE THE GREEN PARTY. With so much to be done that is important and exciting and a shortage of

people able to devote the time and energy to do it any suggestions for solving THAT problem would be very welcome. Finally I must remind you of the conference which Molly Scott Cato is holding at Oxford Youth Hostel on June 14th -16th on the Limitations of the Market - with a view to producing a book on the subject. This should be stimulating and thought-provoking and there's still time to book. Details enclosed.

With All Good Wishes,

Mercy J. Harmer