Of course that doesn't always help, mainly when lowering the price is done in excess. One good example is Wal-Mart. They pull every dirty trick they can to get their prices low and still make a profit. Minimum wage, buying as much from cheap overseas sources as they can, holding back job applications to maintain a state of being understaffed, and thus having an excuse to ask employees to work unpaid or underpaid overtime, giving workers poor work conditions (my aunt had to deal with that at a Wal-Mart distribution center).
Then when Wal-mart moves into a new area, it's like dropping a bomb on the local specialty businesses. A lot will go out of business since everyone is starting to go to Wal-Mart. But the Wal-Mart is only taking in a few employees. So what do the unemployed do? Get some other bad job if they aren't lucky enough to get one at Wal-Mart. The saddest part is that these people hurt by Wal-Mart can really only shop there, on account of having so little income.
So what do you suggest we do? It's not the company's goal to give out good jobs, it's to make money. If you don't like you job, you can quit.
And I ask you, why does everyone start going to Wal-Mart instead of the local businesses? I would propose that this is because Wal-Mart supplies better products at lower prices. People just wouldn't go there if they got shit service.
Actually, most people who have a problem with being a Wal-Mart employee can't quit. It's all they have. If they quit, they'd be jobless, which would just leave them worse off than before. As for why people shop at Wal-Mart? Everyone is obsessed with saving money, to the point where the quality of the product doesn't matter. They're normally cheap enough that it's not a problem when something bad happens (why this is a different story in other stores is because other stores don't screw over all their employees and suppliers).
Companies going out of business is also both a sign and trigger of recession, not a healthy economy. Think about it: several companies go out of business for every new Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart cannot make up for the job loss - even without withholding job applications. It's only one store. So there's suddenly a big unemployment problem. Since fewer people have a source of income, fewer have money to spend. This means that there is a reduction in the flow of money, which is practically an alarm signaling "bad economy." And of course, the natural reaction of people when the economy goes bad is to spend even less (even if they're well off), further contributing to the problem.
Having business contribute to a healthy economy is like getting football players to have fun with the game. There's healthy competition, where they play by the rules and have fun, and then there's unhealthy competition, where they try to sneak around the rules, which always just makes things unpleasant. Wal-Mart does the latter.
With this in mind, I don't see how one could agree with this:
However, even free enterprise must be tempered by morality, or it will be abused by individuals and companies such as Walmart.
and still defend the way Wal-Mart does business.
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Topic: Is Communism Dead? (Read 9927 times)