Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

I think this questions is similiar to the age-old questions, "What came first the chicken or the egg?"  The reason why I say this is because Wal-mart's ways have caused our country to spiral down into a lesser level of living.  Wal-mart buys nearly 80% of it's items from overseas, mainly China, because the merchandise from overseas suppliers, when sold here in the US yields a profit of anywhere from 50-80% on average where items that are manufactured here in the States, only yields a profit of about 18-20%.  With that kind of profit, who can blame Wal-mart!  But we also have to look at the jobs that the overseas suppliers are replacing.  Many US suppliers have been shut down which has resulted in thousands of job lay-offs in the US. In order to make such a big profit for the share holders of Wal-mart, Wal-mart pays it's employees nearly half what the US manufacturer's paid and offered even less benefits such as pensions and health insurance.  As a result, those very people who are paying less for cheap merchandise from overseas suppliers through Wal-mart, are also earning considerably less than they would if they could work for US-ran companies that make the merchandise that is being basically bought out by overseas cheap labor.

I wouldn't say Wal-mart is bad for this country.  But it certainly has cause a ripple effect that I don't think Sam Walton anticipated.