April 05, 2004, 8:42 a.m.
The New Colossus
Wal-Mart is America’s store, and the world’s, and its enemies are sadly behind.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article appears in the April 19, 2004, issue of National Review.

Who's the biggest, baddest company of them all? Wal-Mart, of course, leader of the Fortune 500 list and the largest employer in America (next to the government, that is). Wal-Mart is also the largest employer in Mexico (again, next to the government). The company has 1.4 million employees worldwide, and it has made its investors a ton of money. In short, this is a classic American success story, and free-market success story. Therefore, the company has a lot of enemies.

In fact, Wal-Mart is featuring in Democratic campaign rhetoric, and other rhetoric, as a villain, along with Enron and Halliburton. Is this wise of politicians, considering that 100 million people shop at Wal-Mart every week? We'll leave that to the political strategists.

The roster of Wal-Mart foes includes the following: Democratic politicians, particularly those trying to impress unions; union leaders (while we're on the subject); left-wing pundits; a handful of right-wing pundits, concerned for localism; and arbiters of taste (mainly soi-disant).

In the Democratic primaries, John Kerry knocked Wal-Mart on a number of fronts, particularly that of health care: He denounced the company's provisions for its employees as "disgraceful" and "unconscionable." He also said, "They throw a lot of money around, they get a lot of things happening, but it ain't necessarily good for the community." (Here, he is attempting a little populism — he did not learn that language in his Swiss boarding school.) Kerry continued, "We need to stand up and demand they behave corporately responsibly." (That's more like it.) The candidate suggested that the company be punished by loss of tax deductions.

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