Wal-Mart is forcing the suppliers to lower their costs (because they are such a buying behemoth) This in turn forces the suppliers/manufacturers to lower their labor costs, which moves more jobs overseas or lowers the wages here. Both are very damning to our economy.
Basically Wal-Mart is killing America.
Walmart isn't killing America.
I would argue that it is forcing their suppliers to come into the 21st century making them more competitive and more likely to survive.
Wages are falling or stagnating everywhere, not just in the businesses related to walmart.
The same with profit margins. A lot of operations that have survived since 2008, have made drastic cost cutting measures and are still working on tight profit margins- they would be out of business if they didn't cut costs.
Both are very damning to our economy.
Its an indicator not a cause.
Regardless of what .gov tells us on unemployment figures (which have been largely lies for the last 6 years- latest reports are a laughable 5.5ish%) and how the stock market is doing (which is being propped up by nearly free money from the FED in the form of stock buybacks) our economy is and has been in shambles. At some point, the Fed has to start weaning everyone off its teat, and all hell will break loose.