Is Wal-Mart good for America?

Is Wal-Mart good for America? This is a question that someone asked the instructor in my Economic class. My instructor made it a debating topic among the student since many students seem to have different perspectives on this. Most students answered this question with a “no, Wal-Mart bad for America” but few other answered yes.

A few students stated that Wal-Mart is good for America. They argued that from buying stuffs from Wal-Mart, they have saved a lot, and so do many Americans. It is true that a lot of low-income families are really benefited from shopping at Wal-Mart. They save more money and get the quality of the products they needed. Also, with many Wal-Mart stores opened everywhere across the U.S., it’s also true that Wal-Mart did create a lot of job. These are points that some students came up with in saying Wal-Mart is good for America.

Most other students said no, and they came up with many arguments, which are very convincing. But it is all relate to Wal-Mart’s business model, and how it indirectly affected America’s economy. Most of us already known that Wal-Mart’s prices on their products are really low, but we never asked how did they keep their price so low and still gain profit from it. It is simple; they forced their suppliers to comply with their way of pricing products. Supplier will bid against each other to see who can supply product to Wal-Mart with the lowest price. And many of the American suppliers that want to continue to supply Wal-Mart with products have been forced to move overseas where they can get the cheap land and labor that they need to be able to sell their products to Wal-Mart at such low prices but still making profit; this takes many jobs out of America. In the long run, eventually there will not be any plants left in America, we will be importing more than export.

So what I think is that while Wal-Mart is creating a lot of jobs, they are indirectly taking a lot out of America; this would cause the unemployment rate to go up. In a long run, this might look bad for the American since all the manufacturers are moving their factory oversea for lower product cost in order to compete with Wal-Mart or to continue working with Wal-Mart. To answer whether Wal-Mart is good for America or not is up, i would say that it is not.

Lights, Camera, Hired!

I came across an article online that discusses about a new way to present our resume. It’s a video version resume, which Chris Dixon, a college senior, did so that his resume could stand out from other job search competitors. John Dooney, spokesman for the Society for Human Resources Management, said that video resume works well for applying to position that require creativity. Careful when trying this because professional and traditional firms might think that we are mocking them or are not taking it seriously. There are also a few other creative ways to present our resume such as blog, podcast, or a Web site with writing samples.

I think that a video resume is not an efficient way to apply for a job. Not that it is a bad idea, but I think it lacks of seriousness and reader might need to rewind the video many times to review the resume, which would create a negative impression from the reader toward your application. At the moment, I do not think that it a good idea, but sometimes in the future it might be a requirement for resumes.