Wal-mart, America’s largest private employer and retailer, is a frequent target for those who hate markets and worship the state.
Witness this “documentary” on the megaretailer, frequently shown in union halls, schools and colleges by socialist-leaning professors. Like Michael Moore’s film “Roger and Me,” its target can do nothing right. In “Roger and Me,” General Motors is despised for being in Flint, Michigan—and then despised for moving away.
Similarly, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price chastises Wal-Mart for forcing its workers to work too many hours, or having them work too few; for enriching its own shareholders, and for impoverishing the shareholders of “mom and pop” stores which charge higher prices than Wal-Mart.
For years, governments have sought to devise legislation to slay the beast of Wal-Mart. Earlier this year (2015) Puerto Rican legislators passed a law tripling (from 2 % to 6.5 %) a tax on goods imported from offshore affiliates to local companies with gross revenues of more than $2.75 billion. The law was clearly aimed solely at Walmart: an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder.
According a lawsuit filed by Wal-Mart, the new tax will cost “an astonishing and unsustainable 91.5% of its net income.”
