Big Box Companies Are Not Punk Rock!

Stanford graduate and rapper, MC Lars, wrote in his song, Hot Topic Is Not Punk Rock, about the decline of punk music, largely saying the blame is because of 'a crass culture vulture feeds on mass consumer culture.' Well, I completely agree with his stance, only I take this one step further, and see that it's not just Hot Topic, but also box stores.

For instance, Wal-Mart, although not nessecarily denigrating music culture (depending on your position on censorship), is clearly influencing local businesses and not particularly in a positive manner. Yes, cheaper prices and plenty of items to choose from are the greatest arguments in support of Wal-Mart; however, let me lead you to a realization. Short term gains do not outweigh long term profits.

The Bush tax cuts for instance, are based largely on the idea of pleasing individuals quickly with a couple hundred bucks (depending on who you are), here and there. However, do we wonder if the US's long term security will be improved by this new-age extension of Reaganomics? No we do not. We worry, and rightfully so.

Thus, we should look at Wal-Mart in a similar fashion, because their ruthless tactics are not good business practice in the long term. In fact, Wal-Mart looks quite the opposite of 'safe policy', as much as the company seems to be a monoply recklessly spreading themselves to a once friendly neighborhood near you.

Some say that Wal-Mart will just get replaced by another company through competition, but what these people must realize is that companies the size of Wal-Mart don't gracefully fall, they crash. So IF, Wal-Mart were to dissapear it would only be due to external pressure, most likely surrounding internal scandals. Because Wal-Marts won't dissapear; South Park had that right.