LISSA’S: Wal-Mart’s Damage To Communities Far Outweighs Charitable Donations

Yesterday's post on food banks raised the issue of Wal-Mart's charitable donations and whether they actually benefit the community, but the question goes far beyond donations of food. Wal-Mart loves to be seen donating money to local charities, especially around the holidays. These donations, while perhaps beneficial in their own small way, don't even begin to make up for the amount of resources and taxpayer dollars Wal-Mart drains out of local economies. For Wal-Mart, these donations are nothing but some cheap PR.

Wal-Mart lowers median wages, exports jobs, shifts company costs to taxpayers, and leans on public subsidies to make its billions. These costs far outweigh any local donation Wal-Mart has ever made.

Wal-Mart's charitable donations continue to lag behind its close competitors, and the Walton Family itself is ranks only 37th on the list of generous donors. But perhaps more tellingly, is that Wal-Mart donates most to charities in its own best interest. From the National Center for Responsive Philanthropy:

"Behind the Wal-Mart facade, the goals of the company and the family have nothing to do with promoting the community's or the public's or even their customers' interest. Instead, there is one goal, and that is to make one of the wealthiest families in the country even richer.

Wal-Mart's donations to little league teams and nursing homes also pales in comparison to the company's donations to non-profits, think tanks and individuals willing to lobby on its behalf or grant favors return. In doing so, Wal-Mart buys the power necessary to continue harming communities and getting away with it. Think Wal-Mart's generous? Maybe so, but only to itself.