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Is Walmart Bad For The Economy?

Is Walmart Bad for the Economy?
Since everyone on and off Wall Street has an opinion of Walmart (WMT) and the recent controversy that surrounds it, I figured it is my turn to sing the song that is Walmart.

First, I want to lay out the controversies that surround this behemoth:

Walmart is accused of unjust labor practices - this includes giving their workers minimum wage and not providing health insurance. My take on this - minimum wages are set by the federal and state governments. There are many companies, both small and large, that give only minimum wage to their employees. Now on the positive side, Walmart saves an average of over $2000 per year for those who shop there regularly. These shoppers who save so much, include the same demographic that works at Walmart. As for health care, Walmart is disadvantaged only by the fact that it is the largest retailer in the world. If that were not the case, this would not be an issue. Aside from Starbucks, no large employer I know of gives health insurance to part time employees, and this is due to the high cost of health care, which in turn is due to the high cost of insurance that doctors/hospitals must purchase to fend off lawsuits, which in turn .... I could go on and on. There are CEO's that make millions, yet are often caught golfing in the afternoon - and thats fine by me - but then I ask those who accuse Walmart of unfair labor practices, why they don't ask United Health or Aetna to cut down their executive salaries by 75%? They can then afford to cut down insurance premiums, which would then bring down the cost of healthcare.

Walmart is also accused of harming smaller "mom and pop" businesses through pricing power. Yes - I believe it is called free market capitalism. People accused Microsoft of pricing power through monopoly too. Has anyone ever really done a detailed analysis of how much Walmart has hurt these small businesses and compared it against how much money it has saved shoppers? I bet the...