14 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
14 lines
3.3 KiB
Plaintext
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Why I love Walmart despite never shopping there
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<p>In a discussion thread that wandered to the subject of Walmart and its enemies, I said “Scratch a Walmart-basher and you’ll find a snotty elitist, a person who hates capitalism and consumption and deep down thinks the Wrong People have Too Much Stuff.”</p>
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<p>The commenter <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3968&cpage=1#comment-345603">replied</a>: “You know, I don’t think you need to be an anti-capitalist in order to disdain over-consumption and its enablers.”</p>
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<p>No, certainly not. My own preference is to live simply, getting and spending little and putting my energy into creative work. Much of what we think of as “normal” behavior in a consumer society strikes me as wasteful and vulgar. But it’s a disdain I tend to keep quiet about, for at least two reasons:</p>
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<p><span id="more-3993"></span></p>
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<p>I find that, as little as I like excess and overconsumption, voicing that dislike gives power to people and political tendencies that I consider far more dangerous than overconsumption. I’d rather be surrounded by fat people who buy too much stuff than concede <em>any ground at all</em> to busybodies and would-be social engineers.</p>
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<p>But there’s more than that going on here…</p>
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<p>Rich people going on about the crassness of materialism, or spouting ecological pieties, often seem to me to me to be retailing a subtle form of competitive sabotage. “There, there, little peasant…” runs the not-so-hidden message “…it is more virtuous to have little than much, so be content with the scraps you have.” After which the speaker delivers a patronizing pat on the head and jets off to Aruba to hang with the other aristos at a conference on Sustainable Eco-Multiculturalism or something.</p>
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<p>I do not – <em>ever</em> – want to be one of those people. And just by being a white, college-educated American from an upper-middle-class SES, I’m in a place where honking about overconsumption sounds even to <em>myself</em> altogether too much like crapping on the aspirations of poorer and browner people who have bupkis and quite reasonably want more than they have.</p>
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<p>I was less reticent when I was younger, until I noticed what I sounded like. I’ll still snark freely about vulgar ostentation and overconsumption in people who are richer than me, but I don’t do the other direction any more. It’s…unseemly.</p>
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<p>Which is a reason I tend to mute any criticisms I have of Walmart. I basically don’t ever shop there – I think I bought a specific $13 tacklebox once because I knew by seeing an example that it was right for a use I had in mind. I do not love the ambience of Walmarts; by my standards they’re loud, cheerless, and tacky – and that describes a lot of their merchandise and their shoppers, too.</p>
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<p>But my esthetic and aspirational standards are those of a comparatively wealthy person even in U.S. terms, let alone world terms. To the people who use Walmart and belong there, Walmart is a tremendous boon that stretches their purchasing power, enabling them to have things that don’t suck.</p>
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<p>That’s why I love the idea of Walmart, and will defend it against its enemies.</p>
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