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...blame us for ignoring the costs of their low prices.

So says Robert Reich in a recent essay in the NY Times.

Says Reich:

In the eyes of Wal-Mart's detractors, the Arkansas-based chain embodies the worst kind of economic exploitation: it pays its 1.2 million American workers an average of only $9.68 an hour, doesn't provide most of them with health insurance, keeps out unions, has a checkered history on labor law and turns main streets into ghost towns by sucking business away from small retailers. But isn't Wal-Mart really being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there.

And this is the gist of the essay:

The fact is, today's economy offers us a Faustian bargain: it can give consumers deals largely because it hammers workers and communities.

There are costs to unfettered capitalism, and Reich lays out the "Faustian bargain" pretty darn clearly.

Here's a link to the essay on our site in case the link to the NY Times has expired.

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