Why Make Half the Market Hate You?

There is something I don't understand about Wal-Mart.

I have never, ever seen a company so determined to piss off half the country. Rule number one in business is supposed to be, don't do politics. Rule number two is, if you do politics do it privately.

Nope, Wal-Mart's heirs have to get in our face about how wonderfully far-right they are. And their corporate officers have to do everything they can to crush labor and anyone else they perceive as The Left.

Well screw that.  Not because I happen to be a Democrat. Because I happen to be a business reporter, and that's just very, very bad for business. It's the kind of stuff companies like Pullman did in the 1890s, the kind of stuff Standard Oil used to pull, and the pushback was ferocious.

From a political point of view I should love what Wal-Mart is doing. Yet from a business point of view I keep asking myself, What Would Sam Think?

I think I know what Sam Walton would think.

He would be disgusted. He would be ashamed. He would be pissed-off.

Sam Walton cared about his people. That's the reason he called them "associates." He was always going into stores and leading pep rallies, not just because it helped his profits but because it helped them. He got a lot of those early associates in as small investors, and made them into millionaires.

Now this? Attack blogs in cyberspace?  A brain-dead MySpace clone?

Don't give me any of this "they started it" crap, either. Costco makes a pretty penny while paying its workers well. You don't have to crush people to make money for yourself.

I can't think of a better reason to keep the estate tax. Or to raise it.