Wal-Mart solution for France?

Many people, even several free trade loving conservative types that i know, hate Wal-Mart. It pays its employees too little money to live on and is so cheap it drives other places out of business. Looking at the opinions of this economist, (note: a PhD holding expert) we see both the pluses and minuses to Wal-Mart. I don't know exactly how i feel about it but he lays out the facts pretty well, even if you don't agree with his conclusions, its hard to argue that the facts are wrong. I don't know a whole lots about the EITC so if anyone does maybe they can weigh in more. Seems to me from this that Wal-Mart isn't necessarily to blame or cheer, but combined with EITC is a better way than the "nanny system" in much of Europe. Also the Euorpean economy as a whole is in far far more trouble than the US, which is growing at over 4% as of latest data.

Additonal link to the Wall Street Journal about what Wal-Mart does