>How is Wal-Mart the new Ford?
As symbols of their respective times. Ford symbolized mass production, higher wages tied to rising productivity, and mass consumption based on those higher wages. Wal-Mart symbolizes mass retailing, discounting, vicious management of the supply chain, and capital capturing all the rise in productivity because the wages suck. Ford also represented the male breadwinner; Wal-Mart, the economy where everyone has to work, including the women, because the wages suck.
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