OPINION:
The day after Donald Trump left office, Amazon, the company created and controlled by Jeff Bezos, offered to assist in getting the COVID-19 vaccines out. Where was when the vaccine first came out, about a month ago, while President Trump was still in office? Heaven forbid Mr. Bezos should do anything to help the American people when such an action did not fit into his leftist political agenda.
Here we have one of the primary retailers in the world — an organization which is destroying our free-enterprise system and the small businesses all around America with volume buying and endorsements of Chinese slave labor. Mr. Bezos is believed to be the richest person in the world. (Well, at least he was until his now-ex-wife took him for half his total wealth.)
And while we look at Amazon let’s look at Walmart and what all those wealthy Waltons. Here is another example of how small business is being destroyed. Take the town of Shenandoah, Iowa. It’s a nice farming center in Southwest Iowa. Walmart opened about 40 years ago on the edge of the town, and the “little guys” there have slowly been shutting down: hardware, clothing, all sorts of retailers. Now all that is left of the old business area is a couple of struggling restaurants, consignment shops and some nonprofit or health-care operations. There are many vacant commercial buildings on Sheridan Avenue, the main street in town.
This story is repeated all over the country as Bezos and the Waltons keep getting richer. Small businesses disappear and their owners become baggers at the big box store — or worse, they become destitute.
American consumers need to support their small local businesses and American manufacturers and avoid whenever possible Amazon and Walmart, these two destroyers of the American free-enterprise system.
TOM O’HARA
Sharon, Conn.
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