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In the past month, Wal-Mart has come under fire for opening two new stores, one in Hawaii over an ancient burial ground where bodies were removed from their resting places, and one in Mexico in the shadows of ancient and holy Mexican ruins. Both openings were met with protests from locals.

The opening of these two stores underscores the problem with the world’s largest retailer: a criminal lack of compassion.

Everywhere that Wal-Mart is present, the lives of people and the well-being of communities are being destroyed.

Wal-Mart has become the most successful company in the world because of its pledge to customers to keep prices down. At no other retailer can you find lower prices than Wal-Mart prices. Whether it’s clothing, toys or even food, Wal-Mart destroys its competitors in price wars.

For this, the people of the United States and around the world have rewarded Wal-Mart by offering consumer devotion. Perhaps you are one of these people.

The only problem is, very few people seem to ask why Wal-Mart’s prices are so low. They either don’t think about it or they just don’t care.

Frankly, it’s time to do both.

Wal-Mart keeps prices low by leaving a trail of broken people in its wake.

This trail begins in third world countries around the globe where Wal-Mart’s suppliers are under constant pressure from the retailing giant to cut costs in order to cut prices. This has led most of the producers of Wal-Mart products to move their factories to countries like Honduras, Bangladesh and, most notably, China.

In these countries, Wal-Mart’s suppliers operate without the pressure of strict labor laws and wage restrictions. A factory worker in China makes 25 cents an hour to do the same work that merits $13 in the U.S.

The largest group of people most vulnerable to abuse and represented in these factories are young women.

There are more than 3,000 factories in China that export to Wal-Mart. China has a worldwide reputation for human rights violations, including mistreatment of workers.

How can a company like Wal-Mart, which sells itself as an all-American institution, support the perpetuation of human rights abuses to save a few cents on the dollar for every t-shirt it sells? What could be more un-American than that?

Sadly, once the products are sent from the sweatshops to the U.S., Wal-Mart’s treatment of workers doesn’t improve very much.

Inside Wal-Mart stores, the way workers are treated is having an effect on the general treatment of workers in every service industry throughout the country.

Wal-Mart is infamous for its resistance to workers unions. Not a single Wal-Mart worker is unionized, and the company has taken every step to insure that it will remain that way for years to come. Workers who have attempted to organize labor groups have been fired or prevented from advancing in the company.

This has led to low wages and poor benefits for Wal-Mart workers. A Wal-Mart grocery worker makes $9 an hour for doing the same work that merits more than $14 an hour plus pension and family health insurance in a unionized position.

Wal-Mart itself has admitted that a full-time employee might not be able to support a family.

What is most disturbing about Wal-Mart’s anti-union stance is that it has forced its competition to move towards the same position.

Last year, California grocery store workers went on strike because their employers had to cut their benefits in order to stay in business as Wal-Mart moved in a fleet of superstores that include grocery stores in each one. Wal-Mart is now the nation’s top grocer, which means that in order to survive, the competition is going to have to start treating its workers with the same unscrupulous practices as Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has already destroyed many other industries with similar tactics. It is famous for ruining local businesses by moving into communities and offering prices mom and pop can’t compete with. Eventually, all that’s left is Wal-Mart.

This is not good for America.

It’s not good to have every small business run out of town by a company that cares more about the bottom line than human rights and providing a prosperous life for its hard-working employees.

Nothing will stop Wal-Mart from continuing its reign of corporate terror. Its competitors are rendered helpless against its might. Its workers are under-represented and left without the institutions they need to fight. The government has done nothing and most likely will not do anything in the near future.

The task of forcing Wal-Mart to stop hurting its employees and killing our communities is left up to consumers.

Don’t shop at Wal-Mart. Don’t spend one red cent to support the system that is forcing millions of third-world workers to live each day submissively, that is driving the average wage into the ground and is making our communities a homogenous blur of corporate decadence.

Spend the extra dollar on that shirt, the extra quarter on that bag of chips or the extra nickel on that toy at the store down the street until Wal-Mart realizes people won’t stand for their brand of business.

You may have a few less dollars in your wallet, but at least you’ll be able to sleep better knowing that you did nothing to contribute to these horrendous transgressions.