When the lion roars...

Who says big corporations can't do good things.

It seems Wal-Mart is now turning their massive buying power to the cost of medicine. The retail giant announced that it would begin offering generic brands of about 300 of the most popular drugs at $4 per subscription to its employees and customers. That's less than half of the standard drugstore price. Stocks for several other retail drug chains fell on the news.

Dunno if you're aware of this, but the buying power of Wal-Mart has been credited with actually lowering the CPI by at least 3.1% annually. And now with them getting into the drug purchasing business for their stores, they seem to be poised to do the same thing in that arena as well.

And do you want to know what the shame is? This could have been done at government levels long before this. Before the institution of the disastrous prescription drug program and the cards no senior can puzzle out. Bulk buy programs have been instituted successfully in other countries besides this one to help make prescription drugs affordable to consumers. I leave it to your favorite theory to explain the reluctance in the US.

So kudos to Wal-Mart for having the cojones our legislators lack.

But I still won't shop at your stores. Not without a cattle prod and and a flak jacket.

- Farmer Ted