In a feisty response to critics who accuse Wal-Mart of providing poverty-level wages (around $9.68 an hour, on average) and few benefits, Wal-Mart chief executive H. Lee Scott, Jr., said Wal-Mart offered good, stable jobs, noting that when it opens a store, more than 3,000 people often apply for 300 jobs. "It doesn't make sense," Mr. Scott said, "that people would line up for jobs that are worse than they could get elsewhere, with fewer benefits and less opportunities." Based on what you learned in this chapter, do you agree with Mr. Scott's assessment.