Wal-Mart

[Ronn! Blankenship]

At 03:50 PM Thursday 2/14/2008, Dan M wrote:

>[...]
>
>You also have argued that market forces don't drive prices, but backroom
>deals do.  If Target, K-mart, and Walmart are all competing for the same
>customer, if one can lower their costs and pass it on to the consumer, why
>is that a bad thing?  Are we morally oblidged to by from inefficient
>boutique stores?  What about the folks who can't afford to do that?


"Let them eat cake"?  (Presumably from the day-old bakery store . . . )



>[...]
>
>Vendors are companies, and although human beings work for companies, they
>not human beings.  Even when I sell my services as a vendor, I don't expect
>to make my case on my children needing college, but on what I can negotiate.
>It becomes problematic at the bottom, I agree, but Wal-Mart is the wrong
>target for this.  They pay the going wage, on average, for store clerks.
>The fact that the going wage is a general concern, not one to that can be
>solved by boycotting Wal-Mart. The fact that Wal-Mart offers merchandise
>that poor people can afford, and forces other stores to do the same is a
>good thing.  The drop in prices caused by the Wal-Mart effect is/was
>nationwide and had a profound impact on the lives of millions.  Since
>Wal-Mart, with a few well publicized exceptions, has been shown to pay the
>going wage, it has had an extremely small effect on wages.
>
>
>In short, I'm arguing that the Wal-Mart effect has been the single largest
>force fighting the slipping of the economic standards of the lower half of
>income earners. I'm not arguing that there have been no negatives.  I'm not
>arguing that Wal-Mart has not broken the law.
>
>I'm arguing that, if you add up all the plusses and the minuses, the net
>effect for poor people is significant and positive.  It seems to me that, if
>one worries about the lack of health insurance, living wages, etc. one
>should attack the sources.



Speaking as someone on a so-called "fixed income*," I have to agree . . .

_____
*There's a "Frank and Ernest" cartoon where one of them walks into a 
bank and announces to the scowling banker "My fixed income is broken again!"


-- Ronn!  :)