RoR: Forum

Post 0

Saturday, November 12, 2005 - 6:56pm

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If Wal-Mart were funded by the government and a part of the welfare state everyone on the planet would LOVE it. They would laud its stunning and unequaled ability to provide low-cost goods to poor people, and good entry-level work to the down-and-out with no job skills. It would be seen as a pure miracle of state planning which hugely benefits the public good and society collectively. This angelic "socially-minded" company and "public entitlement" would be hailed and feted by all, and acknowledged as by far the world's most successful socialist program. But because Wal-Mart provides all this unprecedented social good utterly for free everyone calls them "evil."

Post 1

Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 4:32am

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Wal-Mart is a market actor just like everybody else. My wife and I shop Wal-Mart for the goods we can get more cheaply at Wal-Mart than elsewhere. We buy about 2/3 of our groceries etc. at Wal-Mart, but we also shop the competition when their prices are better. From what I've seen Wal-Mart isn't as dominant as it should be based on the prices they offer.

Jim

(Edited by James Heaps-Nelson on 11/13, 4:37am)

Post 2

Sunday, November 13, 2005 - 12:46pm

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However, like every big instution, Wal-Mart tends to get invovled in real politics, which means that it calls for support through legislations. The latest of these is a minium wage legislation, which even got the support by Wal-Mart. Of course, this is also positive for Wal-Mart, because some of its competitors pay even lower wages than the "EvilMart" (TM). This is exactly the kind of market-politics-connection that classic liberals should combat.