On 12/21/05, Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >That it drives out small businesses that create qualitative and > >hard-to-quantify benefits? > > Sure, it drives out small businesses. Small businesses are rather > inefficient at selling, and have to pass the cost on to the customer. > There is a certain romanticism about small businesses. They still exist, > of course, but they sell to higher income people who don't mind paying a > significnt premium.
You're writing as though efficiency at selling is the ultimate good. What if it isn't? As a matter of fact, I'm darn sure it isn't. And I suspect that the economy as a whole is less efficient when sectors become dominated by a few large players. Game theory, as well as many simulations, strongly support that idea. All that we *know* Wal-Mart is good at is getting big and keeping prices low. Not being a worshipper of low prices, I'm not willing to let that be the only "bottom line." Why shouldn't working class people shop where their money goes the > furthest? What is wrong with offering something someone wants. People want low prices; Wal-Mart offers low prices, therefore Wal-Mart is good. Is that what you're saying? What about all the other things people want -- jobs that pay well, health insurance, less dependence on traveling long distances by car to shop and so forth? People want those, too, and Wal-Mart isn't delivering. They're taking away. > > Now, you can argue that lower income people don't know what's good for > them....but a lot of them seem to have as much or more sense than the > folks > I see in designer clothes. Yes, I could, were I an elitist jerk. So don't go putting those words in my mouth. The overwhelming evidence is that Wal-Mart stores improve the economics of > the people who shop there vs. buying items at higher price stores. So this is the message to the people left behind by Wal-Mart efficiency -- Sorry you're out of work, your house is in foreclosure and you have no medical care... but be of good cheer, Wal-Mart is rolling back prices! I'm sure you'll be comforted knowing that if you had any money, it would go further at Wal-Mart. And that's just the extreme case, of course. Low prices are not the bottom line. Corporate profits are not the bottom line. If we're to be a decent society, we have to take much more into account. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
