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Message: <blockquote data-quote="David Argall" data-source="post: 959072" data-attributes="member: 4481">economics course"in the case of Wal-Mart, a very good reason not to buy from them is because they have atrocious business practices. They sell sweatshop-produced goods, they have a bad track record with employees, and they drive local businesses out and homogenize availability of goods and services, which I think is a bad thing."     Actually, it is a quite good thing, which is why people buy there in large numbers.  Let's start by loading the language the opposite way..    Wal-Mart provides low cost goods by not allowing its employees to loaf on the customers' time, and makes sure they do good work to provide you the service desired at a price the ripoff artists can't match.        You are in partnership with Wal-Mart when it pays its employees and the money they get comes directly out of your pocket.  Which do you ask?  What are the employees paid?  or Which is the lower price?      And homogenize means you can get the services you want.  You do not have to move to Latin America to eat bananas, or to Canada for ice cream.  They are both at the store around the corner, whether that store is inside the US or in Europe or...  You are getting what you want.       "money tends to flow out of the community and into corporate coffers, whereas local purchasing supports the community. "    Delusional.  Notice how people flow out of the communities that don't have these big stores and chains.  They are satisfying a need and attracting people.      The basic point is that while money is flowing out, it is also flowing in.  We have new jobs, new construction, greater income for the average consumer [in the real sense that lower prices means his income can now buy more]...  What has happened is that you are involved in a larger circulation of money than without these large chains.  One way, the money flowed from Hicksville to Podunk and back.  Now it flows from Hicksville to Chicago, to Paris, to Maimi, and back to Hicksville.    "This can have a significant impact on the economic health of your city and town, the diversity of businesses, wages, job availability, etc."    Yup, tho the opposite of what you are thinking.  For example the average consumer now has extra money in his pocket, which means he can buy from yet another merchant, increasing the diversity of businesses.     "If you like to argue straight libertarian, capitalist "vote with your dollar," "survival of the fittest" philosophy, you ought to consider that this only works and is only fair with a level playing field."    Quite the contrary.  All of economics is dealing with uneven playing fields, which are superior.     John is 7'6".  Sam is 4'5".  Nothing level there.  So John changes the ceiling lightbulbs [or stars in the NBA] and Sam scraps the gum off the underside of the table [or is a winning jockey].  Both are better off because they are different and can do things the other can't.  They would be both be made worse off if you made them each 6'0".  They, and we, don't want a level playing field.      "The fact that local stores have to deal with sales tax and onliners usually don't means they get an unfair advantage. It also represents millions upon millions in lost revenue for local government, which provides roads, police, fire department, and other services to both local and remote sellers."      It also provides power to the politicians, boondoggles, ego gratificating monuments...  The assumption that government = waste is well founded, and the more money we keep out of government hands, the better for us.   " In the U.S. and most of the industrialized world, we don't really have capitalism, but rather corporate socialism. Corporate profits are privatized, but corporate expenses and losses are largely socialized. It's not a free market, but a free ride for big business."    Corporate profits are less than 5 cents on the sales dollar [& in the case of Wal-Mart, way less], so the free ride is that of the consumer who buys corporate products.    Note too that old saying, "2 wrongs do not make a right." .  If we regard corporate subsidies as evil [which they often are], we fight the subsidies, not try to attack the corporation on a point where it is benefiting all.</blockquote>

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