Re: Wal-Mart and Globization

[Robert Anton-Erik <anton933@uidaho.edu>]

I'm neither for nor against Wal-Mart. I think there are certainly negative
aspects to Wal-Mart entering a community. And, in general, I don't like
large retail chains that sell the same crap in every town from here to
timbuktu. But...

I was struck by one of the points made in the AP article Greg included in
his post--that in both communities it was consumers who wanted Wal-Mart
and the established businesses who didn't. And the article seems to imply
that the anti-Wal-Mart organizations formed in both communities were
defeated because the consumers wanted Wal-Mart.

Isn't this the way our economic system is supposed to work? Most people
want (or perhaps think they want) what Wal-Mart, et. al. have to
offer: cheap and disposable consumer goods.

Obviously established business don't want to see Wal-Mart come into their
area. But, that's anti-competitive. Should these businesses be granted a
monopoly? Is it an anti-trust issue for businesses to band together to
prevent competition? While pondering these issues, consider if it was
Microsoft trying to prevent Wal-Martsoft from coming into
"their" community. Does that change your perspective at all?

-------------------------------------
Robert Anton-Erik 
anton933@uidaho.edu 
http://www.ets.uidaho.edu/rob/

"The medium is not the message,
 the message is the message."
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