tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555502.post113087998107570083..comments2023-10-30T08:12:13.060-07:00Comments on Thosethingswesay: WalMart War RoomMike M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/14716539792698477275noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555502.post-1130994747042624042005-11-02T21:12:00.000-08:002005-11-02T21:12:00.000-08:00So much right stuff here.I think the theme we've b...So much right stuff here.<BR/><BR/>I think the theme we've both been hitting on a lot lately is that when you decide, as we seem to have done, that markets are inevitable and that politics can do nothing about them, you're left with whatever the market gives you. Politics, for all its flaws, at least people's takes hopes, wishes, dreams and intentions into some sort of account when it operates. Markets are reflect such issues only in a small way and in the large sense, they kind of was out.<BR/><BR/>Great point about Ford. Turning your workers into consumers of a high end product has an entirely different effect than turning workers into consumers of low end products.<BR/><BR/>Another point of interest: Wal-Mart has only recently become interested in politics and public relations. For a long time, they didn't have to. The short-term effect of a new Wal-Mart was to boost local economies by bringing prices down. The long-term effect, which was only seen decades into the chain's expansion, was to depress wages to the point that lower prices don't much matter.<BR/><BR/>I doubt there's much conspiracy within Wal-Mart. Store and regional managers try to make their budgets and they do it by squeezing suppliers, buying product abroad and cutting wages, even to the point of hiring cleaning contractors who supplied illegal immigrant labor, a big enough step removed from Wal-Mart that the company could claim, once found out, to have been duped rather than responsible.<BR/><BR/>So, now... they're big into politics and PR and are trying to sell their story to Washington and to the country.<BR/><BR/>I doubt Wal-Mart is evil. But it is what it is, as you say, because it's unfettered and it has become a problem.Mike M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/14716539792698477275noreply@blogger.com