Is Wal-Mart good for America? (Response to PBS hit piece)

Townhall.com ^ | November 19, 2004 | Bruce Bartlett

[gunnedah]

PBS is nothing more than a liberal mouthpiece. If Americans don't take a stand soon we will be overthrown.
The so called "Mainstream Media" and our bastions of higher education have been overrun by liberals.C-Span had a program on yesterday of news panelist I suppose and even they were sliming Bush and the country and it really surprised me when one of the panelist suggested that they may eventually have a conservative speak.It is ridiculous how the so called news media keep trying to brainwash the American public while thumbing their noses at them
This same M.O. prevailed in 2000 as soon as Bush took office. They pounded on him constantly for four years and they now are at it again.
The mood of the nation is starting to show and spilling over in the public. The Democrats and liberals will not be satisfied until they take over or there is a confrontation giving the courts the power to overthrow our government.
Yes America is divided and the liberals keep up their chant of hatred and division.

[The Great Yazoo]

I blame government for bad laws, not businesses operating within the system government imposes. I blame the courts for erosion of private property rights. I blame the Alabama legislature for loose takings laws. I blame Alabaster, Alabama's city council for taking these folks' property.

[The Great Yazoo]

Maybe the Bush administration should advocate PBS's "deregulation," weaning it off the public dole. We'd see how long it survives in the marketplace.

[dogbyte12]

YEs, Is there a conservative argument against wal-mart?

There is a culturally conservative argument against wal-mart in that it destroys the character and history of communities.

When the local hardware, book, 5 & dime, dry cleaner etc store close, it radically alters the culture of the community.

Wal-Mart is a big example, but of course we have tiny communities with shuttered local institutions replaced by the Wal-mart, Home Depot, McDonald's and Starbucks.

This is creating a radical shift in a town's character and self identity. Part of the joy of me, when younger, taking road trips, was to go into small towns, and check out the local diners, bookstores, etc, because there was "nothing" like it back home.

Super chains are obliterating part of the american fabric of local culture.

[The Great Yazoo]

This is Jacques Chirac's argument against America!

[Haro_546]

"radically alters the culture of the community".I agree, yet it is voluntary.

[dogbyte12]

Oh absolutely. I don't blame Wal-Mart. They are just making money.

I blame ourselves. We have decided to let the 100 year old local institution go in exchange for $5 more in our pockets. It is a trade off though. That is my concern. We, collectively, aren't intellectually making that choice. We want Wal-Mart prices, and our local institutions as well. We have to choose one or the other though. I am not going to diss those who choose Wal-Mart. I choose local business.

[Haro_546]

Change is what america is all about is in it?

[1rudeboy]

I don't have an argument with the infant-industry argument per se, just with the notion that Adam Smith "did not forsee" it.

[MaryJaneNC]

Wal Mart has also put many small business owners out of business because they target small towns.

[hosepipe]

[ Is Wal-Mart good for America? ]

Better..
Is pBS good for America ?.. A few good pBS documentary's just legitimize outright in your face sedition.. like any of Bill Moyers "stuff".. pBS should be reigned in from being an obvious democrat pit of malfeasance..

[fightu4it]

High Praise from Japan

“There is not a day I don't think about what Dr. Deming meant to us. Deming is the core of our management.” These glowing words were spoken at the 1991 Deming Prize ceremony by Shoichiro Toyoda, president of Toyota Motor Corp. Other noteworthy Japanese had equally high praise for W. Edwards Deming at that ceremony. “Deming made a great contribution to the recovery of Japan's economy after the total war,” said Koji Kobayashi, chairman emeritus of NEC. “We needed his authority. He fascinated the Japanese people.” Said Yoji Akao, engineering professor at Temagawa University, “He’s the person who introduced quality control after the devastation of the war and who was the starting point of the whole development of quality control in Japan. Japan owes a great deal to him.”

The cheap, poor quality crap that occupies the shelfs of Wal-Mart are just that: cheap, poor quality crap. When I started fishing with my grandfather more years ago than I care to relate, he had already been using his Jhonson century spincast reels for some time. Those reels passed on to me and I used them until they literally fell apart from use. They were made in the good old USA and there was plenty of competition in that market.

Today I have to settle for a cheap Chinese piece of crap that will malfunction half of the time. I am not a violent person but one such piece of crap provoked me to the point that I ripped it from the rod and threw it in the lake I was fishing.

I am surprised that there doesn't seem to be one American manufacturer of a quality spincast reel. If there was, they couldn't get their product on Wal-Mart's shelfs. Wal-Mart is not concerned about quality, only cheap crap that they know from experience that most people will not even return to the store when it doesn't work correctly or it breaks because of poor engineering.

[R. Scott]

It drives down Publix's prices and gives me choices.

I guess it is good to have a local Wal-Mart and K-mart – just for the competition.

[The Great Yazoo]

Not only did Adam Smith foresee the "infant industry" argument, he devastated it!

See The Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter II.

[The Great Yazoo]

Sorry. I guess my comments are directed to curiosity, not to you!

[curiosity]

Adam Smith didn't even understand the concepts of supply and demand. As an economic treatise, it was groundbreaking, but it is dated. Economics has had 220+ years to advance since Smith, and a lot of what he said has turned out to be wrong.

[The Great Yazoo]

Your comment is not worthy of a response.

[1rudeboy]

I second your comment above.

[SamAdams76]

WMT is killing our way of life, buy shuting down local businesses and replacing those jobs with minimum wage, no benifit jobs.

I know somebody who makes $60,000 a year at Wal-Mart and gets full benefits. And no, he's not in "upper management" either. In fact, the manager of the store he's in makes six figures.

So much for your argument. You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.

[devane617]

With your obvious lack of intelligence, I am not surprised you are a WMT supporter.