Some clever fellow once wrote that if Apple had allowed any manufacturer to build a machine that could work their operating system, the Justice Department would have ended up suing them instead of Microsoft. I suppose that this is the ultimate sign of success in the modern world economy: the Justice Department takes you to court. Another is that the Democrats in Congress denounce you. From the New York Times:
DES MOINES, Aug. 16 — Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, a likely Democratic presidential candidate in 2008, delivered a 15-minute, blistering attack to warm applause from Democrats and union organizers here on Wednesday. But Mr. Biden’s main target was not Republicans in Washington, or even his prospective presidential rivals.
It was Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer.
Among Democrats, Mr. Biden is not alone. Across Iowa this week and across much of the country this month, Democratic leaders have found a new rallying cry that many of them say could prove powerful in the midterm elections and into 2008: denouncing Wal-Mart for what they say are substandard wages and health care benefits.
Six Democratic presidential contenders have appeared at rallies like the one Mr. Biden headlined, along with some Democratic candidates for Congress in some of the toughest-fought races in the country.
“My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people,” Mr. Biden said, standing on the sweltering rooftop of the State Historical Society building here. “They talk about paying them $10 an hour. That’s true. How can you live a middle-class life on that?”
Rich Karlgaard, at Forbes, has this to say:
OK, I would not want to try a middle-class lifestyle on $10 an hour. Neither would you. But a question for Mr. Biden: When in history has a store clerk had a claim on the middle class life … home ownership, a late model car or two? (Answer: never) Why must Wal-Mart uniquely bear the responsibility of supplying middle-class incomes to checkout clerks and shelf stockers?
I note that 10 bucks an hour is almost twice the minimum wage. Wal Mart is doing what Congress doesn't know how to do. But Karlgaard is right. My teenage son works at KMart. He has enough dough to eat at McDonalds whenever my wife and I prepare meals with too many exotic vegetables, and he can afford to fill his room with even more impressive audio-visual hardware. Is it realistic to expect KMart to provide him with a house and a car of his own? If it did, how could I persuade him to go to college?
With respect to Wal Mart, the people vote with their feet (and occasionally, as the referendum in Aberdeen proves, by voting). Shoppers want the big box stores. Workers want the big box stores (well, except for union workers). The big boxes create jobs at an amazing clip, and better still, they are astoundingly productive. Contrary to conventional wisdom, they benefit the communities they move into. Karlgaard again:
“After looking at 25 small towns in different states where Wal-Mart opened stores in 2002, economists Richard Vedder of Ohio University and researcher Bryan O'Keefe of the American Enterprise Institute concluded that employment growth was stronger in Wal-Mart communities than in others."
“In a separate study, economist Emek Basker of the University of Missouri found that, on average, a new Wal-Mart kills 50 local retailing jobs, but creates 100 others—a net gain of 50. And, contrary to Democrats' claims, local wages don't decline."“Labor Department data show that labor productivity for "big-box" discount stores like Wal-Mart rose at a sizzling 7.6% pace from 1987 to 2004. And according to the McKinsey Global Institute, productivity gains at Wal-Mart alone accounted for an amazing 13% of all productivity gains in the U.S. from 1995 to 1999—smack in the middle of the so-called Internet boom.”
Now that is a menace that the Democrats can mobilize against!
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