Whether to let a business open up should not hinge on opinion polls. But a recent survey of New Yorkers does underscore the absurdity of banning Wal-Mart from the Big Apple.
If you’re used to seeing a Wal-Mart every 30 miles, you may be surprised to learn that there’s not a single Wal-Mart in New York’s five boroughs. Unions have marshaled political clout to keep the company out. Now, with the store again trying to gain a foothold in the area, “community” activist Pat Boone complains that “We need good paying jobs, not minimum wage jobs.” Wal-Mart pays more than minimum wage. But ask yourself: Is no pay for no work really better than a reasonable entry-level wage that sustains some folks’ homes and hearths?
And who is the “we” that this “community” activist speaks of? The unemployed workers who would flock to the job-application lines if Wal-Mart came to town? The 71 percent of New Yorkers who, according to Douglas Schoen’s survey of 1000 New Yorkers, would cram the store’s aisles?
Too often, political power caters to interest groups eager to force others to conform to their own way of thinking. Markets, by contrast, are all about offering a value and then letting people decide for themselves whether they want to pay for it.
So let Wal-Mart open up, New York. Let honest, hard-working people get the best deals for food and supplies.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
7 replies on “Big Box, Big Apple”
A‑Men to that brother. Well said and long overdue. New York keeps shooting itself in the foot to satisfy some Union Boss or other liberal. ( They are kind of the same thing.)
Walmart sells cheap crap from China and pays their employees squat and gives no benefits.
WalMart is like any large corporation. Low entry level wage with timed raises.
They also supply goods and services that save the Average American more than the amount we pay for unemployment and welfare.
Work used to be a virtue any work was better than no work.
Just because you have your basically useless college degree does not put you above any other person. Until you work you are still basically useless.
Portland allows the smaller WalMarts because our politicians are idiots. We also have one of the largest unemployment rates in the Country.
We do have a lot of trains to nowhere with an annual cost that exceeds 100 million a year.
WalMart pays for itself and gives you a start in life giving many their first jobs.
My first job, at the age of 17, was for the sum of FIFTY DOLLARS A WEEK ($50.00); AND I WAS HAPPY TO GET IT.
AFTER A FEW MONTHS- THAT IS MONTHS, NOT WEEKS, I GOT A RAISE TO $55.00.
NOW, 17 YEAR OLDS WANT TO BE PAID LIEK THEY KNWO WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
And they know little about the real world.
Jay, it seems that you still don’t know what you are doing. You can’t even spell right.
I too, took on whatever jobs that I could find then, went into the military to get a skill. After that, I found a fine career and am now retired and living the good life.
I could have never gotten where I am working at Walmart. Employees there have no future at all.
People who shop at Walmart are just looking for cheap goods made in China by slave labor. They don’t care about what the employees of Walmart have to put up with.
Hey John Ken, what’s your beef with Walmart? You don’t have to buy from them. Walmart employees do have a future — they can advance internally or with the experience can get jobs elsewhere. We shop at Walmart and find their products save us money — and don’t tell me their produce comes from China.
“public interest” is the using of the government’s threat of force and imprisonment to force people to do or not do things that other people desire.
The bigger the government, the more things that it can force people to do and not do and the less liberty.
Probably why the founders tried to limit the government’s activities and duties to just 17 items.