*** Is it stupidity, or are voters electing brain-damaged politicians? *** Those are the only two explanations for recent actions on the city side of Washington, D.C. There, council members are picking a fight with Wal-Mart. In their wisdom – i.e. unconscionable stupidity – the council has passed the Large Retailer Accountability Act that requires Wal-Mart, and pretty much Wal-Mart alone, to pay a minimum of $12.50 an hour to its workers, 52% higher than any other retailer in D.C. must pay, including Wal-Mart’s big-box competitors. Numbingly stupid as that is, that’s actually not the really stupid part. It’s this: D.C. council member and bill supporter Vincent Orange told a retail trade-association magazine that: “We’re at a point where we don’t need retailers. Retailers need us.” That type of ignorance has to be the result of brain damage – or economic Tourette’s Syndrome. D.C.’s unemployment rate at 8.6% is one of the highest in the nation. One in every five Washingtonians lives below the poverty line. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s net profit – a record $17.8 billion for fiscal 2013 – is almost exactly double D.C.’s city budget, and the retailer aims to bring six stores and 1,800 jobs to the city. Fairly obvious to me, then, is that D.C. needs Wal-Mart far more than Wal-Mart, with 11,000 stores, needs six more piddly outlets. And Wal-Mart knows this. Instead of kowtowing to politicians with the business acumen of a potted geranium, Wal-Mart is threatening to bolt, leaving 1,800 locals without jobs. D.C. will not see tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue. And one developer who is spending $200 million on D.C.’s most-eagerly awaited redevelopment project – anchored by a Wal-Mart – says that without the retailer, the desperately needed revitalization project is dead. Good job, Mr. Vincent. I guess you’re right – D.C. doesn’t need Wal-Mart as much as Wal-Mart needs D.C. This is the thing about politicians, especially those on the far left. They so don’t understand capitalism and the free markets that they cannot grasp the reality that for-profit businesses have done far more for the poor than government ever has. Wal-Mart wants to be bring jobs, income opportunities and low-cost retail options to areas of D.C. that desperately need them … and politicians can’t understand that their meddling always creates unintended and generally negative consequences, and that those consequences almost always hurt the poor. Government in America, at all levels, simply cannot get out of the way of itself. It’s one of the biggest weights holding the country back on social, educational and economic levels … and it won’t change until voter mentality changes.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 00:24:52 +0000
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