On Tue, 5 Dec 2006 18:41:01 -0500, "Mike Marlow"
wrote:

So what you're saying is that Wal Mart or Home Depot moved into Bixby, drove
out all of the mom-n-pop businesses (which has been demonstrated to be a
falisy, but we'll assume it for the sake of the discussion), and then having
successfully closed down all of these salt of the earth businesses, pulled
out of Bixby themselves?

I still think it's amazing how many people completely misunderstand
capitalism. Walmart and HD do not drive *ANYONE* out of business. If
anything, it's the CUSTOMERS who choose, of their own free will, to
shop at Walmart and HD, that do it. Walmart and HD don't herd
customers at gunpoint into their stores, they simply offer lower
prices, because of their size and buying power, and people make the
CHOICE to shop there. So anyone who claims that Walmart and HD drive
anyone out of business is a bald-faced liar.

And if they moved out of Bixby, it's likely they couldn't make enough
money to make a profit, what do you expect them to do? They leave and
anyone else who wants to start a business again is welcome to.

It's called competition. It's the cornerstone of the economic system
of capitalism.