So, has either of you read Deep Economy by Bill McKibbin?

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Economy-W...32064&sr= 8-1

Makes sense to me! (not usually a top poster, but someone might like
to refer to the thread that provoked this response from me)

On Sun, 22 Feb 2009 13:22:08 -0500, "
wrote:

HeyBub wrote:
wrote:
One of the towns in this area fought off, at least temporarily,
building a WalDump on a pristine, riverfront site. Wal probably
could much better afford the legal expenses, but this was a dedicated
group of people - just ordinary local folks, not an enviro. group. We also
lost a large mobile home park - nice, well-kept retiree homes
- to a chain that might be Wal. I won't shop Wal if it's the last
store on the planet. Folks can keep shopping at Wal and wondering
WTF happened to their jobs.............

And, in your first example, the purists can live in the riverfront park
because they can't afford anything else.

These weren't "purists", they were people who live in the community and
value the resource that WalMart was ready to ruin. It is a gorgeous
site, not just land that nobody else wanted.

If you look at the cities that do not have a Walmart (Chicago, New York,
Boston, D.C., San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston, etc.), I think you'll
discover the pattern (Houston has 17 Walmarts, Las Vegas has 14).

Which "pattern"? Open land? Chicago has miles of waterfront parks, the
result of folks long, long ago who knew the value of open spaces. You
can ride a horse close to downtown Chicago, drive for miles with a view
of the park and the water, hold an outdoor rally for a million people,
have a picnic and visit a great museum, hop on a bus or train to go
home. BTDT.

Jobs? Last year a Walmart opened across the street from Chicago. The store
had THIRTEEN THOUSAND applicants for 300+ jobs and 70% of the applicants had
Chicago ZIP codes! Most studies show Walmart creates more jobs than are
lost - and the jobs are of equal or better employe value.

Cool, work at Walmart and spend in Chicago. Works for me ) And the
wages, no doubt, add tremendously to the economy....well, if the
employee's two other jobs are counted. FWIW, the Miami PD had how many
thousands of applicants for one of the worst jobs in the country. Avg.
length of employment is about 2 yrs, I believe.

So, a one-owner (and repair) shop sells small appliances, TV's, stereos.
He can't run it alone, so he hires a couple of skilled people to learn
the repair end and give him some time off. His employees draw loyal
customers, not just shoppers for the cheapest deal...and adds to the
value of the original purchase by having a place to service it.

Sure, some mom and pop stores will suffer, but complaining about that is
equivalent to lamenting the demise of the buggy-whip industry because
eveybody's buying the new-fangled automobile.

When companies ship jobs out of the country ... yesterday it was one of
the computer mfg's, I think ... who do they think is going to be left
with a wage that can buy their product in the US? I keep asking myself.

Myself, I'd LOVE to be able to open a store in the same parking lot as a
Walmart - use them as an anchor sto Ice cream shop, bookstore, sandwich
shop, auto parts, wedding chapel, whatever.


SOL...Walmart sells the sandwiches, ice cream, books, auto parts. Mebbe
a wedding chapel...Walmart can do the photography. Hot dog cart or a
massage parlor might work. Or is WalMart doing massages?