progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
You be the judge.
I suspect we’ll see more from eRobin on the Wacky World of Sebastian Mallaby . She’s followed Walmart more closely than I have. What I can do is point out the faulty logic, and wonder if this is intentionally fallacious. i.e., propaganda, or if he has some kind of mental defect. Take this argument against the “buy American” ethos (emphasis mine):
Some claim that their beliefs are consistent, but that the company has changed: The Wal-Mart of the early 1990s mainly bought American, whereas today’s irresponsible monster buys cheap stuff from China. But this argument merely illustrates how far Democrats have come. Since when did the party’s centrists believe that trading with China is evil? It was the Clinton administration that brought China into the World Trade Organization.
Ahem. I believe the concern is not that Walmart is buying from China as well as the US, the concern is that Walmart is buying from China instead of the US.
Later, Mallaby demonstrates that Walmart has fair wages: (emphasis mine)
Other Democrats reaffirm their centrist credentials while calling upon Wal-Mart to pay workers more. “We are not here today because we are anti-business,” Bayh asserted in Iowa recently as he demonstrated against Wal-Mart — a contention that the retailer’s shareholders, who have spent millions defending their brand against Wake-Up Wal-Mart, may have a hard time swallowing. But the idea that Wal-Mart pays below-market wages is false. Otherwise nobody would work there.
Did you know that across the US there is a uniform supply of high-paying jobs for unskilled workers? Neither did I. Apparently, Walmart doesn’t take advantage of its employees. Because if they did, then their employers would take jobs at one of the manifold high-paying employers in their neighborhood.
It’s also instructive to look at what others are saying about this column, particularly as to what motivates those opposed to Walmart’s practices.
Cap’n Ed thinks it’s about Democrats pandering to the unions: “And this is, of course, why the Democrats have adopted this mantle. They need to shore up their union support, and Wal-Mart is the bete noir of organized labor. They have had no success in penetrating Wal-Mart’s labor force, and that failure has cut into their revenue — revenue that unions can put to political uses. Since the Democrats overwhelmingly benefit from those political uses, the Democrats have decided to attack Wal-Mart to the point where the unions can gain a foothold with the retailer’s employees.”
Jay Reding thinks it’s about pandering to economic populism: “Trying to exploit economic populism in a time of unprecedented global interconnectedness, when millions of Americans owe their jobs to world trade, is simply poor politics. The Clinton Administration was far more “progressive” than the so-called progressives in liberalizing world trade, helping to usher in a time of unprecedented prosperity in America. Unfortunately, the increasingly radicalized Democratic Party of today have jettisoned their own best ideas in favor cheap populist rhetoric.”
Another Rovian Conspiracy thinks Democrats just hate the middle class: “These people would never set foot in a WalMart - even at gunpoint. And their objection to shopping there isn’t because of WalMart’s supposedly unfair labor practices, but because they see WalMart as the realm of the rube, working-class stiff. The yokels that don’t know that voting for Howard Dean and seeking out a collectivist state is what’s best for their interests.”
As you know, the left half of the blogosphere recently appointed me spokesperson. So, I’ll explain why there is much ado about Walmart. It has nothing to do with people being treated fairly, or workers being forced to go to ER’s instead of receiving health benefits. It has nothing to do with Walmart forcing out the family businesses. It has nothing to do with a time when “Made in the USA” didn’t mean a sweat shop in the Marianas islands.
No, we just don’t like people from Arkansas. That’s why.
[powered by WordPress.]
hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
[Link]
[Link]
On a muggy Florida evening in 2008, I meet Iraq War veteran Forrest Fogarty in the Winghouse, a little bar-restaurant on the outskirts of Tampa, his favorite hangout. [Link]
The Labor Department announced this morning that new applications for jobless benefits rose to a seasonally adjusted 542,000 last week. It also revised the figure from the previous week down to 515,000. [Link]
A team from IBM has spent the past several years constructing a virtual-world version of China's Forbidden City. [Link]
Following confirmation that Google intends to open its virtual world Lively to games developers, creative director Kevin Hanna has revealed the long-term goal is for the service to become an online games platform. [Link]
CHIBA, Japan (AP) -- Video game rivals Sony and Microsoft are going head-to-head in virtual worlds for their home consoles later this year. [Link]
a) He was paid by Dick Cheney's henchwoman Mary Matalin to write a book on Obama [Link]
One bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "we hafta." Another bunch of guys is getting up and saying, "nuh-uh." [Link]
To be able to say to folks, "You can keep what you have" is a big political selling point. [Link]
Here, based on 16 years experience watching Bill Clinton campaign — and interviews with a half-dozen veterans of his political teams — is a reasonably safe bet about his campaign advice to Barack Obama: [Link]
WASHINGTON — Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday. [Link]
We are going to have a new administration. Do we want these policies continued or not? [Link]
You can try Counter Culture coffees at: - Baked and Wired, 1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW, 202-333-2500; www.bakedandwired.com [Link]
In sum, we concluded that the evidence showed that Goodling violated both federal law and Department policy, and therefore committed misconduct... [Link]
27 queries. 0.633 seconds
August 28th, 2006 at 12:48 pm
AltHippo - Thanks for proving several points.
1 - that the reason you don’t like WalMart is because it’s run by and patroned by people who you don’t like (ie, rubes & working stiffs)
2 - That you have little understanding about economics. You state:
Did you know that across the US there is a uniform supply of high-paying jobs for unskilled workers? Neither did I. Apparently, Walmart doesn’t take advantage of its employees. Because if they did, then their employers would take jobs at one of the manifold high-paying employers in their neighborhood.
Now, you don’t know it, but you’re proving Sebastian Mallaby’s point. Unskilled workers get a certain pay, commensurate with their skills. Or perhaps you understand this but think that unskilled workers should be paid the same amount as skilled workers. Or perhaps everyone should be paid more? Please let me know which one you’re arguing for…
As Mallaby points out, WalMart’s workers get the same (or better) pay than their fellow workers in the retail industry who are employed by other retailers (ie, WalMart’s competitors). The surest sign of this is the fact that WalMart’s employees are not leaving WalMart for a similar job at another retailer. In addition, Mallaby points out that WalMart extends health benefits to its employees which are (apparently) heavily subsidized by the company. I know that when I worked in retail, the health benefits that were extended cost much more than what WalMart is offering theirs at - and this was approx. 15 years ago.
Thanks for the link and always appreciate a good debate… just ask around.
;-)
Regards,
St Wendeler from Another Rovian Conspiracy
August 28th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
St. Wendeler,
You’re welcome for the link. Let my reply to your points:
1 - I’m not sure what you’re relying on for that assertion. Because I said: “… we just don’t like people from Arkansas”? That’s what you would call “irony”. The idea is that the statement is so obviously false, that it’s like a wink of the eye. Clinton, you may recall, was from Arkansas.
2 - Mallaby’s argument is that Walmart pays competitively, because if they didn’t, people would take a job somewhere else.
Just purely on the basis of logic, that conclusion does not follow. Let me give an example. Let’s say for instance I run the only toy store in town. Walmart moves in to the neighborhood, underprices me, and eventually puts me out of business. Since I have to eat, and I have experience selling toys, I get a job at Walmart’s toy department. I’m probably making considerably less than I was, but, given my options are staying with Walmart, or moving out of town, I keep the job.
I looked around tying to find a website where Walmart employees were really happy with their jobs, but couldn’t find that site. Maybe you’ll have better luck than me. Instead, I just saw places like retailworker.com.
August 28th, 2006 at 5:36 pm
[…] UPDATE: A leftyblog called the “alternative hippopotamus” gives the anti-Wal-Mart perspective: As you know, the left half of the blogosphere recently appointed me spokesperson. So, I’ll explain why there is much ado about Walmart. It has nothing to do with people being treated fairly, or workers being forced to go to ER’s instead of receiving health benefits. It has nothing to do with Walmart forcing out the family businesses. It has nothing to do with a time when “Made in the USA” didn’t mean a sweat shop in the Marianas islands. […]
August 29th, 2006 at 7:20 am
This is just more of the same story that is usually left to George Will to tell. Usually we hear about how the elitist Left hates the people who shop in WalMart now we’re hearing about how the DLC (of all people) hate business.
The first paragraph is so packed with nonsense that even Mallaby has the grace to start it with “Once upon a time”:
The WalMart issue is absolutely fascinating if for no other reason than because it exposes how few arrows the corpotists have in their quiver, which makes the fact that they are winning this war on nearly every front even more amazing.
August 29th, 2006 at 9:19 am
The first paragraph is so packed with nonsense that even Mallaby has the grace to start it with “Once upon a time”
Interesting. And consistent with the notion of creating your own reality.
September 4th, 2006 at 8:48 am
Let’s say for instance I run the only toy store in town. Walmart moves in to the neighborhood, underprices me, and eventually puts me out of business. Since I have to eat, and I have experience selling toys, I get a job at Walmart’s toy department. I’m probably making considerably less than I was, but, given my options are staying with Walmart, or moving out of town, I keep the job.
I think your example is extremely simplified and places constraints on the person who runs the only toy store in town. First, you assume that this person’s only skill is to sell toys in a retail setting. No thought given to moving his shop to eBay or working in a different retail setting or transforming his toy store into a niche toy shop which WalMart doesn’t compete against. The possibilities are endless (thanks to the capitalist system.)
Now, I wonder what the person who runs the toy store made in a given year and what benefits they had (and/or provided to their employees). In addition, I wonder what the prices that toy store had and what selection he offered his customers. It should be remembered that WalMart doesn’t walk up to the hypothetical Toy Store and place an eviction notice on the door saying, “We’re now in town and you have to shut down.” No, what happens is that people - thousands of individuals in the town - recognize the selection and value that WalMart provides when shopping for toys and switch their buying preferences.
I realize that such a “people powered” movement is anathema to those on the Left, but it’s the genius of our system. If the toy store owner cannot improve his business processes and provide the selection and value to his customers (from the perspective of those very customers), then he probably should not be in the business to begin with.
Do some research on “creative destruction.” That’d be a first step for you…