Reply #4: Isn't this the same Furman who wrote the Walmart was a Progressive Business Model? [View All]

[Larkspur]

Wal-Mart: A Progressive Success Story

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There is little dispute that Wal-Mart’s price reductions have benefited the 120 million
American workers employed outside of the retail sector. Plausible estimates of the magnitude of
the savings from Wal-Mart are enormous – a total of $263 billion in 2004, or $2,329 per
household.

Even if you grant that Wal-Mart hurts workers in the retail sector – and the evidence
for this is far from clear – the magnitude of any potential harm is small in comparison. One
study, for example, found that the “Wal-Mart effect” lowered retail wages by $4.7 billion in
2000.

SNIP

Attempts to limit the spread of Wal-Mart and similar “big box” stores do not just limit the
benefits of lower prices to moderate-income consumers, they also limit the job opportunities that
Wal-Mart and other retailers provide. More puzzling is that some progressives have described
Medicaid, food stamps, the EITC, and public housing assistance as “corporate welfare.”

The right response to Wal-Mart is not to scale back these programs but to expand them in order to
fulfill the goal of making work pay.
SNIP