Jens 'n' Frens


	Jens 'n' Frens Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political. "A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster

Monday, February 09, 2009 ::: While the federal government is busy talking about building new buildings for shrinking school districts, Wal-Mart is trying to actually help people get through the recession: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is looking at opening stores in Chicago in a drive that could see the retailer assist lower-income residents and potentially lead to expansion in other urban areas that have long shunned it. Wal-Mart is having "fairly regular conversations" with Chicago community leaders about opening several stores within the city, and considering the " financial and political viability" of the move, said John Bisio, director of public affairs and government relations for Wal-Mart in Chicago. Wal-Mart's focus is on areas in the city that are known as "food deserts," communities that lack enough access to healthy-diet staples, like fresh vegetables and fruit. Good luck to them. Labels: Wal-Mart ::: posted by Steven at 12:31 AM (1) comments Tuesday, February 03, 2009 ::: A positive review from a short-term Wal-Mart employee. He notes: The picture above is of me, finishing my shift at the world's largest retailer. How did I move from being a senior writer at Wired magazine to an entry-level position in a company that is reviled by almost all living journalists? It started when I read Nickel and Dimed, in which Atlantic contributor Barbara Ehrenreich denounces the exploitation of minimum-wage workers in America. Somehow her book didn’t ring true to me, and I wondered to what extent a preconceived agenda might have biased her reporting. Hence my application for a job at the nearest Wal-Mart. I don't know whether this fellow brought biases of his own to the table, and I haven't read Ehrenreich's book (either the one he mentioned or her follow up, "Bait and Switch"), but I have read the suggestion, by someone who had read both of those books, that they should be given to poor unemployed people as examples of how to forestall any chance of success. Link from Instapundit, who also links to his and his wife's podcast with someone else who tried an Ehrenreich-like "experiment" with better results. Labels: Wal-Mart ::: posted by Steven at 11:19 PM (0) comments Thursday, September 14, 2006 ::: Some fishwrap from New York recently featured a story about how free-market think tanks sometimes get money from Wal-Mart or the Walton Family Foundation and then their employees write columns opposed to regulations that would hurt Wal-Mart. Thomas Sowell and someone I've never heard of have pretty well eviscerated the Times. A reader of the Corner is reminded of an anecdote from his own life: Sowell and McWhorter's counter punch at the NYT reminds me of a conversation I had at a dinner party a few years ago. The hostess, knowing that I'm an economist, seated me next to an economist from the Brookings Institution. I work on Wall Street, which means my research is confined to pretty narrow avenues. I said it must be wonderful to work in a think tank, where you can take the time to dig into the really big things. "It's wonderful sometimes," she said, "but right now I'm writing a study on school vouchers, and I'm having a hell of a time finding a single study that isn't positive. I don't know what I'm going to do." It was a very long dinner. Both related to this topic, though in different ways, are a George Will piece on the politics of Wal-Mart and a Jonah Goldberg comment on how media bias usually works. George Will, first: The median household income of Wal-Mart shoppers is under $40,000. Wal-Mart, the most prodigious job-creator in the history of the private sector in this galaxy, has almost as many employees (1.3 million) as the U.S. military has uniformed personnel. A McKinsey company study concluded that Wal-Mart accounted for 13 percent of the nation's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s, which probably made Wal-Mart about as important as the Federal Reserve in holding down inflation. By lowering consumer prices, Wal-Mart costs about 50 retail jobs among competitors for every 100 jobs Wal-Mart creates. Wal-Mart and its effects save shoppers more than $200 billion a year, dwarfing such government programs as food stamps ($28.6 billion) and the earned-income tax credit ($34.6 billion). People who buy their groceries from Wal-Mart - it has one-fifth of the nation's grocery business - save at least 17 percent. But because unions are strong in many grocery stores trying to compete with Wal-Mart, unions are yanking on the Democrats' leash, demanding laws to force Wal-Mart to pay wages and benefits higher than those that already are high enough to attract 77 times more applicants than there were jobs at this store. The big-hearted progressives on Chicago's City Council, evidently unconcerned that the city gets zero sales tax revenues from a half a billion dollars that Chicago residents spend in the 42 suburban Wal-Marts, have passed a bill that, by dictating wages and benefits, would keep Wal-Marts from locating in the city. Richard Daley, a bread-and-butter Democrat, used his first veto in 17 years as mayor to swat it away. Liberals think their campaign against Wal-Mart is a way of introducing the subject of class into America's political argument, and they are more correct than they understand. Their campaign is liberalism as condescension. It is a philosophic repugnance toward markets because consumer sovereignty results in the masses making messes. Goldberg's comment is in reaction to a flawed map of changes in the median wage that was in the Detroit Free Press and has been making the rounds in the blogosphere. After citing an article explaining why it's wrong, Goldberg agrees that ignorance of statistics is more likely at work than malice, and agrees with a "but": I think they're a bit too quick to dismiss liberal bias. Imagine a scenario where the Detroit Free Press reporters came to their editors with data showing that incomes had soared under George W. Bush. My guess is their editors would immediately say "this is fishy" and ask the reporters to double check... Stupidity and ignorance is a problem in every institution. But not all stupidities are caught equally when there's groupthink at work. Labels: Wal-Mart ::: posted by Steven at 9:49 PM (0) comments Thursday, June 29, 2006 ::: Rasmussen reports: Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of Walmart, including 29% who have a very favorable opinion of the retail giant. A Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,000 adults found that 29% have an unfavorable opinion of the firm. Lower and middle income Americans are more likely to have a favorable opinion of Walmart than upper income Americans. The reviews are even better among those who have worked for Walmart (or have family members who have been employed by the firm). Among these workers, 79% have a favorable opinion of the company. Labels: Wal-Mart ::: posted by Steven at 11:34 PM (0) comments Monday, April 12, 2004 ::: Lowry on WalMart: More than 90 percent of Wal-Mart employees have health insurance. Half of those get their insurance through the company, and the rest through other means, whether their parents, or spouse, or Medicare. Many Wal-Mart employees are young people or semi-retired, and thus aren't supporting families. Employment there can be an escalator to success. Two-thirds of the stores' managers are former hourly employees. Meanwhile, the competition howls about Wal-Mart for good reason ? because it almost invariably gets out-hustled, out-discounted and altogether out-retailed. FAO Schwarz, the pretentious toy seller, has nearly been bludgeoned out of business by Walton's creation. Such is the cost of selling overpriced toys in the age of Wal-Mart. Yes, the killer store snuffs out charming local retailers, but most consumers simply value convenience and low prices more than charm. All across America, shoppers have voted with their cash and charge cards. Almost a third of all disposable diapers and hair products are purchased at Wal-Mart. No other store sells more groceries, toys, or furniture. This is a boon for lower-income Americans who spend a disproportionate amount of their income on retail goods. As a Federal Reserve economist has said, "Wal-Mart is the greatest thing that ever happened to low-income Americans." Labels: Wal-Mart ::: posted by Steven at 3:15 PM (0) comments