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I've pondered your argument for years, and in watching the course of my own community, conclude that the demise of the local merchants has cost the community dearly. The fact that I may be able to purchase a VCR for less than $60 is poor compensation for the decline in the overall quality of life. Wal-Mart may be a highly efficient retail organization, but it wires all its revenue to Bentonville, Arkansas, every evening and pays minimum wage. Try to get a contribution for the local symphony orchestra from Wal-Mart. Pah!
Further, as one who has in the past been responsible for raising money for cultural and artistic organizations in our metro area, there is no question that getting a contribution from the Gap or Borders is possible, but the amount of time and trouble one must spend going through the obstacles deliberately placed in the way makes it a marginal exercise at best. Most of the time, you don't even contact an office for corporate contributions; you go to the public relations or advertising office.
Your faith in the market is touching, but it seems to be more akin to a religious conviction than a proven scientific theory. I haven't seen anything in the economic literature, from Smith to Von Mises to Becker that makes a convincing case that the market system *by itself* does anything more than set prices on commodities. It is efficient in that respect. But so is the guillotine, at least from the standpoint of the executioner. David Ricardo, one of the most honest of economists in my opinion, made short shrift of the argument that a free market increases the general welfare.
As Ray has written far more eloquently than myself, the squalid, amoral, materialistic world of the economist and the real world of human aspirations intersect only slightly. Ovid's amusing account of Midas in the *Metamorphoses* is highly instructive. After the popular story about the golden touch, Ovid continues with Midas's life. At one point Midas is appointed a juror in a music-making contest between the gods Pan and Apollo. Midas is the only juror that would give the award to the rude pipes of Pan rather than the refined harp of Apollo, and for that Apollo causes donkey ears to grow on him. Midas covers his head the rest of his life.
Midas would have made a good neoclassical economist. He equated everything with gold. He even turned his daughter into gold, thus making her into a commodity. [Turning the daughter into gold isn't part of Ovid, but it has become a part of the story subsequently.] Even after he repented of his ill-advised wish and had the transformation reversed, his tastes, coursened by years of dwelling exclusively upon wealth, was unable to appreciate high art and preferred crudity.
Tom Lowe
Arthur wrote:Walmart. Home Depot. Good prices and reasonable service but say good bye to your local merchants who are of your community and often donate time and energy to local causes.But how much does it cost the community to get that time and energy?Harry
-- _________________________________________________________________________ Tom Lowe One of the most powerful aspects of Jackson, Mississippi delusion, or ignorance, is the belief [EMAIL PROTECTED] that what we do does not really matter http://www.jacksonprogressive.com -- Sharon Salzberg
