Thursday, December 22, 2005

Townhall.com :: Columns :: The freedom to hate Wal-Mart by Paul Jacob

I came across this story in the "GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS, UNBELIEVABLE NEWS" section of the 5 Dec 2005 biweekly issue of "The Liberator Online" free e-mail newsletter, by James W. Harris.

Paul Jacob serves as the Senior Fellow of Americans for Limited Government. His syndicated radio commentary, Common Sense, is aired daily by more than 100 stations in 48 states. I like what he has to say about Wal-Mart, including the following:


Some folks don't like Wal-Mart. Okay. Fine. It's a free country. No one should be forced at gunpoint to shop at Wal-Mart. Or to work there.

And no one is. That's what a free market is all about: the freedom to trade goods and services, to trade one's time and labor as an employee, one's dollars as a customer. Or not to.

Wal-Mart has found enormous success in the marketplace only because many people have voluntarily chosen to shop and work there...

Still, we witness a sustained and hysterical assault against the company...

As for employee pay and benefits, if Wal-Mart is so terrible, why didn't these employees choose to take the better jobs offered elsewhere?...

The most serious charge — in fact, the only serious charge — made against Wal-Mart is that the company has received subsidies and favors from government...

But this is something left and right and center should all be able to agree upon: such subsidies corrupt the marketplace as well as politics. They should be ended not just for Wal-Mart but for all businesses everywhere at all times...

Is there something more to do, after establishing rules of fair play? Sure. To those who talk trash against Wal-Mart: Boycott the company. Teach Wal-Mart a lesson. That's your right.

And it'll leave a little more room for the rest of us to get our shopping carts through those crowded and narrow aisles.


Townhall.com :: Columns :: The freedom to hate Wal-Mart by Paul Jacob

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