Posted by Todd Zywicki:
People Who Don't Shop at Wal-Mart Oppose New Cleveland Wal-Mart:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_06_05-2005_06_11.shtml#1118071574
From today's [1]Cleveland Plain-Dealer:
This is why so many job-starved Clevelanders have voiced concerns.
Consider the coalition that is building: civil rights groups,
elected officials, labor unionists, ministers, small business
owners, and, most recently, Cleveland bloggers. We raise our voices
in opposition because of the negative effects of a Wal-Mart
Supercenter on our town.
In other words, Cleveland's elites who don't shop at Wal-Mart are
opposed to allowing other people to shop at Wal-Mart. And those with
jobs are raising their voices on behalf of "job-starved Clevelanders."
Real profiles in courage. Good thing they weren't around when the dry
goods stores and blacksmiths were feeling competitive pressures many
years ago from supermarkets and the "horseless carriage".
Instead of a Wal-Mart, [2]some propose a new "barter" system among
downtown businesses (to prove I'm not making this up, I quote):
Instead of a Wal-Mart why not:
Use the steelyard site to set-up a bartering community between
local businesses. Some years ago I was in Connecticut visiting a
college friend for a time. Local businesses had joined together and
created a bartering system which allowed small business owners to
spend real money on other things. An example:
A portrait painter needed some film developed. Instead of going to
the nearest big box, she took it to a local developer who was part
of the barter network and used some barter points to pay for it.
The photo guy might have needed a birthday cake for his daughter
and will use his barter points to purchase the cake from a local
baker that is part of the barter network. The baker needs his car
repaired and so uses his barter points at a local mechanic. The
mechanic has been saving up her barter points and decides to get a
portrait made for her sister and so she goes to the original
portrait painter.
When I was working on my graduate degree in Economics at Clemson, many
of the small businesses around Clemson actually had a flourishing
barter system, like that described. But the operative term to describe
it there was "tax dodge." Barter and in-kind contributions among
various local businesses was a system for buying and selling goods and
services without having to pay taxes on it.
And I doubt that it was justified as an alternative to Wal-Mart.
References
1.
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/othercolumns/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1117963924206410.xml&coll=2
2. http://www.noclevelandwalmart.org/
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