[TAG] Issue #106

[Jason Creighton]

On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 13:36:00 -0700, 
Mike Orr <mso at oz.net> wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 20, 2004 at 01:06:40PM -0400, Benjamin A. Okopnik wrote:
> > Money talks - and when money says to the mayor of Buttwipe, Nebraska "we
> > want an exclusion/exception/easement on the following local laws, or
> > we'll take this store and its 2,000 jobs elsewhere", money gets its way.
> > Conversely, "Governor, we're planning on giving $500,000 to your
> > favorite charity. Sure, it's a tax write-off for us, but we still get to
> > decide _which_ charity! By the way, you _were_ going to vote our way on
> > the upcoming bond moratorium, yes?" is even more effective; a stable of
> > tame politicians, particularly at the higher levels, can do wonders for
> > a large business.
> 
> That type of "money talks" is depressingly common all over the US, not
> just with Wal-Mart.  Sports teams use the same threat to get free
> stadiums built: "build it or we'll leave".  Boeing played three states
> against each other to get the sweetest deal for their 7E7 plant.  (Oops,
> I'm not supposed to say that when Europeans are listening, because the
> mantra is that Airbus is subsudized by its governments and Boeing is
> not.)

Oh yeah. In my area, a developer is planning to build a "mega-mall"
seems to get quite a lot of cooperation from the city council/county
commissioners/etc. A large percentage of "letters to the editor" seem to
to go something like this:

Proponent:      You can stop growth! And think of how great this will be
                for the economy!
Opponent:       This is the last best place! Growth for the sake of
                growth is the ethos of the cancer cell!
Proponent:      That's not a fair comparision at all! It's people like
                you that hold back this area!
Opponent:       I didn't move here so I could shop in big-box stores!
                And let me tell you something...

...and so on. I personally don't care very much, I just wish the "powers
that be" would start thinking right now about the horrible
infrastructure problems that will crop up in five years. Gee, you mean
if this mall goes in the traffic problem's gonna get *worse*?
Whodathukit?

> The reason people are so uniquely enraged at Wal-Mart is that its
> famous low prices are borne by the employees to an extent not seen at
> other stores.   Low wages, no benefits, "off the clock" work, 
> part-time positions, etc.

Then why do people work there?

Jason Creighton