1) Wal-Mart offers huge benefits to consumers, who can make ends meet (or work less hours) because of the substantial savings. Wal Mart employees are among the happiest and most satisfied in their economic stratum.
2) How is a trading partner an economic threat? China represents billions of consumers to buy American products and services.
3) If you think China is a military threat, you are paying too much attention to GOP propaganda. China's biggest problem is modernizing China without causing revolution. China has been a loyal and valuable trading partner for the US for decades, and the typical Chinese or American person has no desire for war whatsoever.
4) Capitalism is the accidental synchronization of peoples' needs and wants in a way that results in the most overall freedom and the most overall prosperity (of any system yet discovered by mankind). Are you seriously under the impression that "worst motives" don't exist in other economic systems? Sorry but I don't look at a postal or DMV clerk and admire their lofty motives.
Your response appears to make an assumption I do not hold as true, namely that conditions we observe are a steady economic state. In other words, if we observe people shopping at Wal-Mart and they appear to be healthier and happier today, that this has always been the case and will always be the case.
I believe instead that many economic phenomena offer temporary advantages at the expense of far greater long-term disadvantages. A trivial example would be the recent housing bubble. We had a certain credit environment which led to people buying a lot of homes, which appeared to lead to great prosperity, and all was well until the bubble burst.
In the case of Wal-Mart, my personal and unfounded opinion is that it is a symptom of American (and by this I include Canada) economic decline. It's all very nice now, but as the factories close and the jobs dry up, they are not being replaced. China's billions of consumers might buy iPhones. Maybe. But if they do, how many software designers are needed in California?
That being said, I am not agitating for a change from Capitalism or that we close Wal-Mart. I was responding to a comment asking why Google might do something to disadvantage America. My point was that corporations do things to disadvantage nations all the time. Does this mean we should get rid of Capitalism? I'm not saying that. Does this mean that Capitalism overall is harmful? I'm not saying that either. I think Wal-Mart is an example of something harmful that corporations do, that's all.
I agree that the housing/credit bubble is not an example of capitalism... rather, it's the result of central planning that is heavily influenced by the building trade, realtors, various social planners, etc.
The planners did not anticipate the self-reenforcing nature of the small price increases their machinations were causing, and before long boom, it burst and prices went down a lot.
Surely bubbles existed before central banking and affordable housing policies, but bad planning appears to make them bigger/worse than would otherwise be possible. It may also lead to greater average stability, who knows.
I think it's an interesting thought experiment to consider what would be a capitalist utopia. Literature is full of socialist style utopias, but it's harder to imagine one under capitalism.
If WalMart moves us further from such a utopia, what does the utopia look like? Is it mom 'n pop shops everywhere and extremely expensive search costs and high markup?
I find myself thinking that a capitalist utopia would have a high percentage of workers as freelancers and there would be lots of ongoing learning, and one might decide to change careers far later in life, etc.
To me Wal-Mart helps to usher in that era by freeing up lots of capital that was previously not all that productive (with a lot of fat added to the supply chain) which can now be used for other, higher, more utopian purposes.
>Is it mom 'n pop shops everywhere and extremely expensive search costs and high markup?
You're assuming that having lots of little stores as opposed to one big chain means high markup. It doesn't have to. Walmart has extremely high markup in certain areas.
Personally I think a capitalist "utopia" would indeed consist of countless small companies all competing on equal footing with each other. The enabling factor would be instant communications and robotic production to keep costs down. Big companies damage the market because they move closer to monopolies. Imagine trying to get into the general retail space today!
Toys can be up to 60% for example (probably average 35% to 40%). I think there are examples that go higher than that but toys is the only one I'm certain of.
1) Wal-Mart offers huge benefits to consumers, who can make ends meet (or work less hours) because of the substantial savings. Wal Mart employees are among the happiest and most satisfied in their economic stratum.
2) How is a trading partner an economic threat? China represents billions of consumers to buy American products and services.
3) If you think China is a military threat, you are paying too much attention to GOP propaganda. China's biggest problem is modernizing China without causing revolution. China has been a loyal and valuable trading partner for the US for decades, and the typical Chinese or American person has no desire for war whatsoever.
4) Capitalism is the accidental synchronization of peoples' needs and wants in a way that results in the most overall freedom and the most overall prosperity (of any system yet discovered by mankind). Are you seriously under the impression that "worst motives" don't exist in other economic systems? Sorry but I don't look at a postal or DMV clerk and admire their lofty motives.