George Will‘s piece in the current Newsweek, “Waging War On Wal-Mart” argues that
Zoning and other laws used to block Wal-Marts from opening are, in effect, tariffs serving domestic protectionism. Talk about protecting “a sense of community” often is avarice masquerading as altruism. It is rent-seeking—the use of government to confer economic advantages—tarted up as political philosophy.
Agreed. Will details the many advantages conferred by the Bentonville behemoth including
procurement and labor practices that, according to the McKinsey consulting group, made Wal-Mart responsible for about 25 percent of the nation’s astonishing productivity increases in the 1990s. The low prices made possible by these practices have made Wal-Mart a significant contributor to low inflation. Warren Buffett says Wal-Mart has contributed more than any other company to today’s economic vigor.
Fortunately, as with most attempts to circumvent overwhelming market pressures, a workaround is already underway:
In the past century, arms control, another liberal passion, limited the number of certain nations’ battleships. The result? The rise of pocket battleships—ships with hull sizes just small enough to not count as battleships, but packing the wallop of battleships. Wal-Mart has opened a 99,000-square-foot store to comply with an anti-Wal-Mart law banning stores larger than 100,000 square feet.
