Why Wal-Mart would be good for Europeans (really!)
Brad Delong, responding to a misleading FT article by John Kay, brilliantly points out why it is both illiberal and immoral to prevent superstores like Wal-Mart from saving money for Europeans like they do for Americans:
But there are lots of guys living in western Europe for whom the lack of an opportunity to shop at a WalMart equivalent–and thus to shave 50% off the retail margins they pay while shopping in the picturesque march municipal–is a real loss. True, they would miss out on their “pleasant excursion[s] to pick up some produce in Menton’s march municipal and browse the FT over an espresso in the place Clemenceau.” But if they paid less for produce and staples, they might use the money to pay for a better vacation of their own, or perhaps a dishwasher. They are more than picturesque background figures to entertain John Kay’s eye: they are people with limited incomes, but with lives and plans of their own.