More on Walmart

I’ve written a few posts that reference Walmart (here, here, and here) and the various accusations and calls for boycotts that have come out about it. This is one area where my free market bias comes into play. I think that low prices are a good thing, and I don’t believe that Walmart wages and benefits are that far out of line for their industry.

Today on Newsweek business, Robert J. Samuelson has an excellent column on the topic, Walmart’s a Diversion, in which he suggests that democrats should leave the topic alone. Tongue in cheek he suggests that the government nationalize it, and then we see what happens. In conclusion he mentions some numbers, dealing with prices Walmart has forced lower:

All told, these cuts have significantly raised living standards. How much is unclear. A study by the economic-consulting firm Global Insight found that from 1985 to 2004, Wal-Mart’s expansion lowered the consumer price index by a cumulative 3.1 percent from what it would have been. That produced savings of $263 billion in 2004, equal to $2,329 for each U.S. household. Because Wal-Mart financed this study, its results have been criticized as too high. But even if price savings are only half as much ($132 billion and $1,165 per household), they’d dwarf the benefits of most government programs.

Just so! Perhaps attacks on Walmart are not only a diversion; they’re a mistake.