[Vision2020] Council Must Reject Rezone

[Donovan Arnold]

"This study, commissioned by Wal-Mart, provides a
thumbnail sketch of Wal-Mart's aggregate effects on employment. In
short: in the retail sector, on average, Wal-Mart stores reduce
employment by two to four percent. Payroll per employee declines by
about 3.5 percent. Retail earnings fall."
   
  Yes, Wal-mart does reduce employment in the retail industry, in much the same way the combine reduced farming jobs and the invention of replaceable parts reduced manufacturing jobs. So what? People spending less on retail goods is good. It allows people to spend more money on dining out,entertainment, health care, and electronics, which creates better jobs and a more diverse economy. The more effective an industry becomes, the less workers it needs. If we banned everything that eliminated jobs 90% of us would still be farmers and manually plowing one acre a piece.
   
  _DJA

Andreas Schou <ophite at gmail.com> wrote:
  > If someone spends $10 on a toaster instead of $20, they have $10 extra dollars to spend
> on something else they otherwise would not have been able to purchase. That may be a
> book, internet service, lunch at a restaurant, or stocks. Whatever it is, it is something
> they otherwise would not have. Therefore, by buying that toaster at WalMart, they increased > their disposable income by $10. When you spread that effect across the region, and you
> get increased personal income, and that is a good thing.

That's a great argument. It makes a lot of sense. It's also wrong.
>From a study commissioned by Wal-Mart:


This is not true. This study, commissioned by Wal-Mart, provides a
thumbnail sketch of Wal-Mart's aggregate effects on employment. In
short: in the retail sector, on average, Wal-Mart stores reduce
employment by two to four percent. Payroll per employee declines by
about 3.5 percent. Retail earnings fall. Overall, there is some
evidence that Wal-Mart stores increase total employment by about two
percent, though not all evidence supports this conclusion. There is
strong evidence that total payrolls per person decline by about five
percent in the aggregate, implying that residents of local labor
markets earn less following the opening of Wal-Mart stores.

Particularly interesting is the conclusion the study makes about the
South -- a conclusion which they connect to state right-to-work laws.
In the South, they conclude, Wal-Mart causes substantial damage to
retail employment, total employment, and total payrolls per person.

http://www.globalinsight.com/publicDownload/genericContent/neumark.pdf

-- ACS

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