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<DIV>Jeff writes:<BR><BR>>Markets run best when demand is the driving force
for the operation of the market. An unfettered demand (that invisible
hand) will allocate goods and services to their appropriate values. For
those that fear the appearance of "new" box stores, they should put their fears
at rest. If the box store is serving the needs of the market, it will
survive. If it doesn't serve <BR>>the interests of the consumer, it
won't. Even in Moscow, we have had the box stores come and go - Ernst,
K-Mart, Lamont's, "big" style Sears, even Tidyman's.<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"><FONT
face=Georgia size=3>I think Jeff and many other economists, accountants,
business advocates keep forgetting to remind the rest of us that Adam Smith's
original definition of a "free market" included two precedent conditions that
big box stores almost never meet--that the government, through appropriate
regulation provided:</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>1. A level playing field for businesses of all sizes</DIV>
<DIV>and</DIV>
<DIV>2. Monopoly and oligopoly regulation that provided enough competition
to ensure that the consumer had enough clout by choosing where to spend his
money to influence the pricing power of that business. Specifically he decried
monopoly and oligopoly power as being detrimental to
free markets.</DIV>
<DIV>He specifically advocated government regulations to ensure that large
businesses did not achieve "pricing power" i.e. the ability to ignore the
effects of consumers and set prices at whatever the market would bear.
</DIV>
<DIV>In my opinion we are about as far from a free market here in the U.S. as we
can get and still legitimately call ourselves a free market. Most regulations
which ensured a closer adherence to that ideal have been gutted in the last few
decades to the level where they are almost totally ineffective in checking the
excesses of large corporations. The close tie between corporate PAC's and our
legislatures have corrupted the system even further.</DIV>
<DIV>The solution to the situation is so complex and so intertwined with our
national identity that it may never be fixed but I remain hopeful that
rationality and pragmatism will eventually re tilt the scale in the other
direction.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT lang=0 face=Verdana size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10">One cannot
level one's moral lance at every evil in the universe. There are just too many
of them. But you can do something, and the difference between doing something
and doing nothing is everything." Daniel Berrigan<BR></FONT><FONT lang=0
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