Reply #101: It's important to note that price/quality/knowlege/service competition [View All]

[AP]

is the cornerstone of capitalism and it's the way capitalism delivers social wealth.

However, it's also important to note that WalMart isn't really price competing. There are many political and structural reasons that they can lower their prices very far--as noted above, every WalMart store that opens costs a half million a year in taxpayer subsidized federal benefits. Also, the change in gov't in Haiti is a subsidy for WalMart too. Then there's the countless federal and state laws and regulations which prevent labor from competing fairly in the marketplace for labor with employers like WalMart.

WalMart uses all these subsidies to maximize their profits and minimize socially valuable competion. They just drive competion out of business and it's absurd to think that once the competition is gone, they'll continue to price things where they do now.