[extropy-chat] Re: Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 11/16/05, Jack Parkinson <isthatyoujack at icqmail.com> wrote:
> Rafal Smigrodzki <rafal.smigrodzki at gmail.com> said:
> > Subject: Re: [extropy-chat] Seven cents an hour? (was: Riots in France)
>
> > Jack Parkinson wrote"
> >> If you want to convince me (and maybe a few others) - then this is the
> >> challenge: Demonstrate (don't just sneer or give me another side-stepping
> >> opinion piece) exactly HOW Wal Mart is more efficient for America than
> >> several thousand smaller stores would be.
> >
> > ### When I suggested thinking about Wal-Mart as a big truck, it wasn't
> > just empty rhetoric. Wal-Mart *is* a trucking company, with outlets.
> > And this is why it is possible to concretize thinking about its
> > efficiency: A large semi is more efficient than a dozen vans when it
> > comes to the transport of a large amount of goods from e.g. Minnesota
> > to Florida. This is so not because it has "bargaining power" over the
> > vans, or can physically push them off the road, but because it can
> > fulfill the needs (e.g. having Land of Lakes butter in Florida) of
> > more people at a smaller overall cost in terms of human effort (fewer
> > drivers, less drag, more durability, less gas per pound of freight) -
> > and that amount of effort finds its true measure in the relative
> > prices of Land of Lakes butter delivered by semi or van.
> >
> Once again you have delivered an opinion piece without a shred of evidence.
> Using your logic I can be sure that elephants are more efficient than dogs,
> and maybe a big SUV is more efficient than a small car...
> But you did not answer the question at all.

### If neither plain language, nor price analysis, nor analogies are
sufficient for you to understand the economist's meaning of
"efficiency", I won't be able to help you.

Gee, you are playing dumb - WTF do you mention SUV's, for god's sake!
You don't understand the way a big truck is more efficient than a
dozen vans? Really?

Let me ask you an IQ question:

Is the relationship of truck vs. van the same as the relationship
of SUV vs. small car, in the context of freight delivery? Are you
really incapable of understanding, or just playing?

--------------------------------
>
> I put it to you (several times) that Wal Mart is a less efficient producer
> of national wealth - in overall financial terms -than the small business
> alternatives I proposed. But, you apparently cannot argue this point other
> than to give me one statement of belief after another.
>
> Maybe you are just wrong?
>
### No, it's you who are ignorant of basic economics. In a competitive
economy, price is the measure of efficiency, period. Just learn this
simple fact.

--------------------------------

> This quote via a private email from Mike Lorrey: "This company has, as a
> corporate policy, an employee handbook that specifically teaches employees
> how to apply for welfare, medicare,
> section 8 housing, and other government entitlements, AS IF SUCH THINGS ARE
> EMPLOYEE BENEFITS. Walmart is thus externalizing its labor costs onto the
> taxpayer."
>
> Wal Mart is directly subsidised to the tune of perhaps US $1.5 billion - it
> exploits welfare payments as a matter of course to compensate for it's poor
> recompense of employees - and you call this 'efficient!'
> Wal-Marts political links and political activities are well documented. If
> obtaining this level of support is not being 'a government creature' then
> what is?
>
### Call your senator and congressman, if you have a problem with how
they spend your money. Walmart is acting under the legal regime not of
it's own making - a regime built by economical ignoramuses.
If you give out money for nothing, expect somebody will pick it up.

Rafal