Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

"avarice masquerading as pretty altruism"

George Will:

Some progressives, as liberals now prefer to be known, would rather rid the world of Wal-Mart than of Baathists. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, which is not preserving its reputation for seriousness, has listed Vermont—all of it—among America's most endangered historic places. Why? Because of a threatened "onslaught" of seven more—Vermont has four—Wal-Marts. The other 49 states have 3,044. Texas has the greatest number (317), Hawaii the fewest (six) aside from Vermont.

John Kerry is rarely among the 100 million people who shop at Wal-Mart in a given week; the Heinz-Kerry household is probably not among the 80 percent of American households that shop there at least once a year. But he is among the liberals denouncing Wal-Mart's "disgraceful" and "unconscionable" practices, which according to a huge class-action lawsuit—liberalism rampant—includes sex discrimination.

The National Trust fears for Vermont's "sense of community," which evidently is threatened by... the community: Wal-Mart would not be expanding there were it not confident of a substantial unmet Vermont demand for its services. Long ago, liberalism relished Sinclair Lewis's lampooning of the supposed parochialism and materialism of "Main Street." The "community" that progressives would protect from Wal-Mart is Main Street shopkeepers whose hefty profit margins are threatened by competition from "big box" stores at the edge of town.

Zoning and other laws used to block Wal-Marts from opening are, in effect, tariffs serving domestic protectionism. Talk about protecting "a sense of community" often is avarice masquerading as altruism. It is rent-seeking—the use of government to confer economic advantages—tarted up as political philosophy.

Labor unions fret that Wal-Mart forces competitors and vendors to minimize labor costs. After a bitter five-month strike, unionized workers in Southern California grocery stores agreed to cuts in pay and benefits in an effort to protect their jobs from Wal-Mart. It is the world's largest grocer, with one fifth of the American grocery market. Wal-Mart has just 8 percent of U.S. retail sales, compared with, say, Anheuser-Busch's 50 percent of U.S. beer sales, or General Motors' 28 percent of U.S. auto and light-truck sales.

Kerry denounces the procurement and labor practices that, according to the McKinsey consulting group, made Wal-Mart responsible for about 25 percent of the nation's astonishing productivity increases in the 1990s. The low prices made possible by these practices have made Wal-Mart a significant contributor to low inflation. Warren Buffett says Wal-Mart has contributed more than any other company to today's economic vigor.

Walmart gives Americans a better standard of living. Liberals do not look at the big picture, they only look at their narrow special interest groups.