RE: Mitchell shares his thoughts on Wal-Mart...

Steve responds to Robert:

"Granted, Wal-Mart is not the only corporate bad neighbor. They are just the worst."

So we hear, but no one ever offers any evidence to back that claim. It might surprise you to learn that the components that go into making products made by one of liberals' most beloved corporations, Apple Computer, Inc., are mass-produced in Pacific rim sweatshops equal to or worse than any of the knitting factories around Beijing and Hong Kong. Are you ready to give up your iPod?

Truth be told, American labor unions own most of the blame for the existence of Asian and Latin American sweat shops, but that's another argument.

"And what about figures that suggest 45% of Wal Mart workers receive some form of public assistance. Should the taxpayers bail out Wal-Mart because it will not pay a living wage?"

How is it that you automatically assume that means Wal-Mart engages in substandard social behavior? To me, that indicates that the standards for public assistance are too lenient. That's the trouble with bombastic statements like that: they evoke an emotional response that is not necessarily based on the reality of the situation.

Besides, as Thomas Sowell asks, what's a "living wage?" To me, that seems to be a content-free phrase.

I would love to "buy American." I am a nationalist at heart. However, I don't plan to pay more and get less in order to simply satisfy an abstraction. Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! It's off to Wal-Mart I go!