Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Who profits from rock-bottom pricing?
"A lot of low-income people were practically begging the city to let Wal-Mart in," says Dr. Stone, an Iowa State University emeritus economist and 20-year researcher on Wal-Mart's national impact.
...But he has found what other economic researchers have seen as well: Discount retail is a complex business with more winners, losers, and tough ethical tradeoffs than public debate routinely acknowledges.
...Some recent research suggests the low prices and job opportunities offered at a new Wal-Mart store don't alleviate a community's struggles with poverty over the long term. Wal-Mart workers in California, for example, annually seek $86 million worth of public assistance, according to a 2004 study by the Labor Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
...This "race to the bottom" in labor costs also seems to rub off on a surrounding area, according to research from economists Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development at Penn State University.
...Goetz, for instance, acknowledges that low prices on goods from food to hardware bring a valuable social benefit: "The standard of living is up for poverty-stricken people.... For Bruce Weber, codirector of the Rural Poverty Research Center at Oregon State University, research on discounters' social impact is still too scant to warrant firm conclusions.
...If saving American jobs in textiles and other labor-intensive industries is a top priority, discounters who rely on outsourcing to overseas manufacturers might not offer the best investment option.
Christian Science Monitor
...But he has found what other economic researchers have seen as well: Discount retail is a complex business with more winners, losers, and tough ethical tradeoffs than public debate routinely acknowledges.
...Some recent research suggests the low prices and job opportunities offered at a new Wal-Mart store don't alleviate a community's struggles with poverty over the long term. Wal-Mart workers in California, for example, annually seek $86 million worth of public assistance, according to a 2004 study by the Labor Center at the University of California at Berkeley.
...This "race to the bottom" in labor costs also seems to rub off on a surrounding area, according to research from economists Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan at the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development at Penn State University.
...Goetz, for instance, acknowledges that low prices on goods from food to hardware bring a valuable social benefit: "The standard of living is up for poverty-stricken people.... For Bruce Weber, codirector of the Rural Poverty Research Center at Oregon State University, research on discounters' social impact is still too scant to warrant firm conclusions.
...If saving American jobs in textiles and other labor-intensive industries is a top priority, discounters who rely on outsourcing to overseas manufacturers might not offer the best investment option.
Christian Science Monitor
# posted by Lynn Wegley @ 4:59 PM 
