New Imigration Reform

[Jester]

And not all business brings long-term benefits. I'm pretty sure that having a Wal-Mart open in a small town of Mom & Pop stores will not necessarily bring prosperity to it. (Unless prosperity is defined by those people losing their businesses, driving down wages of their employees, and funneling the money back to their shareholders, and so on.)

Sure, it may have seemed like a great idea short-term...

Economic theory tells you that this is quite backwards. Short term benefits are what you get out of mom-and-pop stores. People are employed, they have money to spend, community status quo is preserved. Picturesque, and many protests against mega-mart stores are founded on just such an idyllic notion of what a small town is.

The Wal-Mart appears to be a step backwards, because it drives those people out of business. This is 'obviously bad'. The ways the money returns to the economy, and grow it overall, are less obvious. Consumers buy products for less. This extra money can now be spent on buying things elsewhere. Shareholders with more money invest more broadly, or consume more commodities. The cycle spins around, and, in the long term, people benefit. But these benefits are widely shared, not obvious, and take time to kick in. So people distrust in their existence.

-Jester