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Monday, June 06, 2005
Todd Zwycki points to a wonderful idea from some Cleveland Wal-Mart bashers: set up a barter system among local businesses to... to...
I don't get it. If you're a small business owner, that's nice. But if you're a consumer?
Ah, but the anti-Wal-Mart coalition isn't concerned about customers. Not primarily. It's mostly elitists who think Wal-Mart déclassé and those who, sad but true, have a hard time of it in the face of superstores.
The bigger problem, though, is that the "barter points" system proposed isn't really bartering; it's just the creation of a small-scale currency - only without anything resembling a central bank to assure to universal convertibility or a reliable standard of value, nor a large enough market for the invisible hand to help sort out such problems. It's also illegal unless every bartering transaction has a dollar value put on it at the end for tax purposes.
Zywicki pointed out that the "barter" so fondly espoused was once more prevalent, only it was called - and properly - a tax dodge. He didn't point out how much hassle would be involved to prevent it from being an illegal tax dodge.
So there you have it folks: The working classes of Cleveland don't need a low-priced superstore; they just need an illegal faux economy to sustain the small businesses already there! Whew!
posted by gbarto at 3:02 PM
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