Do they want to punish success?
Like many politicians on the eve of Thanksgiving--a holiday tied with bountiful eating--John Edwards visited a food pantry yesterday. Mayor Richard Daley did the same thing in Chicago, and I'm sure I could find dozens of other instances.
Here's what caught my eye about Edwards' trip to the pantry:
As The State of South Carolina reports, Edwards is proposing "A new federal grants program, sponsored by public/private partnerships to attract supermarkets to lower-income communities."
Whoah...There is a company, Wal-Mart, trying to set up shop in many inner-city communities, and some politicians--all of them Democrats--are trying to prevent that. But because Wal-Mart is non-union--so is Target by the way--the Dems and their union $upporters are digging in their heels so Wal-Mart can't build in poverty-stricken urban areas.
In Chicago, its City Council passed a bill that would have put in force a "living wage" ordinance that would've applied to only big box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot. Smaller supermarkets wouldn't be effected. Daley, a Democrat, vetoed the bill, calling it a job killing bill.
Early this year, Chicago's second largest supermarket chain, Safeway-owned Dominick's, closed a dozen stores, most of them were in the city. That's when the term "food desert" became part of the lexicon of knowledgeable Chicagoans. A food desert is an area not served by a supermarket. Oh yes, there are grocery stores in such places, capitalism can't be killed, but they are usually small to medium sized endeavors that have no choice but to charge a little more for their goods since they can't match the economies-of-scale of Dominick's--or the big boxes.
And it shouldn't take too much thought as to where Chicago's food deserts--and those in other large cities--predominate: poorer areas such as the ones Edwards wants to assist.
Wal-Mart hasn't committed to the number of stores it wants to build in Chicago, but I've read that they want anywhere from five to twenty. And those potential Wal-Marts would almost certainly sell groceries. Currently there is just one Wal-Mart in the city.
Does that mean that Edwards will end his sucking up to the nutroots and the unions, and welcome Wal-Mart and the other big boxes to the food deserts? Probably not, but Edwards needs to be confronted on this issue. The next Democratic presidential debate would be an ideal opportunity for him to be questioned on his awkward stand.
Related posts:
John Edwards wakes up to Wal-Mart nightmare
My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy
Study: Wal-Mart saves families $2,500 per year
The good life of working for the UFCW
Union leaders don't share their members pain
Chicago food desert update: Hyde Park Co-op may close or file for bankruptcy: UPDATED
The Obamas: The Audacity of Hypocrisy
Michelle Obama quits board of big Wal-Mart supplier
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