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>a key reason there weren't any Walmart types in Hong Kong was because it was more profitable to the Triads to keep all the mom and pop shops in business than t

>a key reason there weren't any Walmart types in Hong Kong was because it was more profitable to the Triads to keep all the mom and pop shops in business than to work with larger corporations You're claiming Hong Kong isn't start up friendly because it doesn't support devastating monopolies like Walmart [1]??? Are you seriously telling me that if you went to a country where everywhere you looked you saw people in business for themselves you would find that less entrepreneur friendly than a place that just had one Walmart and nothing else? Monopoly is the exact opposite of free market. [1] http://www.walmarteffectbook.com/ http://www.walmarteffectbook.com/ It never ceases to shock me when apparent free market proponents hold up Walmart as an example to aspire to. Are people not aware how much special treatment from the government Walmart gets? They do produce innovations here and there, but with the amount of money flowing through their fingers they bloody well should.

gthank 16y ago
I think the point was not that the government is preventing a Wal-Mart-level success story, but that organized crime was preventing a Wal-Mart-level success story. Say what you want about Wal-Mart (I avoid them like the plague just because I find the shopping experience actively repugnant), but to go from inception to world-dominating monster in ~40 years is impressive.
- loewenskind 16y ago
  It's a shame that organized crime is involved but I view it as an otherwise healthy system if they prevent one company from becoming a monopoly. "Too big to fail" means someone didn't do their job.
loewenskind 16y ago
Ugh, the "American Libertarians" on this site get a tab bit boring. Sorry I said something negative about your religion. Downvoting is easier than citing some credible source that shows that American Libertarianism is anything but a crackpot anti-theory.

gthank 16y ago

I think the point was not that the government is preventing a Wal-Mart-level success story, but that organized crime was preventing a Wal-Mart-level success story. Say what you want about Wal-Mart (I avoid them like the plague just because I find the shopping experience actively repugnant), but to go from inception to world-dominating monster in ~40 years is impressive.

loewenskind 16y ago
It's a shame that organized crime is involved but I view it as an otherwise healthy system if they prevent one company from becoming a monopoly. "Too big to fail" means someone didn't do their job.

loewenskind 16y ago

Ugh, the "American Libertarians" on this site get a tab bit boring. Sorry I said something negative about your religion. Downvoting is easier than citing some credible source that shows that American Libertarianism is anything but a crackpot anti-theory.