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These sorts of comments feel to me like they're part of a concerning trend for middle-class and upper-middle-class folks to fail to empathize with the needs of

These sorts of comments feel to me like they're part of a concerning trend for middle-class and upper-middle-class folks to fail to empathize with the needs of the working-class and below. "The world would be richer and brighter if Walmart never existed" is a value statement on the relative importance of ethical business practices versus being able to buy a pack of ramen noodles for 19 cents versus 40. And the really dangerous part of this trend is when it gets codified into law. It's most obvious in zoning, where often times the kind of quality concessions that are necessary for building cheap housing that is barely acceptable is made illegal. Zoning that excludes single-room occupancy units, minimum road setbacks, lot width minimums, bedroom size minimums, etc - all things necessary for making things that poor people can afford, but a lack of empathy and awareness of affordability side of these tradeoffs makes a naive upper-middle-class person support grossly classist policies.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago
I was actually thinking more about Microsoft than Walmart with that statement. But you're treating this as if I'm saying 'any big corporation which sells foodstuffs and other basic goods is a blight upon society', as if it's an aesthetic argument because I don't like the looks of Walmart. Walmart is a tax-payer-subsidized megacorporation which pours vast resources into the hands of the Walton family. If we're going to have such a thing, we might as well cut out the middle-man and just have a government-run chain of groceries. It's somewhat ridiculous that my money (via taxes) effectively ends up in the pockets of billionaires even if I never shop at their establishments. (Same goes for Microsoft.) So my statements have nothing to do with classist policies, that Walmart offends my aesthetic sensibilities and so therefore should be removed. I'm saying it drains resources off in the wrong ways. And it's not just about people buying things at Walmart, it's also about people working at Walmart. So you're going off on a tangent about something I'm not at all talking about.

_emacsomancer_ 8y ago

I was actually thinking more about Microsoft than Walmart with that statement. But you're treating this as if I'm saying 'any big corporation which sells foodstuffs and other basic goods is a blight upon society', as if it's an aesthetic argument because I don't like the looks of Walmart. Walmart is a tax-payer-subsidized megacorporation which pours vast resources into the hands of the Walton family. If we're going to have such a thing, we might as well cut out the middle-man and just have a government-run chain of groceries. It's somewhat ridiculous that my money (via taxes) effectively ends up in the pockets of billionaires even if I never shop at their establishments. (Same goes for Microsoft.) So my statements have nothing to do with classist policies, that Walmart offends my aesthetic sensibilities and so therefore should be removed. I'm saying it drains resources off in the wrong ways. And it's not just about people buying things at Walmart, it's also about people working at Walmart. So you're going off on a tangent about something I'm not at all talking about.