Tom Moran The Star Ledger

December 9, 2012
Tom Moran
The Star Ledger
Star Ledger Plaza
Newark, NJ 07102-1200

RE: Wal-Mart – Let it become anathema but not before it builds a big store in Newark and “creates” a lot of jobs. Some comments on your column in today’s Star Ledger about the ethical tradeoffs of modern life.

Mr. Moran,

Such is your devotion to Mom-and-Pop retail stores that your hand would fall off before you would buy a book from Amazon, right? In fact, any Internet purchase would be verboten, right?

6 years ago 3 prescriptions cost me $95.00 a month. Then, and Allah Bless them, Wal-Mart sold them to me for $6.00 a month. Should I have continued to pay $95.00 a month to help Mom-and-Pop, AKA the local drug store, secure their golden years? Should I have sent the difference to the Fund to Repair the Hole in the Ozone Layer? How about the Committee to Undrown Polar Bears? What about sending some $ to Fight Teenage Obesity? If great minds can’t agree on what to do with this “windfall income” there is always the option of throwing it from the back of a moving train, it being my money, right?

I got to the part of your article about the possibility of a company other than Wal-Mart – “different retailer” is your term – building a store on the Springfield Avenue in the Central ward of Newark. The possibility always exists that all things are possibly possible, isn’t that what the Imam says?

I’ll try to break this gently.

Whatever happens to the space on Springfield Avenue you can rest assured that Nordstrom’s will not be there. Also, Whole Foods and Tiffany’s will not be there. Perhaps the Detroit Pawn Shop that is now a big TV reality show might like to expand eastward. Who knows? One thing is certain. The Short Hills Mall will not be opening an outlet mall there.

One thing the last 50 years of half-assed social policy implementation has taught us is that the best jobs program is…drum roll please…a job.

The most immediate benefit to the community of Wal-Mart being a for profit entity is that people get to work. Single moms, doubtless women of color, get to buy prescription drugs for their children far, far cheaper than they would have heretofore been able to do.

Since modern American Liberals occupy a universe where results don’t count, where policy is judged on its intentions, where the horizon can be reached as soon as good men, men filled with good will, come together and strive for it, the same lesson must be retaught and relearned over and over again.

Wal-Mart’s goal is not to rebuild downtown Newark. Its job is to protect and increase the security and equity of its creditors and shareholders. It’s what makes the dog hunt. By so doing, its invisible hand reaches out and helps everyone. If History is our guide the only way that the Central Ward of Newark can have a Summer of Recovery is if you allow the big guy from Bentonville to come in and work his magic.

[I can’t let your reference to “It’s a Wonderful Life” pass without it being poleaxed. I am the founder and director of the fast growing “Let the River Trolls Tear George Bailey Apart the Next Time He Jumps Off the Friggin’ Bridge Project”. Care to join?]

2 things of note:

#1 – Newark Mayor Corey Booker went on the Food Stamp Diet. The purpose of that is…is….what the Hell is the purpose of this? How many jobs will be “created” by him not eating? Wouldn’t Mrs. Obama be pleased if Food Stamp users were not able to buy high sodium food? Ice cream is a no-no. We know that sodas ain’t good for you either. Let him spend a week on tofu, granola, yogurt, groats, and boiled endives

#2 – The NJ legislature is debating raising the minimum wage. Forget about $ 9 an hour. How about $32.50 an hour? Let “them” get a taste of the good life.

Sometimes I miss Jersey. Particularly Bayonne.







Kevin Smith