On Tuesday voters in Inglewood, California voted to reject Wal-Mart’s proposal to build a super store on the north side of Hollywood Park.

So-called, left wing politicos see this as a victory? Jesse Jackson — who I see as a man without a cause — was hailing the vote. I even received an e-mail from my father-in-law touting the victory as good for Inglewood and good for unions?

Are they all kidding? Is Wal-Mart going to be the death of mom and pop businesses? Have these people been to the ‘inner-city’ or ghetto as it was called when I lived there?

Wal-Mart wasn’t exactly going to bulldoze dozens of family owned businesses to build yet another colossal center. It was going to build it’s super center on a vacant lot. Oh, we have lot’s of those in the black and Latino areas of Los Angeles County — garbage filled, crime filled, gang filled, and graffiti filled.

But somehow Wal-Mart is the bad guy. And about those ‘mom and pop’ businesses. Recently during a neighborhood meeting in my mid-city Los Angeles neighborhood, the LAPD officer discussed that many of the ‘mom and pop’ businesses on our main thoroughfare were no more than covers for drug and crime activity.

Wal-Mart’s stealing union jobs — a horrible denizen of low-wage labor? Inglewood’s jobless rate is over 10% — about twice the national average. The unemployment rate for African-Americans, Latinos? Higher still. Those union jobs in the black and Latino areas of Los Angeles County — virtually non-existent. Providing jobs where people don’t have them doesn’t seem to be the worst thing that could ever happen.

And it’s not as if those ‘mom and pop’ businesses are providing superior goods and services at low prices. We all know a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk usually have a huge mark up in majority minority areas. You don’t exactly see folks from Hancock Park, Beverly Hills, or Santa Monica, running down to Inglewood to get those great deals. In another time and place, the same left-wing, politicians denounce those businesses which prey upon the poor and captive audience they purport to serve.

Is Wal-Mart good for Inglewood, or for Los Angeles county. Honestly, who knows. I don’t shop at Wal-Mart and don’t really see any reason to patronize the discount leader. Would I like people who don’t have available jobs in their neighborhood to have them, yes. Would I like people to have access to low-priced goods and services — in their neighborhoods — yes. Do I think people should be able to earn more than minimum wage, yes, but probably not for low wage, no skill jobs. In a capitalist society, people have to start somewhere.

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