The Young and the Restless Wal-Mart

You might have wondered what it would take for the NY Sun to find a reason to praise Andrew Young. Wonder no more. You see Jimmy Carter's favorite UN ambassador has come in for high praise because he has enlisted in the fight over Wal-Mart, lending his considerable prestige and support to the retail giant.

The Sun's editorial is entitled, "The Right to Low Prices", and goes on to underscore just how much the Sun feels that the retailer does for poor folks. Quoting economist Jason Furman the editorial opines that the successful effort to stifle Wal-Mart will lead "to higher prices that disproportionately harm lower-income families."

Going on in its praise of Mr. Young the Sun depicts the Wal-Mart fight as a "civil rights" battle where "the poor benefit most." Listen closely, Can't you hear the cadences of "We Shall Overcome" emanating from the lower Manhattan offices of the Sun? This is surely the silliest thing we've read in quite some time.

Let's put aside the fact that the Young-led Working Families for Wal-Mart is one well-funded Trojan Horse that will use poor people to enrich not only Wal-Mart, but of course Young himself. The Sun should know better and should be more aware of the ecology of neighborhoods in this city and the role of immigrant entrepreneurs in their resurgence. These are the issues we raise in our "conservative case" against Wal-Mart and they are especially germane to this city.

Still, the enlisting of Andy young is a harbinger of things to come as Wal-Mart uses its unlimited resources to line up the city's eager "booty capitalists" in its effort to penetrate New York's market. It won't do much good in Staten Island or Monsey, New York, but it will certainly resonate in East New York, the South Bronx and Jamaica. And this is where the real battle for New York will take place.