Yet Another Academic Report

The Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart Jobs: Use of Safety Net Programs by Wal-Mart Workers in California by Arindrajit Dube and Ken Jacobs of UC Berkeley here.

The first study to quantify the costs of Wal-Mart's substandard wages and benefits on public safety net programs. Village and Town officials should be reading stuff like this.

Is there going to be a study of the possible effects of a Wal-Mart supercenter on SL? Donaldson threw out numbers on the amount of taxes that an SL Wal-Mart would pay. Does that take into consideration the loss of taxes that may occur should a Wal-Mart come to SL? Is anyone going to study what the long term effects of a Wal-Mart supercenter will be on SL, the Townships and the Essex county?

Their (Wal-Mart)market research assesses what kind of market share they could grab, not what the cost/benefit analysis would be on public revenues if other stores close and lay off their workers. Wal-Mart does not want third party "experts" involved in these hearings. Most communities have little or no capacity to produce their own analysis. So Wal-Mart is able to sway public officials largely on unsubstantiated economic promises. (from Sprawl-Busters)

Do the village officials have the guts to ask Wal-Mart to share their market research?