http://kev.inburke.com/kevin/nelson-liechtenstein/ The golden age is before us, not behind us Sat, 04 Feb 2012 16:03:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://kev.inburke.com/kevin/nelson-liechtenstein/comment-page-1/#comment-176 Nick Summers Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:24:56 +0000 http://kev.inburke.com/?p=916#comment-176 This is true if Walmart is not making any profits. In a perfectly competitive market Walmart would be a price taker. In an oligopoly, Walmart is the big competitor so it gets to set the lower prices that other firms must choose to compete with. In the end Walmart makes monopolistic profits. Could they raise wages and keep low prices? Yes. Pass on the profits to the workers. Are they doing this? No. Also many towns Walmart exists in they are a Monopsony. They price out the small competitors and become the sole job providers. This gives them the ability to only offer low wages. This is true if Walmart is not making any profits. In a perfectly competitive market Walmart would be a price taker. In an oligopoly, Walmart is the big competitor so it gets to set the lower prices that other firms must choose to compete with. In the end Walmart makes monopolistic profits. Could they raise wages and keep low prices? Yes. Pass on the profits to the workers. Are they doing this? No. Also many towns Walmart exists in they are a Monopsony. They price out the small competitors and become the sole job providers. This gives them the ability to only offer low wages.

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