Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
No, it's called basic household economics. They're paying 17 bucks an hour because any less and you wouldn't even be able to pay your share of a 6 person apartment. The Wal-Mart employees aren't necessarily netting any more money than those in Topeka.
-spence
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The reason rents can be so high is because there is more demand for apartments than can be supplied. Basic supply and demand. The reason Wal-mart pays more for its employees there than elsewhere is also supply and demand. There is not enough population there to fill its demand for labor. Employees must be enticed from elsewhere to work and it must be worthwhile for workers to supply that demand. The reason Wal-mart is there or expanding is because the influx of the thousands of jobs created by the oil company and by the infrastructure needed to support it and its employees, including all manner of retail and service businesses. Again, supply and demand.
You claim the Wal-mart workers are not netting more there than elsewhere because the cost of living is higher. Actually, they are. They have a job there which they would not have elsewhere.
Jobs which didn't exist have been created by the oil company and the myriad of supporting service and retail companies. Renters are making money they couldn't without the boom. Taxes are being paid which would not exist without the boom. Thousands of jobs have been created which wouldn't exist without the boom.
That is creating and "spreading the wealth" by market forces rather than redistribution of existing wealth by government. That is market production and growth of the marketplace rather than government confiscation, restriction, and shrinkage of the marketplace to be replaced by government employment and redistribution.