Greenwald and Carlson show their true stripes.
“Hey, babes,” I said to my wife, Rena, “you buy things at the Dollar Store, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she answered, “why?”
“Because Tucker Carlson says that they’re degrading.
“Why does he say that?” she asked.
So I gave her this link of an interview he did with Glenn Greenwald.
Here’s close to a literal transcript:
Tucker Carlson: I think a lot of people have awakened to the now demonstrable fact that libertarian economics was a scam perpetrated by the beneficiaries of the economic system that they were defending so they created this whole intellectual framework to justify the private equity culture that’s hollowed out the country.
That’s my personal view and I’ve seen it up close my whole life, so I think it’s a fair assessment. I think a smarter way to assess an economic system is by its results so you can assign whatever name you want to the economic system of the United States. You could call it market capitalism. You could call it I mean you could call it a whole host of different things but I I don’t think any of that’s useful. Those are boring conversations. I think you need to ask does this economic system produce a lot of Dollar stores and if it does, it’s not a system that you want because it degrades people and it makes their lives worse and it increases exponentially the amount of ugliness in your society and anything that increases ugliness is evil. Let’s just start there. So if it’s such a good system why do we have all these Dollar stores. The Dollar store is the clear, I mean it’s not the only ugly thing being created in the United States but it’s the one of the most common and it’s certainly the most obvious so if you have a Dollar store you’re degraded and any town that has a Dollar store does not get better. It gets worse and the people who live there lead lives that are worse. So and and the counter argument to the extent there is one: oh they buy cheaper stuff. Great but they become more unhappy and the Dollar store itself is a sort of symbol what’s what’s a physical thing it’s a real thing; it’s not just a metaphor, but it’s also a metaphor for your total lack of control over where you live and over the imposition of aggressively in your face ugly structures that send one message to you, which is you mean nothing. You’re a consumer, not a human being or a citizen and so again I don’t know what we call our current system but its effects are grotesque. They’re grotesque. It’s wrecked. I’ve been here 54 years and I watch carefully. That’s my only gift is I watch and this has become a much uglier place, a much more crowded place, a much more hostile place, a place that cares much less about people so whatever system that produces that outcome is a bad system and you can call me whatever you want oh you’re a socialist I don’t care what you call me actually I’m beyond caring about name calling. It’s bad and I oppose it.
Glenn Greenwald: Yeah, believe me, I know I got in a lot of trouble once for suggesting that you and Steve Bannon are a lot more socialist in a certain limited sense than a lot of people who claim that title and of course the nuance of that point got completely lost but I do think the fact that you are focused so much on kind of the welfare of ordinary people and you know, you go to anywhere in the world, you go to obviously you go to Western Europe and you see these structures that people spent 200 years building just for the sheer beauty of it and you go into nature and you see beauty like it never exists and you go to developing countries and you see a kind of dedication to buildings even that are designed to be inspiring and to kind of stimulate things in the human soul and then you go to the places in the United States where our infrastructure is falling apart where our new structures are designed to be as ugly as possible and it’s a very difficult thing to do to communicate these sort of spiritual components of our politics but ultimately politics does have no purpose other than to elevate the happiness of our citizenry and by every metric the happiness of our citizenry is declining: suicide, addiction, use of anti-depressants. All of that
So being able to buy things cheap is degrading. Notice something, though. This 54-year old who “watches carefully” does not bother to say why being able to buy things cheap is degrading. Are the buildings ugly? I don’t know. I go to the Dollar Store in Seaside once a year when I’m looking for stocking stuffers–I’m due in a couple of days–and I don’t really notice the building. What I like is the people inside. The customers are a real demographic mix, many of whom seem to be enjoying finding bargains.
Greenwald claims that Carlson is “focused so much on kind of the welfare of ordinary people.” I don’t see it. Carlson admits that people can buy stuff cheaper. My wife points out to me that certain kinds of soap she buys for our bathroom are much cheaper there than anywhere else. The term for the benefit she gets is consumer surplus. People who are focused on others’ welfare tend to be happy for them when they get consumer surplus. Tucker clearly isn’t.
Greenwald even ups the ante, talking about how people spent 200 years erecting buildings in Europe “just for the sheer beauty” of it. And did those workers who spent the first 150 of those years get to experience that beauty?
I do think Greenwald is on to something when he calls Carlson somewhat socialist. I’ve noticed this kind of fake concern for lower-income people in a lot of socialists I know.
I’ve been selectively a fan of Carlson and more frequently a fan of Greenwald. But these two showed their true elitist stripes.
READER COMMENTS
Jon Murphy
Dec 19 2023 at 10:53am
I like to call this the Disney evaluation method of morality (so called because Disney movies have a habit of making the bad guy the ugliest person in the film).
Ignoring the subjective nature of beauty, the entire premise of Carlson’s point is on shakey grounds. Capitalism may produce “ugly” buildings, but it produces beautiful buildings too. Capitalism produces music, art, literature, etc. because we are now wealthier to the point where time and resources can be devoted to those persuits rather than just trying to stay alive.
Carlson’s point does come off as elitist. It also comes off as oblivious to the world around him.
David Henderson
Dec 19 2023 at 11:12am
Good points.
You write:
But he watches carefully.
I’m reminded of an area of Pacific Grove where the houses are worth a little less than ours–$1 million or a little less rather than our $1.4 million. Dial both of those numbers down by 50% for the story I’m about to tell. That’s what they were worth circa 2006. I remember someone saying, “That ares is so ugly. They should just bulldoze it and return it to nature.”
Richard Fulmer
Dec 19 2023 at 11:04am
Carlson’s concern for the aesthetic sensibilities of the nation’s poor is quite touching. On the other hand, if Dollar stores were located in “structures that people spent 200 years building just for [their] sheer beauty,” few people could afford to shop in them.
Housing developers sometimes reduce costs by clearcutting trees before starting construction. Banning such practices would result in prettier neighborhoods featuring large, well-established trees, but at the cost of pricing poorer people out. Building codes that establish minimum square footages and minimum window surface areas result in houses that better comport with Carlson’s sensibilities, but that fewer poor people can afford.
Carlsonesque “concern” for the poor has also given us publicly funded operas, symphony concerts, and television stations that are enjoyed largely by the wealthy.
Carlson condemns capitalism because it caters to poor people in ways that offend his senses. By implication, he is demanding that we cater to his desires by hurting the poor. As with most socialists, Carlson cares so much that he is willing to give the shirt off of someone else’s back.
johnson85
Dec 20 2023 at 12:20pm
I disagree with Carlson’s main point, but I do think it’s fair to acknowledge that sometimes the market gives us things that can charitably be called very short term focused.
Our local developers clear cut and put up houses on dime sized lots and put “two car” garages that you can fit two say sedans in, but not two midsized SUV’s or even one full sized truck. On the inside, you get the bare minimum sized rooms and very little storage, so the houses look incredibly cluttered after they’ve been lived in for a few months and while they come with some bells and whistles on the interior, the quality of the work leaves a lot to be desired and the impression from poor work lasts a lot longer than the bells and whistles.
So what inevitably happens is you end up with a neighborhood where everybody parks in the garage or on the street, the exterior aesthetics are terrible, the interiors tend to look rundown well beyond their years, and instead of having a property that appreciates with inflation they are lucky if it just maintains its value, and more typically within two years it’s worth about 10-15% less than the exact model being thrown up within a couple of miles, and within 10-15 years, it’s if not a ghetto at least not desirable. So yes, they get to move into a house for $10-20k less, and in exchange they get a house that basically operates as a car as far as the impact of depreciation on their finances.
Is it elitist to note that they would almost certainly be better off if they invested in a higher quality house without fatal flaws that can’t be fixed (e.g., a garage two small for the vast majority of cars people utilize)? I mean, yes, we are basically saying they are “wrong” to prioritize getting into a new house immediately and/or getting slightly more square footage rather than a more functional and higher quality house. But I think there is a little more objectivity behind that judgment than claiming that dollar stores make people worse off.
Carlsonesque “concern” for the poor has also given us publicly funded operas, symphony concerts, and television stations that are enjoyed largely by the wealthy.
Carlson condemns capitalism because it caters to poor people in ways that offend his senses. By implication, he is demanding that we cater to his desires by hurting the poor. As with most socialists, Carlson cares so much that he is willing to give the shirt off of someone else’s back.
Jon Murphy
Dec 20 2023 at 12:58pm
No, that’s not fair. It’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how markets work. Markets do not “give” and customers do not “take.” Markets are an exchange process. People exchange based on what they want and what their plans are, subject to budget constraints. That you (or Carlson) might consider it shortsighted because it doesn’t align with your plans is wholly irrelevant.
SK
Dec 20 2023 at 1:31pm
Well said and beat me to saying just that.
johnson85
Dec 21 2023 at 10:45am
Obviously in context that statement meant the market literally gives and not the more reasonable interpretation of “the market results in”.
And it’s not about it not aligning with my plans, it’s about not aligning with the participants preferences. Yes, you can claim that there’s no such thing as alcoholism, that some people just have a really strong revealed preference for alcohol, but the reality is humans are imperfect and just saying they have a preference for difference preferences is a lazy way to avoid thinking about a difficult concept.
I’m not suggesting the government should do anything about it because obviously there isn’t much reason to think government involvement would improve the results, and even if there were there’s not a reliable way to determine when people are making decisions that are counterproductive to their preferences. But the government not being a fix doesn’t mean that it’s not unfortunate. The reality is humans are sometimes (often?) stupid. In the example in question, they’d rather live in a nice neighborhood with a larger garage and possibly smaller square footage in five years and just don’t understand that they are sacrificing that option now with their choice. Sure, some people would choose more bedrooms and slightly more square footage now even if they knew the medium term financial consequences, but many wouldn’t.
I don’t think pretending that humans are rational and the market sometimes doesn’t produce (here’s your chance to argue that the market doesn’t produce anything rather than reading like a human with the ability to use logic and context) the optimal results is helpful in arguing against government interventions that will usually give much worse results.
Jon Murphy
Dec 21 2023 at 11:19am
Yes, I know. That context changes nothing; the view of the market you espouse is fundamentally flawed for the reasons I give above: markets are exchange processes, not give and take. Not a contest. There are no “results are in” to be measured and judged above the subjective individual level. Ultimately, you are imposing your own plans, your own views, on the outcome.
johnson85
Dec 22 2023 at 12:05pm
You should be a high school counselor.
Kid: I want to be an engineer.
JM: Well, you sit around and smoke pot and skip class and play video games. No need to try to do anything different. There’s zero chance your actions don’t reveal your actual preference of not being an engineer. Nobody has ever truly regretted their actions. They acted on their preferences and their “regret” is just a preference for past preferences, and acting differently would have made them less happy based on their revealed preferences.
Kenny A Rohleder
Dec 26 2023 at 2:36pm
Tucker is saying the opposite. His position is that working class people have the right to live in beautiful communities, just like the middle class or wealthy. Dollar store chains are financial behemoths, and they could build architecturally pleasing buildings and signage that are visually pleasing, instead of using garish graphics and concrete block boxes. He isn’t proposing that working class people shouldn’t buy from dollar stores — he’s proposing that dollar stores don’t care about working class people — nor does the government. In my neighborhood, the city builds curbs using granite blocks mortared onto a concrete footer. In the working-class neighborhood nearby there are no curbs — just dead grass next to the street.
Mike Hammock
Dec 19 2023 at 1:16pm
I think this is partly a case of unexamined reversed causality. They see poor people shopping at the dollar store, and instead of thinking “this store was built to serve people with low income”, they think “this store caused people to have low income“.
It’s a strange argument to make; the availability of a dollar store doesn’t compel anyone to shop there or work there, so it’s hard for me to imagine how it could cause people to be poor. Still, I think that’s the “model” Carlson and Greenwald are using.
William Anderson
Dec 19 2023 at 1:57pm
I see the same kinds of elitist attitudes about Walmart. Don’t forget that Walmart provided a way for people who were on the lower end of the income scale to buy quality products that would not have been available to them at all. The idea with people like Carlson and Greenwald is that if a store doesn’t look like a boutique we would see in Vermont, then something is wrong with America.
Mike Hammock’s comments are spot on and we see this kind of false causality at work in much of what we read from American elites. For that matter, how many times have we read that the cause of poverty in the Third World is wealth in America? A few years ago, I wrote an article to respond to a news story that claimed that Dollar Stores are a cause of poverty.
https://mises.org/wire/no-dollar-stores-dont-create-poverty
BS
Dec 20 2023 at 12:01pm
What is it about stores offering low pricing that brings out the ugly in people? I’ve seen acquaintances mock the kinds of people* who shop at Wal-Mart.
Is it possibly true that well-off people resent the idea that everyone could be well-off (in which case they’d be less special)?
*Or at least what they imagine to be those “kinds of people”.
john hare
Dec 20 2023 at 6:03pm
I think many of the people that decry discount stores from Dollar Whatever to Walmart either don’t have good memory of the past or never lived it. The 5&10 stores were the forerunners of the Dollar Whatever’s. And when the local general store was the place to buy as opposed to a lot of travel time and expense, the prices were higher and selection lower by far than now.
Also, I dislike track housing for some of the same reasons mentioned. The difference being that they do not depreciate as stated, though the quality is clearly substandard. There is a solution. Build a custom house to your tastes on a lot large enough to suit you. Double or more cost would seem to be acceptable to one so down on track built housing.
Chip Joyce
Dec 19 2023 at 2:28pm
There are two kinds of Dollar Store shoppers, it seems. There are people who go there because there are deals on some particular items. As a parent, it’s the go-to for disposal crap like gift bags, balloons, wrapping paper, and various junk needed for school projects. This is typical middle-class-mom in-and-out Dollar Store hit-and-runs. It’s a miserable experience to be sure.
Then there is the rest of the shoppers. The seemingly destitute, scraping their nickels together (and EBT cards) to eek out a minimal subsistence on god-awful prepared junk food. That’s probably the large majority of customers.
Yes, it is sad and ugly. It’s worse than the stereotypical Wal-Mart shopping experience because the latter has plenty of First-World products. The Dollar Store doesn’t. It has developing-world knock-off toys and decorations, cooking ware, utensils, etc.
Tucker’s should know better than to blame the free market.
We don’t have a free market. We have a highly regulated market, an unchecked government, a crushing tax system, a crazy expensive government-controlled medical system, and politicians and bureaucrats who picks winners and losers.
The rich get richer because they’re part of the political class. The rest of us are their marks.
He says it’s gotten worse in his lifetime, and I think there’s true to that. It hasn’t all gotten worse, but it should have gotten a lot better in his lifetime in all ways — that’s what free market capitalism would have done.
You have to ask yourself: Why are there so many poor people despite the trillions in welfare spending? Why is our infrastructure crumbling Third World quality despite trillions in infrastructure spending every few years? Why are our schools and universities declining in quality despite mind-blowing budgets?
It’s because the system is rigged. It does benefit the big players in capital markets, university administrators, NGO executives, “green” corporate executives and asset managers, the poverty and homelessness industrial complex, etc.
That’s not capitalism. It’s corrupt cronyism.
It is grotesque, and yes, Tucker: it makes everything uglier and worse off.
Mark
Dec 23 2023 at 8:12pm
Excellent insights, agreed. Thank you!
Henri Hein
Dec 19 2023 at 2:30pm
Another thing that is missing from the conversation is: compared to what? When Greenwald is talking about buildings built over 200 years for their sheer beauty, he is probably referring to some of the architectural marvels Europe has to offer. (Most buildings that are built over 200 years actually end up as ugly hodge-podges.) Other countries have ugly buildings and cheap stores too. They are not comparing the best with the best or the worst with the worst.
Richard Belzer
Dec 19 2023 at 5:02pm
Dollar stores in buildings that took 200 years to build are called Museum Gift Shops. and nothing costs a dollar.
Greg Carney
Dec 19 2023 at 5:56pm
Carlson comes off as astonishingly elitist in this. Perhaps he’d qualify his words if he had a chance to review them?
Seems to me that Dollar Stores are the epitome of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand. People need and want inexpensive goods and a free market delivers them. It really doesn’t matter if they are sold in buildings for the ages or tents.
Carlson’s sentiments are as opposed to personal freedom as any central planner’s in the old Soviet Union or current member of the Swamp. People vote with their wallets and their feet. You would think Carlson, of all people, would recognize that.
Astonishing.
john hare
Dec 19 2023 at 6:23pm
I’ll take an ugly building I can use and afford over an architectural work of art I can observe at a distance. Of course, I don’t find affordable functionality to be ugly in the first place.
David Seltzer
Dec 19 2023 at 7:00pm
Carlson demonstrates his ignorance about consumer surplus. Personal note. I wanted a pair of Timberland classic 6 inch boots about 4 years ago. They priced at about $160. Now they are about $200. A trip to Walmart yielded a nice knockoff pair for about $50. I bought them and they have performed well. My Consumer surplus was about $110 as I was willing to pay $160 until I went to Wally-World. Some would point out the Walmart Boots are inferior. Not to me, as, at the margin, I’m satisfied with my choice.
David Henderson
Dec 19 2023 at 7:25pm
Wally-World. Love it. 🙂
Michael Sandifer
Dec 19 2023 at 7:17pm
What do you mean by saying you’ve been “selectively a fan of Carlson”? Is that in recent years, as he spews hatred for immigrants, for example?
David Henderson
Dec 19 2023 at 7:26pm
You ask:
Yes, and you have correctly put your finger on one of the issues on which I detest his views.
David Seltzer
Dec 19 2023 at 7:23pm
Sorry! I can’t let Carlson off the hook. He said; “I think a lot of people have awakened to the now demonstrable fact that libertarian economics was a scam perpetrated by the beneficiaries of the economic system that they were defending so they created this whole intellectual framework to justify the private equity culture that’s hollowed out the country.”
In 2009 Dollar General traded at $23/share. It’s currently trading near $130 a share. compounded annualized return of 13% Currently, there are no less than 10 outlets competing with them. Walmart, Target, Dollar Tree, Costco and family Dollar Stores are some of the bigger ones. They’ve identified a demographic and responded with supply. How is libertarian econ a scam perpetrated by the beneficiaries of the economic system? Who are the beneficiaries? I suggest Carlson read I, Pencil, the essay by Leonard E Read!
Roger McKinney
Dec 19 2023 at 10:30pm
Tulsa stopped allowing dollar stores in North Tulsa, the poorest part of town, because they do not sell fresh fruit and vegetables. Keep in mind there have been no grocery stores or retail stores in north Tulsa for 70 years. Many have tried and failed because theft is so great that no business can survive. Other than convenience stores and MacDonalds, there is no retail for miles around north Tulsa except for dollar stores. Somehow dollar stores survive. So the city council in all its wisdom chose to limit the only successful retail for miles around the poorest part of town. For groceries other than dollar stores, north Tulsans must drive 5 miles. For clothing it’s a 20 mile trip.
Carlson is a socialist, as are all those associated with national conservatism, Marco Rubio, Compass magazine, Pat Buchanan, etc. They are of the fascist flavor of socialism, preaching family values and government control of the economy. They despise economic science, like all good socialists.
Joel Pollen
Dec 20 2023 at 2:54am
His line about being a practical guy who evaluates economic systems by their consequences is perhaps the worst thing he said. This is a line I hear a lot in political conversations. It sounds appealing but I think it serves to justify a selective and self-serving view of the evidence. The set of conditions in a country of 350 million people can be described in innumerable ways. It is not possible to “just look at the results.” There is more data than any person can comprehend. What this means in practice is picking some small set of facts out of the infinite facts available that are consistent with what you already believed.
Mark
Dec 20 2023 at 7:50am
Listen to the full interview. You have to acknowledge Carlson’s main point is not about architectural aesthetics, but the economic structure of the country that results in people having to shop at dollar stores. Tucker is expressing populism, not socialism, He is not speaking for upper middle class libertarians who go there by choice, but lower class folks who go out of necessity, buying disposable junk made by Chinese from a cashier making $20k a year with lousy benefits if any. If they’re buying food, they’re buying smaller portions for a higher per ounce cost.
My wife gets fun stuff there cheap too. Don’t get me wrong. But just listen to the whole interview, think about what Carlson said and ignore your first reflexive thought. Capitalism truly is the worst possible system except for all the other ones.
Jon Murphy
Dec 20 2023 at 8:00am
If that’s his point, then one must lower their opinion of Tucker even more. He is elitist, oblivious, and doesn’t understand how markets work.
Marc Joffe
Dec 20 2023 at 8:50am
I believe Carlson was referencing a critique of Dollar Stores described here:
https://collider.com/last-week-tonight-dollar-stores-workforce-episode/
The assertion is that the stores are degrading to employees and to customers (allegedly) obliged to shop at them.
I have to admit that I find shopping in a high-end department store or at a farmer’s market to be more pleasant than shopping at a Dollar Store. But I wonder how they compare to previous establishments that catered to working class customers, e.g. Woolworth’s.
I hope someone on the free market side can do a deeper dive into this issue.
David Henderson
Dec 20 2023 at 1:57pm
Thanks for the link.
You write:
What do you see being the elements of that deep dive?
Marc Joffe
Dec 21 2023 at 1:07am
I’d like to see someone grapple with the points made about labor conditions and the quality of the customer experience.
Are Dollar Stores a step down from their predecessors, and, if so, why did this step-down occur?
MarkW
Dec 21 2023 at 2:51pm
Are Dollar Stores a step down from their predecessors, and, if so, why did this step-down occur?
No! They’re much cheaper than their predecessors and so a godsend to the low-income shoppers who mostly patronize them (though I did just get back from my annual stocking-stuffer trip to ‘Dollar Tree’ where virtually everything actually sells for $1). I’ve heard it said that great thing about dollar stores is that they let poor people shop like rich people — just tossing things into their carts without having to worry and constantly mentally tote up the total.
Roger McKinney
Dec 21 2023 at 10:28am
I’m middle class, having a master degree in economics, and love dollar stores. My wife shops there a lot because they offer good value. I find nothing demeaning in shopping there. I can’t comment on working there, but I can’t see how working for a wage I agreed to at anything is demeaning. Working at dollar stores is a good start for anyone. BTW, I’ve read similar criticisms of Walmart for decades and there is no truth in them. They come from spoiled, rich, ignorant elitists, like Carlson.
bill steigerwald
Dec 20 2023 at 11:34am
As a good libertarian/classical liberal, etc., I agree with virtually all the smart commentators and with David Henderson. Carlson has never been good about economics or immigration and his hatred for libertarians is wide, despite his anti-authoritarian instincts. He did a lot of brave, brash work to debunk the authorities who wrecked our lives with their insane and evil war on covid. He hates many of the people in media and politics who deserve hatred. He was against the war in Ukraine early and hard. He was the first major media person to embrace and push Sy Hersh’s Nordstream Pipeline charge that we (the CIA or its pals) obviously blew it up. He’s an ideological puzzle and I hope he discovers Bastiat before he becomes Trump’s VP (hah, on both counts). As for Carlson’s rambling about the shame of Dollar Stores, I can’t disagree more. Living in the WV Panhandle, 25 minutes in every direction from the nearest grocery, I’m surrounded by various kinds of Dollar Stores/Family Dollars, Dollar Generals, etc. (Dollar Tree Inc. alone has 16,000 Dollar Stores or Family Dollar stores around the USA.) Their stores did not displace local businesses; they were planted in grocery deserts — rural and urban. Their clientele may resemble WalMart people. Their shelves and floor space may be a shambles. Their storefronts are hideous and cluttered. Ånd they sure don’t have the organic or gluten free bread you seek. But ‘value stores’ are exemplars of the ability of the free market to provide affordable stuff to consumers where it’s needed or wanted (they’re Walmarty that way). The idea that Dollar stores sell junk from China is absurd. They sell the basic convenience store items of America — soda, candy, smokes, frozen stuff, along with basic necessities of life. But whereas 7-Elevens and their like jack up their prices to be rewarded for their 24/7 convenience, Dollar Stores/Generals/Trees keep their prices low — usually lower than grocery stores like Kroger. Dollar Tree Inc.’s net profits of about 3 percent last quarter prove they keep their prices low. Carlson, though he travels here and abroad far more than any other major media figure, needs to get in a car and visit six or 10 Dollar stores in Flyover Country. I’ll see if I can get him to do that.
steve
Dec 20 2023 at 2:35pm
Not really sure Carlson has an overriding economic philosophy or set of beliefs. He makes money by pandering to conservatives, mostly by saying things he thinks they will like or making fun of libs. There is a strain of conservative, mostly among the religious base, who believe that ugly buildings reflect a lack of religious faith or a lack of appreciating beauty which is due to the left, whom they associate with communists who are the ones they think invented brutalism in architecture. It’s convoluted reasoning I think but I suspect this is mostly pandering to that group of conservatives. I would bet that if he was doing a town hall type event with a bunch of blues collar folks he would pander to them and support dollar stores, especially if he thought liberals didnt like them.
Personally, I like WalMart and shop there but the dollar stores in our area seem poorly arranged and its hard to find stuff. No staff to ask. I value my time too much to go to one.
Steve
Mike Wagner
Dec 20 2023 at 5:46pm
I wonder if Carlson ever shopped at Stu Leonard’s where the prices and quality are terrific, but much else about the shopping experience is awful: parking, convenience, customer service to name a few. But folks drive for miles to shop there. Is this a rich man’s Dollar Store?
diane keller
Dec 20 2023 at 5:55pm
I think Carlson is forgetting the many “commie condos” built in eastern europe during the Cold War. Now those are ugly!
Speed
Dec 21 2023 at 6:23am
One-Percenters Keep Shopping at the Dollar Store
Wealthy consumers scour discount-chain aisles for bargains.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/dollar-store-shoppers-wealthier-6e08ce1f?
Mike Burnson
Dec 21 2023 at 12:37pm
I perceive Dollar stores of all types as an EFFECT, not at all a cause; and capitalism is filling a need, not forcing anyone to patronize. It has long been known that anything can be made at a lower cost to meet a market’s demand. That is the important role that Dollar this-and-that fill. Where does one draw this line between acceptable and unacceptable? Domino’s and Pizza Hut are 40% less than a local pizzeria; do they constitute the equivalent for pizza?
One might reasonably ask why such stores have proliferated, to which my gut answer is the welfare state. All through history, there has been a certain percentage of any population this is willing to accept a subsistence lifestyle. The welfare state promotes this, enabling indolence over industry. Thomas Sowell and the late Walter E. Williams have studied and written on this for decades, citing the social pathologies that welfare promotes. Just add Dollar-type stores to Sowell’s list. I concede, though, that I do not patronize these stores, so my perception may be flawed.
As an aside, Walmart, Target, and similar retailers most certainly are not in this category. They have always sold name-brand products – Sony TVs, Swift pork, Frito-Lay snacks, Budweiser and Coca-Cola beverages, Serta mattresses, etc – as well as their in-house brands. That they bought in bulk and passed savings on to consumers is capitalism at its best. These retailers have also historically offered inexperienced workers their first step up life’s gainful employment ladder.
Warren Platts
Dec 21 2023 at 2:11pm
I think what Tucker and Glenn are mad about is not Dollar Store per se exploiting working class Americans; rather they’re mad at Liberarian Economics itself that has pretty much dominated economic policy-making for the last 50 years that’s been exploiting working class Americans through a vast system of labor arbitrage (aka globalism, or what I call the race to the middle). The theory’s pretty simple: (a) open borders increases the supply of labor; (b) willy-nilly imports & a big trade deficit reduce the demand for labor; therefore, (c) working class wages must go down. Dollar Store is merely a symptom of this phenomenon.
Yes, yes, I know. Comparative advantage and all that, and immigrants will do jobs regular Americans don’t want to do, plus taco trucks, and don’t forget that measuring real wages depends on using the right deflator! But from the populist point of view expressed by Tucker and Glenn, that comes across as gaslighting. As Buchanan pointed out, policies are never made for the general good: they are made for the benefit of the policy-makers. And of course Libertarian economists benefit hugely from the system they are the architects of as evidenced by the fact that they can live in $1.4 million dollar homes (2006 valuation!) — they are providing a real service to the rest of the elite class! Because of course, if working class wages can be driven down, then elite class real wages must go up. Thus, calling Tucker and Glenn elitists not only misses their point, it’s calling the kettle black..
Mark Madeley
Dec 21 2023 at 4:33pm
Tucker Carlson is in love with his own lexicon and the sound of his own voice. Maybe he is just a Lexiconservative. Just look at the buzzwords like “hollowed out.” I’ve been around for 54 years, too, and what you want to see is what you see. Carlson is especially if not exclusively motivated by his listeners who need him to tell them what they already believe. So, Carlson is actually seeing what his listeners want to see. It’s not thought-leadership. Had to laugh at your comment about stocking stuffers. I only go there when I need gift-wrap stuff, which is today! But hardcore bargain shoppers do not feel degraded when they find a good deal. They are lifted to the level of elation. I have to spend more than one can spend at a Dollar Store to get shopping endorphins flooding my system. That can be good or bad depending on what I want to see in my garage or living room.
Mark
Dec 21 2023 at 4:39pm
Oh! Just remembered…
Ask your wife if she feels degraded shopping at Sally Beauty. I think they have more stores than there are Prairie Dog mounds in the Plains.
Jon Murphy
Dec 22 2023 at 10:08am
With all the pearl clutching by Carlson and Greenwald, one would think there would be some massive increase in Dollar Stores going on. One would think they’d provide at least some evidence. But, running the numbers myself, we can see why they wouldn’t.
Dollar Tree is part of NAICS Code 4523 (which also includes stores like Wal-Mart, BJs, Costco, and any other “Warehouse General Merchandise” retailer). As a percentage of total US retail sales, these stores rose 7 percentage points between 1992 and 2009, from 4% of all retail sales to 11%. From 2009 to 2020, their share flatlined. Since 2020, these stores share of retail sales have actually fallen 1 percentage point to 10% (Source: US Census Bureau and author calculations). So, these stores do not represent a majority, or even large minority, of sales.
Once we look at the actual numbers, Carlson and Greenwald come off even more elitist and out-of-touch; just complaining for the sake of complaining. One would think that someone who “whatches carefully” would be aware of the basic facts.
Warren Platts
Dec 24 2023 at 2:07pm
I like how you spin that Jon! 7 pps instead of factor of 3X!
Jon Murphy
Dec 24 2023 at 3:04pm
3X seems misleading given the small base; while technically correct, it has a very sensationalist connotation. Thus, to avoid accidentally injecting potential bias, I simply reported the actual numbers.
Steve Brecher
Dec 23 2023 at 2:54pm
Ain’t no “Dollar Store(s)”. There are Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Family Dollar stores. There are a Dollar Tree and a Dollar General in Seaside, CA.
Carlson didn’t capitalize “store(s)”.
David Henderson
Dec 23 2023 at 7:04pm
You’re right. The one I went to is Dollar Tree.
You write:
You’re right. He didn’t capitalize anything. He was speaking.
Warren Platts
Dec 24 2023 at 2:10pm
They’re not even dollar stores anymore. (Anyone here old enough to remember the term “dime store”?) You’re lucky to find something less than $5…
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