Quote: The low prices outweigh the loss of the businesses that have higher prices. That is, in a pure capitalist sense.
If a business canīt provide a better or cheaper product/service, then they are less efficient than Walmart, and thus the existence of Walmart makes for a more productive capitalist economy.
This often expressed nonsense is called "Market Fundamentalism", making those who actually believe it "Market Fundamentalists". There are many flaws in this thinking, but here are two of the biggest ones:
1. It assumes that cost is the only measure of value, thus "efficiency" measured as the cost of an item offered should be pursued by any means, including worker exploitation.
2. It assumes that the market is the answer to all problems, but ignores the fact that indivicual market participants have a vested interest in destroying the market mechanism itself by achieving a functional monopoly. Many companies engage in unethical predatory behaviors to accomplish this, such as selling below cost to gain access to a new market.
Cost and profit are not the only things of value in the world, and the unfettered pursuit of them at the expense of other values is not a good thing.
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