What is the difference between helping a Moms and Pops store versus a large corporation?

Small local businesses cater to their local customers, hire local people, and the profits and wages are invested into the local economy.

Corporate businesses take profits away from the local area and may reinvest wherever they can get the highest return. They also buy from the cheapest supplier regardless of location, choose inventory based on national or regional choices, and close local outlets when the return drops below an expected amount.

The answers to your questions are not not necessarily split between local vs. national. Locals can often only afford to pay low wages. Neither is “morally correct” (although certain corporations vs certain local stores may carry a morality factor.) Hiring more people is usually considered better for the economy overall.

First off, “small business” isn’t what you think. I work for a company with 400 employees that does trade in many countries (over 50% of what we make is exported). Yet, it is technically a small business.

The thing is, small businesses create most of the jobs in our country. Another thing, as stated at my @zenvelo, is that small businesses keep their money more local. For instance, most of what my company earns stays in WA, MT, or RI, where we have plants. Of course, it also means that our company pays taxes unlike many of the big boys.

I would side with the people who create jobs and pay taxes over those that don’t.

I would also favor those where the execs earn less than 100 times what the average worker does than those who pay their CEOs >1000 times the average worker even when they fail. Investing in the company is good. Investing in the exec’s, not so much. One increases shareholder value, the other continues the problems we have.

As for capping them, I don’t think a hard cap would be good. There are some large businesses that still do the right thing and some small businesses that are asshats; I don’t think size and behavior are linked quite closely enough to make a hard-and-fast rule.

Hiring low-wage workers is a disservice. They often wind up worse off than what they were on government assistance, and some of the companies that do that actually instruct their employees how to cheat the system at the expense of all taxpayers. I find it more morally acceptable when employers do not steal from taxpayers.

We have a big problem with income inequality in the United States. When 100 million people give their money to Walmart, this concentrates wealth in the hands of Walmart executives and shareholders. If all of those 100 million people were spending their money locally, wealth would be distributed more equitably, and, as @zenvelo and @jerv described, it would remain in the buyer’s community.

@nikipedia You forgot to mention more specifically how many of those Walmart dollars go to China instead of staying here where they could help get Americans out of poverty.

You kind of answered your own question. A mom and pops store is generally a lot smaller and requires less monetary assistance.

A big corporation, like WalMart, would put a dent in the nations economy, IF monetary assistance were required for it.

More means more and less means less, if you get my drift.

@john65pennington Understood.

I dunno. If Mom and Pop provide a better product and more personal service and they give me what I want, then I will patronize them. If they give me something worse than Walmart in terms of price or service, then I’m going to Walmart. Or I’ll send my wife, since I won’t set foot in one of those if I don’t have to. I hate waiting in lines and I hate seeing all the produce pulled off the shelves and spread out on the floor. Just being in the store makes me feel dirty.

So I’d rather go someplace where I know the vendor, and I trust they will treat me well. Hopefully they won’t cost much more, either. Too much, and I’m not going there.

The nice thing is that I have a choice. I don’t like it when a downtown dies when Walmart shows up, but I do like it when it comes back only with better quality.

I don’t think it’s a issue of helping one or the other. It’s an issue of eliminating unfair tax advantages, which usually go to the big businesses. Or the organized businesses. But over time, that will change.