What entity isn’t forced to get better constantly?
Last night I shopped for a video camera. Initially I went to Best Buy, figuring they would have a good selection and competent advice. They had 10 or so to choose from, in a range of prices. But 15 minutes of waiting brought no blue shirted helpers.
So… we went to Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart we found an ample selection, lower prices, and a helpful associate that knew the cameras and had all the manuals available to answer questions he didn’t know.
Guess where I bought a camera?
Wal-Mart saw a weakness, interestingly in themselves, information. So they improved their associate training, made information available to them, all while keeping prices low.
And they got my business last night, and the sales of the last 3 LCD TV’s I’ve bought.
I benefitted from Wal-Mart’s competitive drive. Only Best Buy suffered.
After shopping I returned home and found a message from a candidate for the Utah Senate:
However, I don’t want to cut public education spending.
And I just had to shake my head that even conservatives entering politics throw out all their day to day experience of the benefits of competition when it comes to things government controls.
Only forcing schools to compete would guarantee improvements. Just shoveling money to them guarantees no quality improvements.
A voucher, good at any school (public, private, or home school) would drive quality up fast – just like the race between Best Buy and Wal-Mart.
Who would cry? I suppose the professionals administering the teachers unions would. Note I exclude teachers from this, because I think their lot would improve dramatically once talent could earn more based on merit not time.
Put another way, I’d love to see Wal-School.
Update: More competition.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:59 am
In LA county, the local pols always try to shut out Walmart, somehow making the claim that they hurt the poor folk. They also make the strange claim that Walmart abuses employees, doesn’t pay them enough, denies health benefits and other nonsense. Kind of strange that when the ask for job applicants, thousands show up. Must be a lot of masochists out there.
Of course, what hurts is that Walmart is non-union, and therefore won’t dump tons of money into their coffers.
Meanwhile, the Walmart Superstore in Chino ( and others in the more conservative Inland Empire) are packed, some 24 hours a day. Some of the customers look to me like they might be “poor”.
I’ll bet the poor latinos in Baldwin Park, LA, etc resent their local pols forcing them to drive out here to shop. We welcome the tax revenue. Thanks, LA !!
I’ve given up on finding competent help at any but the most specialized stores ( Samy’s camera, for example) . I do my research, then go buy it.