re: #29 Bob Levin

Walmart made its money by selling products at a lower price than other stores. .

They actually don’t sell comparable products; the products at Wal-Mart stores often have fewer QA passes than at other stories. They’re the same series number, but not the result of the same exact process.

We’re getting very close to having to end this discussion. My point is that these propositions are not Self-Evident, and you’ve got to think them through.

We don’t have to end the dicussion. As usual, you will get huffy and leave, probably.

Wal-mart makes its money from the people that buy the product. It doesn’t make its money from the companies that it beats out, it makes them from its consumers. A person walks into Wal-mart and buys something— Wal-mart is making money off of that transaction.

What you are awkwardly trying to cram to fit into that frame is that Wal-Mart outcompetes others, and so it’s ‘making’ their money off of them. This is a completely overcomplicated way to look at things, and it completely ignores the steady-state of Wal-Mart making money, post-competition.

Cell phone companies make their money from the customers, from people buying their services. That’s how they make money. From ordinary people. Not from the rich.

MacDonald’s makes its money from people buying its products. Not from the rich.

Lots, and lots, and lots of companies make their money not from the rich, but from the middle class, and, yes, the poor. Because the poor are not people without any money at all, they’re just people with much less money. They still have it, and it’s still possible to make money from them.