When an economic trend makes our jobs more crazy and demoralizing at the same time it reduces our independent alternatives, and simultaneously renders our physical environment bleak and inhospitable, we need to consider it in the light of a good deal more than a few cents’ difference in the price of some consumer goodie.

Even my elementary school-aged children understand this.  They know that if we choose Wal-Mart’s merchandise over what’s offered on the street of little stores, we’re helping it to grow at their expense--and that if everybody chooses Wal-Mart, then eventually it’s all we’ll have.

My hope is that someday this understanding can become common among adults.  Especially pundits and policy makers.