Unintended consequences

I'm always harping about how people don't think about the unintended consequences of their actions and how the true cost of our economic choices is not reflected in the prices we pay. Just fill up that tank, I can afford it. Throw out that old junk, they'll take it. Build me that big new house, I deserve it.

Well, I guess I'm not the only one trying to understand the extranalities.

A new site called Wal-Mart Watch is underway. It aims to quantify what Wal-Mart really costs us in terms of healthcare and other assistance for their mostly impoverished employees -- the cogs in their money making machine. I don't even want to think about what they are doing to communities with their sprawling crap-hole stores with massive parking lots.

Speaking of damage to communities, Omaha's iconic Ranch Bowl could be giving way to a Wal-Mart. This venue is well-known in Omaha and has been a part of the city's amazingly rich live music scene. To make it part of the continued destruction of 72nd Street would be a shame.