Letter of the Day: Preachng obsolescence

Preaching obsolescence

EDITOR: Economist Robert Reich opines that Wal-Mart is a job destroyer because it "sucks jobs out of a community" ("Reich: Wal-mart a 'job destroyer,' " Tuesday). Clearly, he understands that the loss of jobs for high school drop-outs or poorly educated workers is not due to Wal-Mart's purchasing and marketing policies but the consequence of modern technology.

Low-wage, unionized jobs were sucked out of the community by modern technology such as the introduction of the bar code and computerized cash registers, which enabled efficient marketing. The introduction of the bar code meant business owners, for the first time, could measure items sold and compare that to items inventoried.

The advent of the jet freighter introduced just-in-time inventory control. The computerization of manufacturing processes has ensured high-speed, error-free manufacture of everything from automobiles to toaster ovens, thereby reducing the need for labor to manufacture, much less market, department store merchandise.

This societal change is confirmed by the astonishing fact that 47 percent of the applicants who want to join the Army cannot pass the enlistment exam.

Wal-Mart, a modern highly computerized business, does not "suck jobs out of the community," but, in fact, provides jobs for these very people who otherwise could not readily find steady full-time employment with benefits.

CHARLES R. GREENE

Santa Rosa