IT'S been a good week for the power of individuals, on both sides
of the
Atlantic. In France the mob swept the Eurotunnel board overboard,
while in
California a small town raised two fingers to Wal-Mart, the store
that ate
America. In neither case was economic self-interest served, since
the new board
of Eurotunnel has no more room for manoeuvre than the old one,
and nobody
disputes that Wal-Mart means cheaper goods.
Indeed,
the company managed to assume the air of a spurned suitor when
the
residents of Inglewood decided that they'd rather stick with their
existing
stores than see a 60-acre "category killer" spring up
in their midst. The owners
of Britain's Asda really seem to believe that they act wholly
in the consumer's
interest and that they just happen to get enormously fat because
the customers
love them too.
California
law, which allows referenda on almost anything if enough
signatures can be found, has held up the juggernaut. Perhaps it
shows the limits
of capitalism, when the locals can't trust themselves to stay
away, and so vote
to spare themselves the temptation.
