Quote:
Originally posted by Ustwo
I'm far more worried that California basically decides what school text books the nation uses, then wallmart not having Cosmo because it always has '1000 ways to play with your mans member and drive him wild' on the cover.
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Actually, I heard a story on NPR a few months ago stating that it was California and Texas that basically set the school text book agenda. I see those two states as basically balancing each other out.
Both wal-mart and the school textbook issues are interesting in that the invidual shoppers and the other 48 states don't *have* to do what everyone else is doing.
In the case of consumers, it appears that most people don't care that the mom and pop stores are getting wiped out, and all the other evil that wal-mart does. In the case of textbooks, it's surprising to me that the boards of education in the other states care so little about textbook content that they just go along with california and/or texas.
I've got mixed feelings about the whole thing. I'm not sure at what level you have to protect the local economy. In europe, for example, there are rather strict laws in germany protecting the franchises of local shopkeepers. I'd love to see more neighborhood and less strip malls, but I think that's something that has to be a grass-roots effort at the local level.