My latest TCS column, on Wal-Mart’s problems in New York and elsewhere:

The War on Wal-Mart continues apace this week in New York City. There, the cost of living is high — as is the demand for Wal-Mart’s services. But the labor movement’s tactics, as always, are lower than low.

Their latest tactic: a bill that will require grocery stores in the five boroughs with 35 or more employees to provide their workers with “prevailing” health-care benefits.

What this means, in practice, is erecting yet another wall to keep Wal-Mart out.

…

The unions think their members — not to mention the rest of the public — are simply too stupid not to shop at Wal-Mart. The debate over Wal-Mart has been going on for more than a decade, but they’re too damn selfish, and too damn interested in their cheap underwear, to spend a few extra nickels to support their unionized brothers and sisters.

Of course, the truth is that Americans simply no longer give a flying fig about unions. They don’t want to join them. They don’t want to show solidarity with them. And they don’t want to give their money to them when they’re just trying to put dinner on the table.

The nice thing is that the unions will lose this fight. They’ve been losing it slowly for more than a decade. But, in the meantime, we all have to listen to their yapping.