And I hate to sound cynical, but this could be some PR move by Wal-mart also, but nonetheless, kudos to W-M.

And as we all know by now, the bottom line always wins out.

A few months ago this kind of arrangement was the topic of discussion over at Samizdata. I made the comment, which interested no one BTW, that we didn’t need to engage in some thought experiment, there were lots of real-life examples to study. “Benevolent protective associations” otherwise known as “”Triads” are the Chinese version of this. They sound good in theory, but the fly in the ointment is that the “customers” do not have any real option as to who they choose to protect them. The triad protecting hs no reason to let them or their fees go, and the triad has a monopoly on the effective use of violence. What you end up with is a non-territorial form of feudalism, and it can get very bloody and chaotic very fast. In other words, the market model can’t be made to apply.

The government is gone, replaced by large corporations, including one very much like Wal-Mart. People purchase memberships in them and largely sort themselves out according to the sort of class-based “tribes” that have been discussed in relation to the New Orleans survivors.

The thing is, even in the dark vision of Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel, some of these corporations, when well-run, were worthy and efficient protectors of their members.

The private sector, being smaller than the Federal government, can get things accomplished so much better for multiple reasons. In this case, the Wal-Mart stores have warehouses spread out all over the country (several in every urban area) and that are constantly stocked and refilled which makes it logical for the private sector to provide resources in a disaster.