My friend Bill Anderson writes this on the Mises blog, in regards to his excellent Wal-Mart piece.

I have not been able to respond to all of the emails I have received -- 30 and counting -- and some of the responses are extremely emotional and angry. People are convinced that Wal-Mart forces us to buy substandard products that we don't want, etc., etc.

One of the things I find interesting is that people seem to accept without reservation the Marxist idea that all employment situations involve the juxtapositioning of power relationships. In other words, employers have total power over employees who must accept everything the employers want or they are cast into the outer darkness.

It is always interesting to see that many people interpret events around them in ways that are so twisted as to defy common sense and logic.

Indeed, writing this caught me and my co-writer hell for months. I still get hatemail from it. Supporting the right of Wal-Mart to exist in a free market has garnered me some of the most vicious mail I have ever received. It's a tremendous hot button for folks.