Actions have consequences. Who knew?

So a couple years ago, Walmart planned to open five stores in Washington, DC. Of course they were opposed by the unions, who hate Walmart because they aren't a union shop, and by numerous Democrats on the union payroll and assorted leftists, yuppies and hipsters that have recently moved into Washington DC and immediately began decrying the gentrification that allowed them to do so.

DC built three of the five stores, putting them in the better neighborhoods. Part of the deal that they made with DC was that two of the stores would have to be put in the "low income" neighborhoods, aka: the ghetto areas.

Next, the DC council and the mayor pushed through new laws in the District that jumped the minimum wage, first to $11.50 an hour but with another proposal on the table to boost it to $15.00 an hour (but only in large businesses like Walmart) and forced (large) employers to pay for family and medical leave for their employees and set a minimum number of hours for any part-timers that they choose to hire. Walmart, already seeing losses in their big-box stores from internet competitors like Amazon, did the math on what DC's pending legislation would cost it and decided that the two new stores that they had originally planned to build likely would not be profitable. So they did what any other responsible business would do--they cut their losses and walked away from the plan to put the two new stores down in the 'hood.

Naturally, the Democrats who killed this golden goose--and their cheerleader, the Washington Post--are furious now.

District leaders furious Walmart breaking promise to build stores in poor neighborhoods

They seek to blame Walmart for backing out on the new stores and the jobs and goods that it would have made available to the folks in those neighborhoods, but the real fact is that, by voting to enact new measures that raised Walmart's cost of doing business, they pretty much ensured that Walmart could not run those stores profitably, especially in areas where theft and insurance costs are above average and where nearby suburban shoppers are unlikely to shop anyway for fear of the crime rate in those neighborhoods. Originally it was thought that profits generated at the three stores in the better areas would balance out the two less-desirable locations, but when DC raised the cost of doing business at all of them--all while continuing to bad-mouth Walmart for being non-union and paying wages that no one except Walmart employees seem to want--Walmart's board did what they had to and cut DC loose. And the only ones who never saw this coming, apparently, are the ones in DC government who made it all happen.

Good job, DC Council and Mayor. You've proven again why DC cannot be given a vote in Congress and why it should probably lose the limited self-rule that it currently has. When you let children plan the household menu without oversight, it'll be cake and ice cream for dinner every night. And then one day you'll wonder why everyone is sickly and the dental costs are through the roof.