[lbo-talk] Hidden subsidies to Wal-Mart

[Liza Featherstone]

I'm actually writing about this very issue right now, and Miles, you make a
v. good point but given that we don't have universal health insurance,
Medicaid, etc is providing a public subsidy to employers like Wal-Mart who
should be providing decent benefits. Abusing public money provides Wal-Mart
a competitive advantage over companies that provide better benefits: if we
had national health insurance, that wouldn't be the case so it really
wouldn't then be a "subsidy." There's a fair amount of evidence that the
public dole is a part of Wal-Mart's business plan -- Wal-Mart even
encourages employees to apply for public assistance -- which, until Wal-Mart
uses its vast lobbying dollars to push for health insurance for everybody,
is a gruesome misuse of our shrinking public sector. Of course, a campaign
to pressure Wal-Mart to end these criticisms by lobbying for universal
health care is a great idea! (For more discussion of Wal-Mart and welfare,
read my book about Wal-Mart, Selling Women Short which is forthcoming in
November from Basic Books)

Liza


> From: Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 18:02:55 -0800 (PST)
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Hidden subsidies to Wal-Mart
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, 8 Mar 2004, John Lacny wrote:
> 
>> Good Jobs First notes here that Wal-Mart workers' children in Georgia
>> enroll in PeachCare (the state's low-cost health insurance for
>> low-income children) at such a high rate that they outnumber the
>> enrolees at the next-highest private sector employer by 14 to 1. GJF
>> notes that this is a form of public subsidy to a low-wage employer whose
>> workers cannot afford health insurance.
> 
> I've heard these kinds of claims before, but I'm not sure I like where
> this analysis leads: if we actually had a universal health care
> system, by the logic above, we'd be providing an even bigger
> "subsidy" to Wal-Mart (and all businesses with employees).  Is
> that such a bad thing?
> 
> Miles
> 
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