Chance favors the prepared mind - Louis Pasteur

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Some time ago, I noted that the big driver behind socialized medicine might be big business seeking to cripple competition while currying favor with politicians.

I hate being right all the time.  Walmart has now come out in favor of Obama’s healthcare proposals, allying itself with CAP and SEIU.  This, of course, instantly transforms Walmart in liberal minds from the Embodiment of Corporate Evil to the Best Corporation in America (they also came out in favor of Waxman-Markey).

But this move is completely unsurprising and absolutely consistent with Walmart’s pattern of behavior.

At first glance, the idea of the notoriously cheap chain favoring liberal reforms might seem like a shock. But it really isn’t a huge surprise considering that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott partnered with the Service Employees International Union’s Andy Stern to push for universal health care more than two years ago.

Why would Wal-Mart do this? In part, because it’s a good PR move. The company has long been the target of complaints that it treats its labor force shabbily. Partnering with a big union like the SEIU and supporting universal coverage allows the company an opportunity to soften its corporate image.

But it’s also a good from a competitive standpoint. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer, can afford the costs imposed by an employer mandate. Smaller competitors are likely to find it harder—and they’re not too happy about Wal-Mart’s announcement.

Michael Cannon concurs as does McArdle. Stephen Bainbridge adds:

In fact, however, Wal-Mart has been suckling at the government teat for decades, transferring costs to the tax payer whenever possible.

Indeed, Wal-Mart is heavily dependent on government subsidies. Wal-Mart routinely gets sales and property tax abatements when it opens a new store, to cite but one example. According to a 2004 study (albeit one funded by a union) the subsidies can amount to as much as 12 million dollars per store. Additional de facto subsidies come when uninsured or under-insured Wal-Mart employees get health care at government expense. Supporting government-run health care looks like a sop to the politicians who control the subsidy tap.

Read the whole thing, as he goes into detail about how Walmart has worked the system.

Look, I’m known for being ... well, not exact pro-Walmart, but very anti-anti-Walmart.  It drives me berzerk when liberals scream about how Walmart jobs suck—a job is a job, assholes.  An enormous amount of anti-Walmart sentiment is driven by condescension and arrogance.  And I do think the way it has driven down prices through the economy of scale has been of enormous benefit to the poor and middle class.

But that doesn’t mean I support the way they have frequently milked the political system for lucre.  And this is a perfect example—trying to fob their healthcare costs onto the rest of us.  A big corporation endorsing big government is a bad thing, whether you are a liberal or a conservative.  When the forces of Corporate America and the force of Big Government get together, what the hell do you guys think is going to happen to the little guy?  Stop gibbering dreamy prose about “politicians and business leaders working together for the good of us all” and use your God-damned inbuilt skepticism.  If someone told me, for example, that ACORN was endorsing Republican policy, I’d be suspicious, not giddy.

Millionaires and power-mongers do not do things like this out of the goodness of their heart.  They do it so that they can both get their turn at our asses.

Update: Sometimes, late at night, I fantasize that I can blog as effectively as Radley Balko:

….if Walmart had given, say, the Cato Institute somewhere between $500,000 and $1 million, after which Cato issued a joint letter with Walmart executives calling for the federal government to pass new policies that would hurt Walmart’s competitors, I’m pretty sure people like Matthew Yglesias would be calling Cato a bunch of corporate whores.

But this isn’t the Cato Institute we’re talking about. It’s Yglesias’ employer, the left-wing Center for the American Progress.

So you see, that means it’s all okay.

Of course it does.  Because it’s good when corporations get involved in politics—so long as it’s liberal politics.