In response to the Quora question “Why do individuals or families (such as the Walton family) need or deserve millions and billions of dollars in personal wealth?” (See my post of 10/7/15), one correspondent answered:
The question is badly worded and badly asked, but this does deserve some explaining as to why the Waltons, in essence, are getting 6.2 billion dollars in assistance to pay their workers.
The linked article refers to a Forbes report, which claims:
Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing, according to a report published to coincide with Tax Day, April 15.
I left this reply:
Where does that $6.2 billion come from? Taxpayers, that’s who. Wal-Mart paid $8 billion in corporate income taxes in 2012, 5th highest among U.S. companies. But that’s just the start. WalMart enabled much more in taxes paid by the employees, supplier businesses, and stockholders its business success supports, not to mention other taxes collected and paid to government, such as sales and property taxes, etc. Who funds “public assistance?” In large part, Wal-Mart itself.
Who is it that seizes the $6.2B “assistance” money by legalized aggressive force, and immorally redistributes it from those who earned it to those who didn’t? Let’s be honest, and put the blame where it belongs. Wal-Mart is not seizing this money. It is the government that imposes this cost on taxpayers. Wal-Mart is falsely blamed for the government’s forced redistribution of wealth, euphemized as “assistance”. This is their reward for creating jobs that people willingly fill.
Related Reading:
The Moral—and Ultimately Real—Chains of the Welfare State
No comments:
Post a Comment