Walmart and Public Assistance

Why doesn’t the headline below read “Walmart Saves Public Assistance Programs Billions By Giving Receipients Jobs”? There’s something slightly bizarre about setting up public assistance programs to help people who don’t make enough money, and then criticizing employers for the fact that those programs exist. Corporate activities are “subsidized” in hundreds of ways — transportation costs are subsidized by public roads, security costs are subsidized by the existence of a police force, training costs are subsidized by a public schooling system. How much does Walmart “cost” the schooling system, by off-loading basic education of its employees to the school system? (Hint: it’s a silly question.) >>>

LINK: Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance (by Clare O’Connor for Forbes)

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.

Americans for Tax Fairness, a coalition of 400 national and state-level progressive groups, made this estimate using data from a 2013 study by Democratic Staff of the U.S. Committee on Education and the Workforce.

“The study estimated the cost to Wisconsin’s taxpayers of Walmart’s low wages and benefits, which often force workers to rely on various public assistance programs,” reads the report,….

What do you think?

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