Wal-Mart can readily afford health insurance
Hats off to the teacher’s union for calling for a boycott of Wal-Mart. I won’t buy so much as a spiral notebook there. Clearly the only way to reach the folks at Wal-Mart is to affect their bottom line.
According to the August 11 article “nearly 1,200 Wal-Mart employees receive $2.7 million in taxpayer assistance through the BadgerCare health insurance.” Add in the children of Wal-Mart employees who participate in the state’s Medicaid program, and the estimated annual cost to taxpayers for insuring Wal-Mart workers and their family members reaches $4.75 million. The largest retailer in the world is shifting the cost of their employee benefits to taxpayers. This is unacceptable.
It is frequently argued that Wal-Mart must keep labor costs low to keep prices low. So the question is “Can Wal-Mart afford to offer low prices and pay employees a living wage and health benefits?” The answer is a resounding, “yes.”
Wal-Mart had a profit of $10 billion last year. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO was paid $23 million dollars last year. Of the 10 richest people in the world, five are Waltons. In fact, Sam Walton’s daughter Alice recently spent a whopping $35 million on a single piece of art in New York City. $35 million would buy a whole lot of health insurance.
Not only can Wal-Mart afford to provide decent wages and benefits to it’s employees, the company should be required to pay us taxpayers back for picking up their health insurance tab.
Jennifer Neary Oshkosh
http://www.wisinfo.com/northwestern/news/opinion/stories/opinion_22231369.shtml
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