Wal-Mart Should Boycott Maryland
by John Riet

Let's say you were walking in a forest one day, and you came across a goose that lays golden eggs. What would you do? Would you take it home, give it a nice place to sleep and play, give it a little pool to swim around in... maybe even find her a little male companionship? You'd probably research geese on the internet to find out their habits, favorite foods, lifespan, etc. in order to make sure your golden goose lives a long happy life and lays plenty of solid gold eggs? Or, would you grab that goose by its throat and strangle it until it stopped moving… then, for good measure, find the nearest rock and pummel it about the head until its brains lay spread out amongst the trees?

For most of us, option one seems to be the more logical scenario. But the great state of Maryland has just played out the political equivalent of option two. On Thursday, January 12, Maryland legislators made their state the first in the nation to enact a law that required Wal-Mart stores to spend more money – at least 8 percent of their payrolls – on employee health care, or pay the difference in the state's Medicaid fund. Actually, the law doesn't target Wal-Mart specifically. It applies to any company with more than 10,000 employees. But hey. Wal-Mart is the only company that employs that many people in Maryland (17,000 to be exact), and the state legislate is run by a Democratic majority… so you do the math.

Many liberal groups – unions in particular – have been looking to bring down Wal-Mart for years. Whenever you're so successful without employing union labor, consider yourself a target. This was a major victory on their side. And with similar laws being debated in about 30 other states, union leaders hope to back Wal-Mart into a corner.

Now that they're in this corner, I have one word of advice for Wal-Mart – close all of your Maryland stores, and take your 17,000 jobs with you. Let's see how the legislature reacts to 17,000 of its constituents suddenly thrown out of work because of their anti-business policies. If Maryland chooses to strangle the golden goose, it's time for the goose to migrate to another state.

It would not only teach Maryland a lesson, but the other 30 states contemplating this type of legislation, as well. And it's a lesson that should be pretty self evident – thousands of voters with jobs is always better than thousands of voters without jobs. If it happens in Maryland, no other state will touch the issue with a ten-foot pole. Thousands of workers paying income taxes grows more revenue than thousands of workers paying no income taxes. Plain and simple.

It's important to remember that anyone working for Wal-Mart works there at their own choice. Wal-Mart is not a gulag where society's worst and most violent are sentenced to live out the rest of their lives. If they feel they are not being paid enough or do not receive ample benefits, they have the freedom to leave. And if enough workers do this, Wal-Mart will have a big labor shortage. At that point, they will have no choice but to pay more and give more benefits in order to gain more workers and keep them. It's a basic economic practice, but it works.

What do they do instead? Whine to their local politicians. “Certainly, I deserve much more money for my highly skilled occupation. After all, it's not everyone who can stock shelves or work a cash register. I mean, have you seen the modern cash register? It's far more complicated than in our parents' days!”

If there is anyone working at Wal-Mart at the retail level who has made the choice that this is what they want to do with their lives, then they deserve whatever Wal-Mart decides to pay them. If they have not the initiative to better themselves and pursue loftier goals, then they do not deserve the state to intervene and force Wal-Mart to give them more money. Your life is defined by your choices. If you choose to work at Wal-Mart for the rest of your life, you have made the wrong choices. Don't expect anyone to supplement your income according to the type of lifestyle you think you deserve.

I know it would mean lost revenues, but Wal-Mart would do a great service to the nation if they boycotted Maryland. They would show that it is industry and the private sector that drives the economy, not the government. They would show the consequences of anti-business laws (the legal equivalent of strangling the golden goose). They would show those 17,000 workers that "low" Wal-Mart wages and no health insurance is better than no wages and no health insurance. They would show America that if you choose a job that requires no specialized skills, then you cannot count on anyone but yourself to better your situation. This country has gone too long thinking that the world owes them a living… that someone else should be paying for their health care, food, housing, etc. A boycott would be the first big step in reversing this way of thinking.