BY MARK MITCHELL
Los Alamos
According to FOX Business [1], based on findings of a U. S. Government Accountability Office report, a large number of employees at some of America’s largest corporations receive aid from federal assistance programs such as food stamps and Medicaid. Their analysis found that “millions” of full-time workers rely on government assistance in order to make ends meet.
Walmart was ranked among the top four largest employers of employees receiving such benefits in the states whose data was included in the report, employing an estimated 14,500 such workers. McDonalds was listed in the top five for at least nine states whose data was included, employing nearly 8,800 workers receiving assistance.
In 2022, Walmart earned a net income of $13,673,000,000 for the year and McDonalds earned a net income of $6,177,400,000.
Other notable companies identified within the report included Amazon, Kroger, Uber, and FedEx. The report goes on to say that most working adults receiving federal assistance work within the private sector in certain industries including restaurants, department stores, and grocery stores.
As a Baby Boomer, I came of age during the height of the Cold War. As such, I have been fully indoctrinated with the belief that capitalism is far superior to all other economic systems. I was taught that capitalism is so superior to other economic systems that we must fight wars with other countries that have differing views in order to ensure capitalism’s dominance throughout the world. I simply do not remember being taught that capitalism favors transferring wealth from the general population to the most wealthy among us.
According to an essay written by Stephen Moore of the Hoover Institute [2], titled “Welfare for the Well-Off: How Business Subsidies Fleece Taxpayers”, in 1999, federal subsidies to U.S. businesses cost American taxpayers nearly $100 billion a year. I would be surprised if it were not meaningfully higher in 2024. Employers, who pay their employees less than what is needed to sustain their existence while the government makes up the difference by taxing the general population, are not practicing capitalism.
Adam Smith makes this perfectly clear in Chapter Eight, “Of The Wages Of Labor,” within “The Wealth of Nations ” where he wrote [3]:
“But though in disputes with their workmen, masters must generally have the advantage, there is however a certain rate below which it seems impossible to reduce, for any considerable time, the ordinary wages even of the lowest species of labor.
“A man must always live by his work, and his wages must be at least sufficient to maintain him. They must even upon most occasions be somewhat more; otherwise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen could not last beyond the first generation.”
So, where am I going with this? The Los Alamos County Council is currently considering raising the general minimum wage to $15.00 an hour and raising the minimum wage for tipped workers to $3.75 an hour.
There are some that are in favor of this attempt to force local employers to pony up a livable wage in Los Alamos. I support raising the minimum wage and hope that you do (or will) too.
Naturally, there are those that believe that this is the wrong approach. They propose, as we have seen time and time again, that the government is expected to come to the rescue of businesses in the form of welfare for the well-off, e.g., government subsidized low-income housing. This approach is not capitalism.
These anti-capitalists attempt to scare us into believing their way of thinking by telling us that raising the minimum wage will result in possible job losses and business failures. Isn’t this the desired outcome of capitalism? Capitalism, we are told, favors strong, innovative businesses and punishes weak ones with failure. It is through this failure, we are told, that new, better, more innovative businesses are formed.
I say that we should start to practice what we preach and accept the outcomes of capitalism for a change. In a capitalistic system, workers’ wages must be at least sufficient to support them. Worker wages must be the responsibility of business owners and not the responsibility of the government through forced taxation of the people. I hope you agree with me and that you let your County Councilors know.
[1] Barrabi, T. ‘Walmart, McDonald’s among largest employers of SNAP, Medicaid recipients: Report’, FOX Business, November 18, 2020, accessed January 29, 2024, https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/walmart-mcdonalds largest-employers-snap-medicaid-recipients.
[2] Moore, S., ‘ Welfare for the Well-Off: How Business Subsidies Fleece Taxpayers’, The Hoover Institution, May 1, 1999, accessed January 29, 2024, https://www.hoover.org/research/welfare-well-how-business-subsidies-fleece taxpayers.
[3] Smith, A. (1994), ‘The Wealth of Nations’, Random House, Inc.