Maryland Senate votes to make WalMart PAY.

[opebo]

Hah!  Thats great - Marylanders are tired of subsidizing welfare-Walmart.

[opebo]

"Fair Share Health Care Act"

Bill requires large companies to spend at least 8% of payroll on health care:

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/bal-walmartbill0405,1,2818385.story?coll=bal-home-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true

Republican Govenor Erhlic promised to veto the bill, but the support in the Senate might make the bill veto proof.

Commies.

^^

Walmart is the commie - it has been surviving on government subsidy of its workforce, which has always been payed below subsistence level.

[opebo]

Walmart is the commie - it has been surviving on government subsidy of its workforce, which has always been payed below subsistence level.

I've already proven that you can live off a wage of $6.50/hr, so be quiet already.

Actually we are talking about medical care, which is unaffordable at the Walmart level of pay - even if, as you claim, a Walmart worker can keep himself supplied with a hovel, hot dogs, and twinkies.  Walmart has been subsidized by the taxpayers since its inception in the area of health care.

[opebo]

Walmart is the commie - it has been surviving on government subsidy of its workforce, which has always been payed below subsistence level.

I've already proven that you can live off a wage of $6.50/hr, so be quiet already.

Actually we are talking about medical care, which is unaffordable at the Walmart level of pay - even if, as you claim, a Walmart worker can keep himself supplied with a hovel, hot dogs, and twinkies.  Walmart has been subsidized by the taxpayers since its inception in the area of health care.

If by hovel you mean decent apartment, and by 'hot dog and twinkies' you mean decent food - canned food mainly, but still decent food.

Canned food cannot be 'decent food'.

[opebo]

Facts about Walmart in Maryland

•   In Maryland, the total number of Wal-Mart associates is 15,371 (as of 10/15/04).
•   The average wage for regular full-time hourly associates in Maryland is $9.60 per hour (Wal-Mart Discount Stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets). Additionally, associates are eligible for performance-based bonuses.

It is offensive and patronizing to call anyone who makes less than $25 per hour an 'associate'.

[opebo]

but there wouldn't be enough demand caused by WalMart's absence to make it worth the while of any other company to move in.

We are talking about Maryland, a state of five and a half million people, with one of the highest median incomes of any state: http://www.census.gov/hhes/income/4person.html
I think WalMart will do just as the state legislature says rather than run away.  Just as it and other corporations would do if we made nationwide requirements upon them.
Of course come to think of it a high median income actually makes a state a worse market for WalMart.

[opebo]

I hope Walmart tells them to get lost and leaves and puts the blame squarely on the Maryland legislature. Then the leislature can explain why they destroyed 15,000 jobs, $100 million worth of sales tax, $2 million worth of community good will, and probably over $1 billion of economic activity in the state.

Hah, what great jobs - Marylanders should demand more than starvation level wages.

And it won't 'destroy' any economic activity, even in the unlikely event WalMart left, another cheap house of gimcrackery would move in and fullfill the function.

[opebo]

Walmart will not leave. No CEO in his right mind would close up shop over that. Its just what I would like to see happen.

This particular incident by itself won't make much diffence in anything. But it is one more step in the direction of government control of business. You have people in government who couldn't run a lemonaide stand who are dictating how business' must operate.

They are dictating that the company may no longer pay workers so little that the State must provide them with catastrophic health coverage.  Instead the company will now have to pay for that.

The only alternative would be allowing these poor impoverished WalMart workers to simply die whenever they had medical crisis.

[opebo]

That last option sounds good.

Apparently they and their ilk voted in representatives willing to protect and provide for them, before they died.