Is there a right to health care? According to Maryland legislators, there should be. But only if your employer employs more than 10,000 people.

Any law of this sort is completely discriminatory, and hypocritical. Aside from the fact that it has been tailored to apply to Wal-Mart and only to Wal-Mart, what does the size of a company have to do with the rights or priveleges earned by its employees. Seriously. Wal-mart provides an option (albeit, a costly one) to enroll in medical coverage. Most of its competitors can’t even do that. So, from a really honest-to-goodness altruist point-of-view, (and that’s what this is about), shouldn’t the legislators be like, trying to provide health insurance for anyone whose employer can’t even offer the prospect of health insurance? Or perhaps they’re more concerned with villanizing large, successful businesses to appease the public’s ignorance of economics, constitutionality bedamned.

Wal-mart employs 1,700,000 people. (source) Tinkering with their business model, making it effectively more expensive to hire people and to keep them employed can only have adverse effects:

-Either wal-mart reduces its number of employees, which thereby reduces the overall level of customer service and satisfaction and efficiency, which thereby reduces their sales, consequently profits, which must be then offset by further reductions in wages and/or employment, et cetera.

-Or – Wal-mart raises their prices, which effectively eliminates the factor which differentiates it from Target, or K-Mart, or whoever else. Wal-Mart markets its low cost. If that is taken away, customers lose the incentive to shop there. Sales will decrease, which losses must be met with further reductions in wages and/or employment, et cetera.

I don’t think there exists any evidence suggesting that if Wal-Mart were to raise its wage/benefit package, the people would be so taken by Wal-mart’s generosity, as to line up in droves to purchase their wares in record numbers, thus negating the adverse effects of such legislation. On the contrary, people appear to be quite satisfied with the prices they pay at Wal-Mart.

Otherwise, Wal-mart wouldn’t be in business any longer.