Milton Friedman on Big Business vs. Freedom

Perhaps Wal-Mart looks at the amount it pays for health care now due to the absurd level of government regulation of the health market and all the resulting market pathologies that drive up the cost of health care and concludes that even paying more taxes to support universal health care it would still come out ahead.

The important point is that Wal-Mart, contrary to popular belief, offers better healthcare coverage now to its employees than its competitors do.

Note the same thing, but in some ways inverted: Wal-Mart has come out in favor of a minimum wage increase. Why? If you said, "PR", you get only partial credit. Again, Wal-Mart pays its employees better than its competitors -- and does, in fact, require a somewhat more skilled employee than is typically required by its competitors' business models. A minimum wage increase increases its competitors' costs, and therefore can be passed along to its customers -- even though it doesn't (to the same extent) face those increased costs.