Interesting Wal-Mart comment below from jr, who notes that many small retailers would like to offer health coverage to employees but can't afford to. By comparison, he contends, Wal-Mart isn't so bad.

Jr doesn't mention that one reason so many small retailers can't afford health insurance is because of price pressure from companies like Wal-Mart. The little guys aspire to do better but can't manage it. Which makes me wonder why Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, sets its aspirations so low. Surely it could do better.

The real point of my original post was that people who think they are saving money by shopping at Wal-Mart need to look at the full cost. For increasingly nonsensical reasons, America relies on private employers to provide a huge public good: health insurance. Employers that fail to pick up the cost can set prices lower, but that doesn't mean the cost goes away. It just gets absorbed, sooner or later, in one fashion or another, by taxpayers.

Of course, Wal-Mart shoppers can argue that they still come out ahead. They derive the full benefit of Wal-Mart's low prices while spreading the cost of healthcare for Wal-Mart employees among all taxpayers. Nice deal for them, but not necessarily good for the country.

UPDATE: More on Wal-Mart and health insurance here from (who else?) Jackie Corr.