Health Care Steamroller

PipeGuy

Here's the latest from the People's Republic of Maryland:

"The Maryland legislature passed a law Thursday that would require Wal-Mart Stores to increase spending [to at least 8 percent of payroll] on employee health insurance, a measure that is expected to be a model for other states.This is the second time that the Maryland legislature, which is dominated by Democrats, has passed the Wal-Mart bill. Governor Ehrlich vetoed it late last year, inviting a senior Wal-Mart executive to sit by his side as he did so."

-New York Times January 13, 2006

IMO. it's only a matter of time before this ball lands in the laps of small business owners too.

I recently learned of a great observation about money (by Milton and Rose Friedman) that can be used to quickly identify the likely outcome (in terms of benefit or harm) of spending. The Friedman's observed that there are only 4 ways to spend money:
- spend your money on yourself
- spend your money on others
- spend other's money on yourself
- spend other's money on others
When you consider the dynamics of each situation, it's easy to see how inherently different the effects of similar levels of spending will be based on who's spending on whom. Governments, by their very nature, can only practice the last two forms - proven by history to be the least effective way to promote the prosperity of a society.