Use of Public Assets

I’m worked up about something.  The 10^th Circuit Court of Appeals has decided that Hobby Lobby, a family owned for profit company can be considered a religious person and thus can disregard any law or regulation that they feel restricts their religious freedom. 

Of course, this is their way to sneak out of participating in Obamacare, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Ace.  Thus, their employees are denied equal access to health care under federal and state laws that the rest of us will comply with.

This recalls the argument of most corporations that they shouldn't be taxed so heavily because they contribute to the common good by creating commerce, jobs and wealth within the regional and national economy.

Well, let’s just take a closer look at those ideas.

Companies use the largest public good there is: an educated workforce.  They did not pay the full cost of that education, but they benefit from it. Public dollars are spent on kindergarten through high school grades. So too are public dollars spent on community colleges, state universities, and subsidies for most other post secondary education institutions. Do corporate dollars figure in here? Of course they do, but not nearly as much as public tax dollars from people like you and me, and private donations as well as student paid tuition and fees. Then there are the student financial aid programs and loans that the federal and state governments pay for. Hobby Lobby does not come close to repaying the costs of educating its employees. Neither does Motorola, GE or any other large corporation.

Streets, bridges and highways.  Who pays for these? The consumer and public tax payers throughout the nation at all levels of government. Sure corporations pay income, property and sales taxes, but they do not pay the whole bill; not even close. They do, however, get to calculate tax costs into their pricing structure and the consumer, i.e. taxpayer in other clothing, pays the rest of their bill.

Same for defense of our nation. Same for clean air, soil and water. They mainly dirty up our air/soil/water in the making of their commerce, but they don’t pay the full cost of cleaning it up, and what they do pay gets figured into their pricing structure again!

What about health care? We all pay premiums for insurance coverage whether private insurance or group coverage through employer subsidized plans. Taxes we all pay, businesses and persons alike, help subsidize health care for all of us. 

Obamacare is designed to do two things: greatly increase access to health care for those uninsured, and under-insured; and share the cost of all of this so it is more affordable for the entire nation. Not just one class or the other; not just corporations or individual taxpayers. It is designed to spread the cost load to everyone to make it fair and equitable. And accessible, affordable.

Hobby Lobby is a for profit business. It already includes its employee benefit costs in its product pricing. Taking exception to Obamacare regulations concerning reproduction health care services as a religious objector, is nonsense.  They are not a person; they are not a church or religion. They are a business to make money.

They are also narrow-minded, political conservatives who take advantage of their employees, customers and community by benefiting from what the rest of us provide so they can operate their business without conscience or full monetary participation.

They are freeloaders.

Perhaps those of you reading this who patronize Hobby Lobby ought to think about this. There are other competitors who treat their staff and customers and communities more fairly. Why reward Hobby Lobby who does not respect taxpayer funded largesse they take full advantage of, and also do not respect people who disagree with them?

Guess we are not equal in their eyes, huh? Or maybe they are just playing all of us for being saps!

Either way we lose. So do their employees.

Boycott Hobby Lobby.  Please!

July 1, 2013