If we were actually serious about a functioning, competitive market-based economy, companies wouldn't be allowed to pay people so little that they have to rely on food stamps and other public services in order to survive. It's corporate welfare, and our bought-off politicians have allowed it for decades. Wal-Mart and McDonalds are two of the biggest crony capitalists in this regard, having cost us billions of our tax dollars, even though the companies are profitable, so could afford to pay their employees a living wage. Same goes for Amazon and its warehouse workers.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) have introduced a bill that would tax companies like Amazon and Walmart for the cost of employees’ food stamps and other public assistance. Sanders’ Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act (abbreviated “Stop BEZOS”) — along with Khanna’s House of Representatives counterpart, the Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act — would institute a 100 percent tax on government benefits that are granted to workers at large companies.
The bill’s text characterizes this as a “corporate welfare tax,” and it would apply to corporations with 500 or more employees. If workers are receiving government aid through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), national school lunch and breakfast programs, Section 8 housing subsidies, or Medicaid, employers will be taxed for the total cost of those benefits. The bill applies to full-time and part-time employees, as well as independent contractors that are de facto company employees.