Democrats, unions, and left-wing activists frequently argue that government (actually taxpayers) subsidizes Wal-Mart and other companies that employ low-wage workers because many of those workers receive government welfare benefits such as food stamps and Medicaid. And the mainstream media pretty much accept this reasoning. Here is CBS News: “Walmart’s highly publicized pay hike is a victory of sorts for its 1.3 million employees, but American taxpayers will foot the bill for the large subsidies that will still be needed to compensate for the discount retailer’s low wages.”

So, goes the theory, if Wal-Mart would pay its workers a “decent wage” — like a minimum of $10 an hour or $15 an hour (or more) — the retailer could get off the dole! The Netflix series House of Cards recently had a fictional presidential candidate bash Wal-Mart with this reasoning: “The starting salary for an employee at Walmart is below the poverty line. Now, the American government subsidizes Walmart to the tune of $7.8 billion a year by issuing food stamps to over one in ten of its workers.”