Fascism Lite: Make Bank, Get Pillaging

Fascism: Oppressive, dictatorial control.
(Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

My friends constantly ask me why I haven't opened up a bar or restaurant yet, considering they know I've wanted to for almost ten years now.

Well, it's because of crap like this (updated link).

Of everything I've read today, I happened to miss the fact that my home state of Maryland has just enacted the first law nationwide that would require Wal-Mart to spend more on health insurance - despite Gov. Bob Ehrlich's veto. (Thanks, Andy.)

"But this legislation wouldn't have any effect on a bar or restaurant," you say. Perhaps not specifically. But when government arrogates unto itself the power to trample private property rights in such a manner, it's only a matter of time until such abuse filters down to all business owners. Just look at the egregious anti-smoking legislation worming its way through the country.

In short, too many small businesses are merely a bill away from literally being run into the ground at the hands of power-hungry do-gooders in the city council or state legislature. How many people would be willing to risk their savings to open a business knowing that the bureaucrat around the corner can bankrupt them with the stroke of a pen?

Considering the widespread abuse of government power we're all subjected to today, it takes a lot for me to refrain from using profanity on this blog. But stuff like this pushes me to my limit. I don't feel like getting into the reasons why NO private company should be forced to pay for the health insurance of its employees, or a minimum wage, or be coerced into abstract hiring and firing regulations by the state, but this bill passed by the liberal, Democrat-controlled Maryland legislature represents nothing but small-scale fascism, plain and simple.

UPDATE (1/13; 1:45pm): More from Maryland resident Michelle Malkin, who links to Wal-Mart's response.

Wal-Mart claimed that more than three-fourths of its employees have health insurance, and that all Wal-Mart Maryland employees can become eligible for health coverage for $23 a month.

"In allowing a bad bill to become a bad law, the general assembly took a giant step backward and placed the special interests of Washington, D.C. union leaders ahead of the well-being of the people they serve," Wal-Mart said. "And that's wrong."

Damn right it is. Wal-Mart should start pulling out of Maryland. Thousands of people will lose jobs and we'll have to start paying a little more for everyday household items, but everyone will know why.