In response to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, that has pumped lead-contaminated water to the city’s residents, private companies have acted by donating water. Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Pepsi and Walmart together have pledged to send millions of water bottles to Flint. An act of generosity? Not according to The Atlantic’s David Graham, who thinks the pledge to supply the world’s most basic necessity is downright insidious because it makes residents dependent of private corporations and not the government. “Walmart, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, and Pepsi aren’t just charitable organizations that might have their own ideologies,” Graham complained. “They’re for-profit companies. And by providing water to the public schools for the remainder of the year, the four companies have effectively supplanted the local water authorities and made themselves an indispensable public utility, but without any amount of public regulation or local accountability. Many people in Flint may want government to work better, but with sufficient donations, they may find that the private sector has supplanted many of government’s functions altogether.”

Using that argument, then we should be suspicious of the four Washington Redskins football players who decided to donate 3,600 bottles of their own. They were probably trying to steal fans. The fact still remains that Walmart and the other companies have stepped up where government failed. Recently, Walmart had to close 154 stores because of political pressure for a higher minimum wage. The company can’t catch a break from liberals.