Everyone knows that Walmart is huge, but just how huge is something we rarely think of. But now we have some data to mull over. The six heirs to the Walmart fortune are worth more than 40% of Americans combined.
The Walton family, heirs to the Walmart fortune during a recent study were found to be worth a total of $89.5 billion dollars. This sum is the amount that the bottom 41.5% of American families combined. That means that the six Walton families are worth more money than 48.8 million households in America. The analysis was completed by Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute.
Sylvia Allegreto of the University of California at Berkeley had said last year that the Waltons were worth about the same as 30% of Americans but after the financial meltdown of 2008 more and more people, to save money, started going to Walmart in droves. What makes the number so unbelievable and sad is that the majority of the more than 1 million workers at Walmart are part of that 40% of Americans the Waltons created. Most jobs at Walmart are low paying hourly positions.
Walmart not only pays low wages, but the economic impact of a Walmart coming to town can be catastrophic. A planned Seattle-area Walmart could cost the area $14.5 million in lost wages over the next 20 years, a local advocacy group found in April.
The uber rich like the Waltons have seen their wealth go up by more than 273% over the last 30 years while the bottom half of the spectrum has only seen their wealth grow by 20%. According to the Congressional Budget Office. In addition, the top 10 percent of U.S. earners control two-thirds of the country’s wealth.
