At Wal-Mart a Microcosm of U.S. Inequalities: Jeffrey Goldberg
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Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Last week, in a column aboutthe new billion-dollar Crystal Bridges Museum of AmericanArt in Bentonville, Arkansas, I mentioned an economist’sestimate that the heirs of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., are collectively worth about the same asthe bottom 30 percent of all Americans. Alice Walton, whofounded the museum, is herself worth about $21 billion.
This imbalance wouldn’t seem so stark if Wal-Mart,whose stock makes up much of the Walton family’s wealth,hadn’t made itself into the world’s largest retailer inpart by paying its workers so poorly, and by providing themwith only the stingiest health-care benefits -- or none atall.