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Economy
The World's Wealthiest Family Gets $4 Million Richer Every Hour
2019-09-04
[Bloomberg] The numbers are mind-boggling: $70,000 per minute, $4 million per hour, $100 million per day.

That’s how quickly the fortune of the Waltons, the clan behind Walmart Inc., has been growing since last year’s Bloomberg ranking of the world’s richest families.

At that rate, their wealth would’ve expanded about $23,000 since you began reading this. A new Walmart associate in the U.S. would’ve made about 6 cents in that time, on the way to an $11 hourly minimum.

Even in this era of extreme wealth and brutal inequality, the contrast is jarring. The heirs of Sam Walton, Walmart’s notoriously frugal founder, are amassing wealth on a near-unprecedented scale ‐ and they’re hardly alone.

The Walton fortune has swelled by $39 billion, to $191 billion, since topping the June 2018 ranking of the world’s richest families.

Other American dynasties are close behind in terms of the assets they’ve accrued. The Mars family, of candy fame, added $37 billion, bringing its fortune to $127 billion. The Kochs, the industrialists-cum-political-power-players, tacked on $26 billion, to $125 billion.

So it goes around the globe. America’s richest 0.1% today control more wealth than at any time since 1929, but their counterparts in Asia and Europe are gaining too. Worldwide, the 25 richest families now control almost $1.4 trillion in wealth, up 24% from last year.

To some critics, such figures are evidence that capitalism needs fixing. Inequality has become an explosive political issue, from Paris to Seattle to Hong Kong. But how to shrink the growing gap between the rich and the poor?
Posted by:Besoeker

#11  Hush, magpie. You can't criticize the Muslims! Besides, they inherited their money and never worked a day in their lives, as God meant it to be.

But in all seriousness, the only part about Walmart's fortune that is scummy is the part where they use what is essentially Chinese slave labor to produce goods more cheaply than people in free countries (or even better, here in the US) ever could.
Posted by: Vernal Hatrick   2019-09-04 19:12  

#10  Wealthier than the House of Sa'ud?
Posted by: magpie   2019-09-04 14:09  

#9  People who talk about inequality tend to be low quality.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2019-09-04 13:14  

#8  Maybe the Walton family could buy Greenland.
Posted by: Bobby   2019-09-04 11:09  

#7  I suspect the Sears family did very well for a while too.

Ironically, biggest problem for the super wealthy is figuring out what to do with the money. Capitalism has generated so much wealth that the world is running out of things to buy.
Posted by: Iblis   2019-09-04 10:52  

#6  What again is the point exactly? That the author coasted through some 3rd rate college and oozed into the Bloomberg gig, while Sam Walton worked like a fiend to set up an now international commercial network?

Golly, could there be a more explicit example of inequality?
Posted by: Cesare   2019-09-04 09:05  

#5  Profiting from the inexpensive labor of Chinese imports. Call it modern retail or the changing of times if you will, but the huge box stores killed the small town hardware store, butcher shop, and grocer.

Selling soy beans to China is the backspin. But you must do it on a grand scale, a corporate scale.

Just for the record: Wiki - Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American businessman and .... He launched a determined effort to market American-made products. Included in the effort was a willingness to find American manufacturers who ...

Of course the "American-made" thing died with Sam.

Posted by: Besoeker   2019-09-04 06:00  

#4   Supporting liberal agendas no doubt

Modern version of indulgences. Which btw, help lead to one of the nastiest episodes in Western Civilization till WWII.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2019-09-04 05:23  

#3  Pfzzt. I meant $ 3 million.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-09-04 04:11  

#2  Watch it drop to 3% and falling by next year.
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-09-04 04:10  

#1  Supporting liberal agendas no doubt. Phasing out ammo sales now.
Posted by: Dale   2019-09-04 03:02  

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