Six Waltons Have More Wealth Than the Bottom 30 % of Americans

by darthfader 10 Replies latest social current

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  darthfader

  All I can say is.... wow....

  http://news.yahoo.com/six-waltons-more-wealth-bottom-30-americans-182819449.html

  Different people will take this different ways, but Jeffrey Goldberg tells us that six members of the Walton family (the original owners of WalMart) have more wealth than the bottom 30 % of Americans. Here's where he says it:

  In 2007, according to the labor economist Sylvia Allegretto , the six Walton family members on the Forbes 400 had a net worth equal to the bottom 30 percent of all Americans.

  And given that he quotes us here at Forbes on the point, he's almost certainly right.
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  Berengaria

  I wouldn't give a darn if that bottom 30% wasn't hurting, or if they had earned it or even inherited it honestly. Knowing that is not the case in both instances, it makes me sick.
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  designs

  I always appreciated WalMart taking out Life Insurance Policies on their Older workers with themselves as the Beneficiary...so special, so f*&%#g special.
• 

  Berengaria

  "dead peasant policy"
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  darthfader

  I'll bet that a bottom 30% spend a larger amount of their income at Walmart than the "upper" 70%....
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  Berengaria

  The bottom 30% spends more in country period. The bottom 99 keep the whole ball rolling.
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  darthfader

  Im not sure I beleive that about the life insurance though...

  Someone just cant take out an insurance policy on someone else without their permission.
• 

  BizzyBee

  Im not sure I beleive that about the life insurance though...

  Oh, darth! Did you ever just walk into an airplane propeller!

  http://jonathanturley.org/2009/02/25/peasant-uprising-widow-sues-late-husbands-employer-over-dead-peasant-insurance-policy/
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  Berengaria

  Darth!!! I can't believe after all we've been through that you would doubt me!!
• 

  darthfader

  Interesting point -- it seems that the reason for taking these policies out was to reduce tax burdens -- which the IRS closed that loophole in the 90's:

  Until the mid-1990s, Walmart took out corporate-owned life insurance policies on its employees including "low-level" employees such as janitors, cashiers, and stockers. This type of insurance is usually purchased to cover a company against financial loss when a high-ranking employee (i.e. management) dies, and is usually known as "Key Man Insurance." Critics derided Walmart as buying what they called "Dead Peasants Insurance" or "Janitor Insurance." Critics, as well as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, charge that the company was trying to profit from the deaths of its employees, and take advantage of the tax law which allowed it to deduct the premiums. The practice was stopped in the mid-1990s when the federal government closed the tax deduction and began to pursue Walmart for back taxes. [ 117 ]

  cheers