Rob Walton is rich, $21 billion rich.
An email I received yesterday from the folks at Wal-Mart Watch (WMW) implores me to click to a website to vote for Mr. Walton as “the worst of the 1 percent … the person who is doing the most with their wealth to exploit the rest of the country.”
Could this be true?
“The Waltons inherited that wealth,” WMW says, “much of it was created by paying many workers at poverty-level wages, offering poor benefits, and lowering conditions in the supply chain by demanding ever-lower prices.”
Count me out.
Even Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, had the right to give his wealth to whomever he wished, especially his children. Besides, as chairman of Wal-Mart for 20 years now, Rob’s earned plenty on his own.
The email forgets to mention that Wal-Mart provides more to the poor through lower prices than the federal government provides through food stamps.
And hey, didn’t workers at Wal-Mart apply for — and freely accept — their jobs? How many “living-wage” jobs has WMW created?
The sentence in bold type signals the real gripe, I bet: Rob Walton has transgressed by supporting causes that “advance a right wing agenda.” The Walton Family Foundation (of which he’s a board member) has donated to the Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, school choice groups, and others.
Horrors! If Rob Walton is the worst of the 1 percent, the self-appointed vanguard of the 99 percent ought to occupy a mirror.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
11 replies on “You’re the Top”
Supporting right-wing or conservative causes hasn’t worked out that well for Gibson. Wonder how long before an agancy of the federal government pays a surprise armed visit to Walmart to seize some product that doesn’t meet the regulation de jour?
The average professional in the USofA now unknowingly commits an average of about 3 felonies a day under the hyper-regulated economic laws here in the land of freedom.
You hit it on the head again.
I wonder how many more thousands would be on the Welfare rolls if they weren’t employed by Wal-Mart?
Good comment! I think it would be worth supplying some figures, just to show these misguided critics how little the really care about the poor. When Wal-Mart comes to town, prices drop by 25 – 40%. That’s a heckofa lot of money left in the pockets of people on low income. (I wonder how much those critics make?!)
90+ OF WALMART STOCK IS MADE IN CHINA. HOW MANY AMERICAN DOLLARS ARE TRANFERED TO THEM.
Right on. WMW must be associated with Michael Moore. Same mentality.
Let’s contrast the shopping experience at Walmart, (non-union), with the same thing at Kroger (union). You walk in the door of wWalmart, and someone greets you with a smile. If you ask where to find something, they either have apretty darned good idea of where it is, and can direct you to it. Or they get on the radio they carry, and ask. Try to find someone at Kroger. When you ask an employee at Walmart where some specific item is, they will walk with you to it, and pull it off the shelf for you.
At Kroger, if you can find an employee, they either tell you where to find it, maybe, or that they just do not know. People working at Walmart seem to be happy, people working at Kroger seem to be pissed off. One of the guys who graduated with my son still works at Walmart, even though he has a degree in Communications – Why? BECAUSE WALMART PAYS HIM MORE THAN A JOB IN RADIO PAYS, and he doesn’t have to go out and sell his air time ads when he is not on the air. And for full time employees, Walmart DOES TOO HAVE BENEFITS – very competetive benefits.
L.R. Allen shouts that “90% of Walmart stock is made in China” and asks “how many American dollars are transferred to them?”
How are the dollars in question of any value unless used to purchase something from the U.S.? As an analogy, imagine I buy L.R. Allen’s car, take possession of it, and write him a check. Assume he never cashes the check. Which one of us came out ahead?
Still somethings wrong.. My Uncle is on disability and my Aunt should be retired, all thier children are grown and she works 2 jobs and barely survives, 1 of them is Walmart, she makes next to nothing at 1 job but cant survive without the benefits from that job, she doesnt have benefits at 1 job but cant live without the income even though its barely enough to survive on. One job is Walmart and one is ordering for a distributer. She had to give up the third job after the death of her daughter in law to help with her grandson. I know of at least 2 others in very similar situations with 2 and 3 jobs, one for the benefits, one for income and even a third to supplement but I thought the one at Walmart gave this thread a little more to ponder.
Another thing wmw like to say is Wal Mart kills Mom and Pop stores but having worked in three Mom and Pop stores in the late 60’s, I can tell you I would have loved to have worked at a place like Wal Mart. Mom and Pops don’t pay even minimal wage and 2 didn’t pay into my Social
Security or income taxes.
all you see at wal-mart is black employees, before at least other races had a chance, they are so pushy to bad Lincoln did not get his wish to send them back to where they came from