shopping for dubya

international | miscellaneous | news report

Monday January 17, 2005 21:58

by nick watson

campaign postcard

The World's Richest People
The Top Ten Billionaires

1. William Gates III
2. Warren Buffett
3. Karl Albrecht
4. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud
5. Paul Allen

6. Alice Walton - Net Worth: $20 billion
7. Helen Walton - Net Worth: $20 billion
8. Jim Walton - Net Worth: $20 billion
9. John Walton - Net Worth: $20 billion
10. S Robson Walton - Net Worth: $20 billion

The Walton family (yes, really) from the US controls 38% of Wal-Mart and provides 5 of the 10 richest people in the world. Wal-Mart is now the world's largest retailer with 4,000-plus stores around the globe.

As the Democratic Socialists of America put it: "Wal-Mart is more than just a participant in the low-wage economy: It is the most important single beneficiary of that economy. It uses its economic and political power to extend the scope of the low-wage economy and threatens to extend its business model into other sectors of the economy, undermining the wages of still more workers..."

The Wal-Mart Stores Political Action Committee (PAC) for Responsible Government has become the largest corporate PAC in the country... So far in this cycle they have spent $1,808,476, $1.3 million of that on Federal candidates (82% Republican and 18% Democrat - Senate: R $162,000 D $55,000 House: R $955,500 D $192,000).

In terms of donations by individuals working for Wal-Mart we see 59 donations for 2004 with 33 going to Bush/Cheney '04 and 12 going to Republican Party groups (RNC, RCCC, RSCC). 7 of those 59 donation came from 6 members of the Walton family.

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http://www.joehilldispatch.org/walmartbeat/archives/cat_business_news.php
http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/717/P160/
www.forbes.com/billionaires/