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| From left: Jim Walton, Alice Walton, Jim's wife Lynne McNabb Walton, Rob Walton's wife Melani Lowman Walton and Rob Walton. PHOTOGRAPH: RICK T. WILKING / STRINGER |
Important facts to deal with could be that the world’s richest family earns $ 4 million every hour, while there are about 25 richest dynasties on the planet which control $ 1.4 trillion.
There is no doubt that the numbers are amazing: $ 70,000 per minute, $ 4 million per hour, $ 100 million per day.
The Walton family is an American family whose collective fortune places it among the richest families in the world. Most of their wealth derives from the heritage of Bud and Sam Walton, who were the co-founders of the world’s largest retail chain, Walmart. In December 2014, the Waltons together owned 50.8 percent of the company, which amounted to a fortune of approximately $ 149 billion.
It should be noted that even in this era of extreme wealth and brutal inequality, the contrast is discordant. The heirs of Sam Walton, the remarkably frugal founder of Walmart, are accumulating wealth on an almost unprecedented scale, and are almost not alone.
Fortune
Walton’s fortune has increased by $ 39 billion, to $ 191 billion, since leading the June 2018 ranking of the world’s richest families.
Even so, other US dynasties are very close in terms of the assets they have accumulated. The Mars family, famous for sweets, added $ 37 billion, bringing its fortune to $ 127 billion. The Kochs, the industrial-cum-politicians-power-players, added $ 26 billion to $ 125 billion.
Likewise, the richest 0.1% of the United States today controls more wealth than at any other time since 1929, but its counterparts in Asia and Europe are also winning. Worldwide, the 25 richest families now control nearly $ 1.4 billion in wealth, 24% more than last year. Thus, it has been said that for some critics, such figures are evidence that capitalism needs to be repaired. Inequality has become an explosive political issue, from Paris to Seattle and Hong Kong.
In this way, it is necessary to say that as tension increases, even some billionaire heirs are supporting steps such as wealth taxes.
“If we don’t do something like this, what are we doing, just hoarding this wealth in a country that’s falling apart at the seams?” Liesel Pritzker Simmons, whose family ranks 17th on the Bloomberg list, said in June. “That’s not the America we want to live in.”
Source: Bloomberg
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