By Henry McRandall
WRISEUP.COM
The fathers of the American revolution so hated monarchy and everything anti-democratic that it symbolized that they specifically outlawed monarchy when they wrote the United States Constitution. But the will of the founding fathers notwithstanding, the heirs of what would eventually become Amerikkka Inc. — the Top One Percent — the gangster banksters and the corporate robber barons — the mega-millionaires and billionaires who have since either seized or destroyed almost everything worth stealing or destroying in Amerikkka — found a way around the Constitutional ban on monarchy.
They established an unofficial monarchy — no less dangerous and no less malevolent than any other monarchy in history. And just who makes up this Amerikkkan royal family? Well, of course, it is the six primary heirs to the massive fortune of Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, the world’s largest private-sector employer. And just why are the Waltons the “royal family” of Amerikkkan corporate capitalism? Well, of course, because no other family in the 500-year history of corporate capitalism has ever been as successful at stealing so much from their own employees and the employees of their suppliers. To be specific, the Waltons of Arkansas have become the richest family in the world — by far — by starving their own employees and their suppliers’ generally-Third-World workers.
Walmart Inc.’s official website boasts that the corporation’s “purpose” is “saving people money to help them live better.” The key, of course, to “helping people live better” was to sell their merchandise at prices so low that the competition could not possibly match them. How did they achieve this? Well, it certainly wasn’t by cutting profit margins. On the contrary, it was by putting the screws to their own employees and the employees of their mostly-Third-World suppliers.
In the U.S, fully half of Walmart’s employees — or “associates,” as the corporation prefers to call them — live in their cars because they can’t afford both a car and an apartment. Nor can they afford health care. (What possibly will the long-term consequences be of fully half the workforce of the country’s largest employer being able to afford neither health care nor personal hygiene? It’s a public health crisis just waiting to happen.) And how many of Walmart’s American employees are actually able to make it through the month without having to depend on their local food bank?
As for the employees of Walmart’s almost entirely Third-World suppliers? Well, they typically work at least 12 hours a day, 28 days a month for 15 cents an hour. And anytime Walmart requires extra merchandise, these workers are required to work an extra three hours a day — the extra hours for which they receive no extra pay but simply a single donut ho help them stay awake. They typically sleep in barracks within the company compound and are typically only allowed to leave the company compound on their two or three days off each month. Is it any wonder that so many of them are resorting to suicide?
In essence, Sam Walton’s half-dozen primary heirs got to be the richest family in the world by steadfastly refusing to pay a living wage to the majority of their own employees — despite the massive profits those workers were creating.
Just how rich are they? In 2007, just before their brethren gangster banksters brought the global economy to its knees, just these six primary Walton heirs were worth more than the entire bottom 30 percent of Americans combined. Yes, just these six mega-billionaires were worth as much as more than 90 million other Americans combined. But things have changed since then.
While the average Amerikkkan has seen his or her personal wealth shrink by about 30 percent since then and even the Forbes 400 world’s richest billionaires have seen their average net worth fall by about 10 percent, the primary Walton heirs have seen their wealth soar throughout this never-ending Amerikkkan recession — soar to the point where they are now worth much more than $100 BILLION combined and soar to the point to where they are, by far, the richest family in the world. And, oh yes, they are no longer just as rich as more than 90 million other Americans combined — the bottom 30 percent. Now they are as rich as more than 120 million other Americans combined — the entire bottom 40 percent.
And, once again, how did this Sordid Six get to be so rich? Not one of them ever created a single thing. Not one of them ever worked a day in their life. They got to be the richest people in the world simply by being Daddy Sam Walton’s children and nieces.
But even that is not enough for them. The Sordid Six are now leading a national campaign to entirely abolish what limited inheritance taxes still exist in Amerikkka. If they are successful, it will mean that families such as the Waltons — almost all of whose wealth consists of ill-gotten gains acquired by starving American and foreign workers alike — will never, ever pay a penny of tax on most of what they make. (This one family is currently getting richer at the rate of more than $8 BILLION every year! After Taxes — if they even pay any taxes). Families such as this criminal family would be fated to be the richest people in the world — FOREVER!
The largest private fortune in the world was built by starving the largest private-sector workforce in the world. In my book, when a massively profitable corporation refuses to pay most of its employees a living wage, that corporation — as well as its CEO, all of its executives and all of its major shareholders — is guilty of massive crimes against humanity and should be prosecuted and punished accordingly.
But that will never happen — at least not until after the massive and sustained global uprising against corporate capitalism that is so desperately needed. It will not happen because in the Amerikkkan corporate capitalist jungle that the Top One Percent has created, the puppet political prostitutes that make and enforce the laws are merely the pawns of their wealthy masters — all already bought and paid for!