Walmart: But all we hear about is Bezos and Amazon

“Roughly half of all Walmart stock is owned by the 3 surviving heirs of founder Sam Walton. The Walton family is the richest family on earth with a net worth of around 224 billion in 2023.
 
In fact, the family dumped about 2.5 million shares in the spring of 2021--worth about $750 million--to get their ownership stake back down below the 50% mark. The largest chunk of the family stock -- about 1.28 billion shares -- are held in a tax-sheltering trust created by dad called Walton Enterprises. Another 245 million shares are held in the Walton family holdings trust.
 
Each of the surviving children hold individual shares as well.  Robson, Walton's oldest living son, holds more than 3.2 million shares. The wealthiest woman on earth, Alice Walton, holds close to 6.7 million shares. Jim Walton has about 10.5 million shares. Sam walton's three kids have a net worth of more than 60 billion each.  In years past, they've been among the top 10 richest people on earth but in 2023 they are merely 11, 12 and 13.
 
Every dollar increase in Walmart’s stock price adds another billion in value to the Walton Enterprises Trust and millions to each of the individual Walton siblings stock portfolios. When Walmart buys stock to boost its own market price, it's largely done to increase the wealth of the richest family on earth.
 
… Therefore, the wages of Walmart workers are suppressed mostly for the Walton families’ benefit. One of every two poorly-paid Walmart workers takes home less pay just so the $224 billion Walton family nest egg grows larger.

This also means that of the $6.2 billion in [taxpayer funded] public benefits spent every year to support Walmart workers [without health insurance or benefits], 3.1 billion is practically a direct subsidy to the richest family on earth.

Should you and I be paying [taxes] to keep Walmart workers afloat or should the Walton family? It certainly seems like they could afford to share a little of that with their workers. After all those 3 Walton heirs sure as hell couldn't run 11,000 Walmart stores all by themselves. Let's make them pay.”