Wal-Mart Waltons Get All Cultural

Here's a story that will make your blood boil: The Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, the world's largest corporation, are planning a huge art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. There's nothing wrong with a little culture in the Midwest, right?

Except when you consider how much they are spending on their little hobby, while resisting spending a fraction as much to simply pay their employees a living wage.

Rebecca Solnit's article on the subject will enrage you. She discusses a single painting the family recently bought for $35 million:

The average Wal-Mart cashier makes $7.92 an hour and, since Wal Mart
likes to keep people on less than full-time schedules, works only 29
hours a week for an annual income of $11,948--so a Wal-Mart cashier
would have to work a little under 3,000 years to earn the price of the
painting without taking any salary out for food, housing, or other
expenses.

Read the article at Alternet.

AMP Section Name:Retail & Mega-Stores
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