Re: world-mart: how wal-mart is destroying the economy and remakingthe world

[Russell Chapman]

Quote:Wal-Mart is now the world's biggest corporation, having passed ExxonMobil for the top slot. It hauls off a stunning $220 billion a year from We the People (more in revenues than the entire GDP of Israel and Ireland combined).

I had no idea that Wal-Mart was so big - it's only 40 years old and a purely traditional empire, not relying on a new product/concept like MS, Intel and Cisco.
It's a fairly arbitrary measure of course. Many sources I searched listed GE, Intel, Cisco and MS as the biggest (presumably using market capitalisation) depending (again, presumably) on the share prices of the day. Australia doesn't have a single Wal-Mart, though we have K-Mart and Target.

Quote: Of the 10 richest people in the world, five are Waltons--the ruling family of the Wal-Mart empire. S. Robson Walton is ranked by London's "Rich List 2001" as the wealthiest human on the planet, having sacked up more than $65 billion (GBP45.3 billion) in personal wealth and topping Bill Gates as No. 1.

Given that as at February, they were listed 6-10, and S Robson was listed at 8th. I find this difficult to believe. Even if one of the other Waltons died and left their entire USB20.4 to S Robson, that still only gives him USB41, compared to Bill's USB52.8. Of course, holding rankings 6-10 is no mean feat either.

Setting aside for a moment all the issues raised by this report, it makes one wonder a bit about the future. Will government at some point become somewhat redundant or secondary in choosing the allocation of a nation's resources, given the way some of the corporations now control use of specific sectors of the earth's resources. Will a world government actually take the form of a mega-merger in boardrooms?

Cheers
Russell C.


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