Research for Episodes 38 and 39 - The Walton Family
Soundcloud: Episode 38 - The Walton Family (Part 1)
Soundcloud: Episode 39 - The Walton Family (Part 2)
A Frontline documentary on Wal-Mart. The documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices” was another major source for this episode.
The author of “In Sam We Trust” Bob Ortega discusses his book and Sam Walton’s early life as well as some of Wal-Mart’s abusive labor practices.
Dean Baker showing how China’s admission to the WTO destroyed manufacturing jobs in the USA. Wal-Mart was a major outsourcer of manufacturing to China in the 90s and early 2000s.
Bloomberg article on the problem of monopsony in labor and how the power of Wal-Mart has a depressing effect on wages in the USA.
The book “The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business” was a major source for Part 1. Here’s an excerpt that covers how Sam Walton illegally cheated early minimum wage laws in building his business empire.
Article on the Wal-Mart data center that may or may not be a bug out shelter for the Walton family.
NY Times article on Wal-Mart’s role in ignoring safety lapses that led to the deadly Dhaka fire in Bangladesh in 2012.
Guardian article on Wal-Mart’s role in the even more deadly Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh in 2013. Wal-Mart refused to enter into a binding agreement with labor unions to improve worker safety after more than 1,000 people were killed. Instead they set up a PR campaign that made no meaningful changes.
On Wal-Mart and the GAP’s fake Bangladeshi worker safety PR initiative.
Intercept on some of the public subsidies Wal-Mart receives.
Alice Walton has a lot of DWIs, she also killed a woman with her car in 1989
The Walton family have donated .04% of their wealth to charity, equivalent to 1/3rd of Alice Walton’s blood-alcohol level.
