You mean the family responsible for founding a multi-national company that employs literally millions of people and creates billions of dollars of wealth has more money than most people? OUTRAGEOUS.

Allegretto then compared those numbers to the net worth of the six members of the Walton clan as reported on the Forbes 400 list in 2007. They are all children or children-in-law of the founders of Walmart. Their total net worth that year: $69.7 billion.

That’s equal to the wealth of the poorest 30 percent of all Americans, according to Allegretto’s calculations.

Walmart employs 2.1 million people, many of whom would be unemployed or on welfare without their Walmart job. The company provides low-cost food and affordable goods at nearly 9,000 locations worldwide.

The operation created more than $15 billion in wealth last year, which doesn’t include wealth creation through steady paychecks. And it’s a component on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

So yeah, the family responsible for all of that has a crapload of money. Go figure. And you know why? Because they did all of that.

I’m sick and tired of people who hate those who create jobs and wealth and get rich in the process. I’m tired of people who think working a minimum wage job at McDonalds is worth as much as starting a company that employs 2 million people.

You want your family to have a combined $70 billion? Start a company that creates more than $15 billion per year in wealth. Start a company that provides jobs to millions of people who would otherwise have trouble finding work. Start a company that provides a critical service to low and middle-income people around the world. Then you too can be that wealthy.

The Waltons have the money they do because Sam Walton earned every penny of it. And no, your minimum wage job at McDonalds or your job writing articles for Salon isn’t as valuable as what he did. People who think otherwise are products of the Everyone Gets a Trophy culture that has been propogated for far too long. Not everyone’s contribution to society and humanity is equal. Deal with it.

I was going to write that life isn’t fair. Except in this case it is. Fairness isn’t giving people something they don’t deserve because it would make them feel better. Fairness is getting just return for your actions. What would be unfair would be paying people who flip burgers and people who create wealth and jobs the same thing. Unfair would be taking money from very productive members of society and giving it to unproductive members.

I say all of this as someone who once flipped those proverbial burgers. I worked for scraps. Why? Because my skillset and experience didn’t entitle me to anything more. So I worked hard and acquired new skills. Instead of demonizing extremely productive members of society for having the money they did, I decided to try and join them. That’s the American way.