Number of the Day

Six: The number of members of the Walton Family (as in Sam and Bud Walton, the founders of Wal-Mart) whose combined wealth as of 2007—$69.7 billion—was equal to the combined wealth of the entire bottom thirty percent of the US population.

BTW the new 2011 Forbes 400 has the inherited worth of these six Waltons at $93 billion. The 2010 [Survey of Consumer Finances] data that is slated for release spring of 2012 will almost certainly show a further widening of the wealth gap given that corporate profits, stocks, and CEO pay have all recovered while housing values & equity (the lion's share of wealth for average Americans), wages, and family incomes have yet to turn around.

So, basically, the combined fortune of these six people may now, in fact, be equivalent to more than a third of the rest of the US population.

[H/T to Iain.]