Columns 
I got to thinking about some of my small-town neighbors when I read that the Denver Broncos football team, which is just starting its new season, was sold for $4.6 billion.
The principal new owners are Walmart heir Rob Walton and his daughter and son-in-law. Their ownership group also includes Condoleezza Rice, former secretary of state and now a board member of the hedge fund Makena Capital Management; Mellody Hobson, chair of the board of Starbucks and a director at JP Morgan Chase; and Lewis Hamilton, a race car driver worth an estimated $285 million. The Walton heirs are the world’s richest family, with a net worth of more than $200 billion.
When Walmart opened a store in our little town of Talent, Oregon, in 1988, it promised new and needed jobs. But some residents were concerned that local stores would close and wages for the new jobs would be low. Even today, Walmart’s minimum wage, including an increase announced last September, is only $12 per hour.
A congressional report based on data from early 2020, the month before the COVID-19 pandemic began, showed Walmart’s pay and benefits were so low it was the top employer of food stamp and Medicaid recipients in about half the states studied.
What does this mean in human terms? Near where I live, a young boy for years has woken up to an empty house, fed himself breakfast in front of the TV, and gotten himself to elementary school, and when he comes back there is still no one at home. He lives with his grandfather, who leaves before dawn for his job at Walmart, and then has to work a second job before he finally comes home in the evening.
