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kpete

(72,062 posts)
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 09:42 PM Jun 2012

Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low

1) Corporate profit margins just hit an all-time high. Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. (And some people are still saying that companies are suffering from "too much regulation" and "too many taxes." Maybe little companies are, but big ones certainly aren't).



2) Fewer Americans are working than at any time in the past three decades. One reason corporations are so profitable is that they don't employ as many Americans as they used to.



3) Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low. This is both cause and effect. One reason companies are so profitable is that they're paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. And that, in turn, is one reason the economy is so weak: Those "wages" are other companies' revenue



Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6#ixzz1yZnjmfOM

49 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low (Original Post) kpete Jun 2012 OP
Somethings VERY WRONG. elleng Jun 2012 #1
All Proceeds Along According to Plan liberalmike27 Jun 2012 #42
To sum it up: More prosperity than ever before, yet more poverty and suffering? newthinking Jun 2012 #46
That can be/is because elleng Jun 2012 #47
Isn't that proof positive that trickle down does not work SoutherDem Jun 2012 #2
or is it proof that Trickle Down does work? CleanLucre Jun 2012 #8
Excellent point. Quantess Jun 2012 #26
Sad but true CleanLucre Jun 2012 #28
Trickle down has always been, actually, Flood up. ananda Jun 2012 #30
or maybe suck up CleanLucre Jun 2012 #37
Yep. It works. liberalmike27 Jun 2012 #43
oh boy. an *all" time record, yet again?... depressing. inna Jun 2012 #3
Just briefly looking at these curves tells me there is too much supply RKP5637 Jun 2012 #4
What would make where we are CleanLucre Jun 2012 #9
I think just worse, what is needed is for the $20 cocktail drinkers to fall too like in 1929. n/t RKP5637 Jun 2012 #13
Isn't the current illusion CleanLucre Jun 2012 #19
Yep! Wealth is vaporware. n/t RKP5637 Jun 2012 #24
or it could mean that wealth is being extracted from the us & invested overseas, creating demand HiPointDem Jun 2012 #22
Yes, exactly, and that benefits the majority of us little ... RKP5637 Jun 2012 #23
That is simple economics. We can only keep our quality of life through policies protecting us newthinking Jun 2012 #45
Which means corporations will do even more of what they've been doing. Kablooie Jun 2012 #5
Yep, and not only do we not tax them, we give money to the RKP5637 Jun 2012 #14
thanks for posting...very important...K and R nt. Stuart G Jun 2012 #6
i thought so too kpete Jun 2012 #36
The OP should get massive recs. Huey P. Long Jun 2012 #7
now we are ON the BBQ upi402 Jun 2012 #18
k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t Laelth Jun 2012 #10
Wow, if only we could teach Americans the inevitable connection between the two. freshwest Jun 2012 #11
I think dems get it abelenkpe Jun 2012 #12
Yep. Scarey living with them. freshwest Jun 2012 #16
Ignorance is the republicans best friend. And they work very hard at RKP5637 Jun 2012 #25
You see, Republicans! he's not Anti-Business! Bonobo Jun 2012 #15
there you go with those liberal fact thingies upi402 Jun 2012 #17
kick Angry Dragon Jun 2012 #20
Woohoo! Good thing we kept them from failing! progressoid Jun 2012 #21
All-time lowest profits under Reagan malthaussen Jun 2012 #27
Income extraction works jp11 Jun 2012 #29
Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit Jake2413 Jun 2012 #31
push 'em down. push 'em down. Way Down! Tuesday Afternoon Jun 2012 #32
Everybody Calm DOWN! bvar22 Jun 2012 #33
I just can't wait rudycantfail Jun 2012 #34
thanks for that Scout Jun 2012 #35
In addition to that Broderick Jun 2012 #38
"The comfort of the rich depends upon an abundant supply of the poor." Voltaire Tierra_y_Libertad Jun 2012 #39
I think we need to get a serious dialogue going about rethinking what profit means in our society. Initech Jun 2012 #40
Yay! Corporations are winning! Go, corporations, go! Down with people. tclambert Jun 2012 #41
This says all there is to make an idiot understand Curmudgeoness Jun 2012 #44
President correct rtracey Jun 2012 #48
Our founders intended on corporations paying Tariffs Ghost of Huey Long Jun 2012 #49

elleng

(131,460 posts)
1. Somethings VERY WRONG.
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 09:46 PM
Jun 2012

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.


W.B. Yeats, The Second Coming

liberalmike27

(2,479 posts)
42. All Proceeds Along According to Plan
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 06:53 PM
Jun 2012

Globalization is good for "us" they say. "Us."

Who is "us" when they say that. They promote the idea that we're all going to benefit. But our governments at all levels are bankrupted of the tax money once collected when 30 million good, union jobs once thrived here in the U.S., so I think you'll have to look to the corporate profits to find the "us" they are talking about.

elleng

(131,460 posts)
47. That can be/is because
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 08:01 PM
Jun 2012

NO ONE has what it takes to organize the world to assure labor prospers along with capital.

With transportation/communication, results of industrial revolution etc. its not reasonable to deny all economies are linked. We ALL, around the globe, need to recogiize we can all prosper if/when we were truly linked through agreements between international labor and capital.

DEFINITELY not holding my breath, but if there were real statespeople around, such dreams might be more fruitful.

SoutherDem

(2,307 posts)
2. Isn't that proof positive that trickle down does not work
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 09:47 PM
Jun 2012

If it did the two should move in the same direction.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
4. Just briefly looking at these curves tells me there is too much supply
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 09:53 PM
Jun 2012

and not enough demand. While some corporations will do well internationally unless many workers have income to buy goods the story for the US is in general pretty dismal. Most citizens will not lead a life very high on the standard of living index. The wealth of the nation will grow, but the standard of living will fall, as the wealth is severely skewed to a few percent.

Correction is needed, but in this highly charged political environment and corporate owned government nothing short of another Great Depression will bring this country back on track IMO.

And this is why one sees DHS merging with local police to police the masses if chaos breaks out. All of the handwriting is on the wall if one looks.


 

CleanLucre

(284 posts)
9. What would make where we are
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 10:38 PM
Jun 2012

look more like "another Great Depression"? (Fewer $20 cocktail drinkers, in my neighborhood)

 

HiPointDem

(20,729 posts)
22. or it could mean that wealth is being extracted from the us & invested overseas, creating demand
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 02:17 AM
Jun 2012

there.

newthinking

(3,982 posts)
45. That is simple economics. We can only keep our quality of life through policies protecting us
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 07:33 PM
Jun 2012

It always surprises me when that we haven't seemed to figure out the obvious. Because it is such a simple part of economic theory. If people will work for 1/4 of what you get paid they will outcompete you.

That is the problem with the "free trade" ideology. Until we are at parity, it will be disasterous. Add to that darwinian capitalism and the accumulation of prosperity at the top strata and it seems we will *never* get to that parity even this way.

Kablooie

(18,648 posts)
5. Which means corporations will do even more of what they've been doing.
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 10:26 PM
Jun 2012

and wages will continue to sink and jobs will continue to disappear.

Until the corporate profits start to decline we can't expect anything to change - at all!

Normally taxes correct this kind of thing by eliminating profit from actions that hurt the country but just the opposite is true now.

The only citizens that count today are corporate citizens. Human citizens are not important any more.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
14. Yep, and not only do we not tax them, we give money to the
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 11:12 PM
Jun 2012

banks interest free. Or I think it's negative interest now. What a deal. And Bernanke I believe just recently said interest rates will not change until in 2014. The only recovery really going on is for the top few percent. Meanwhile, about 50% of this country is in or near poverty.

 

Huey P. Long

(1,932 posts)
7. The OP should get massive recs.
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 10:30 PM
Jun 2012

Huey Long: Share the Wealth



December 1934. Huey Long speaks passionately about income inequality and the wealthy in the United States.

abelenkpe

(9,933 posts)
12. I think dems get it
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 11:06 PM
Jun 2012

It's republicans....and I mean the poor people duped into voting for them.......that we need to get the message to. Unfortunately they've been programmed to not believe anything a dem or liberal has to say.

RKP5637

(67,112 posts)
25. Ignorance is the republicans best friend. And they work very hard at
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 10:00 AM
Jun 2012

educating many of the masses to be ignorant. Any with a bit of insight would say WTF, but that does not happen to the majority and to "not believe anything a dem or liberal has to say." Nothing short of a major great depression will reset the US I fear.

Bonobo

(29,257 posts)
15. You see, Republicans! he's not Anti-Business!
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 11:18 PM
Jun 2012

In fact, he is all you could have wished form in terms of corporatist policies. so what are you attacking him as anti-business?

upi402

(16,854 posts)
17. there you go with those liberal fact thingies
Fri Jun 22, 2012, 11:30 PM
Jun 2012

sheez, are you trying to trouble mah beautiful mind?

malthaussen

(17,242 posts)
27. All-time lowest profits under Reagan
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 11:06 AM
Jun 2012

Isn't it interesting that, according to the top graph, the all-time lowest profits ever were recorded in the midst of Reagan's rulership? Reagan, the saviour of us all? Even with the huge plunge when the current depression began, profits were higher than under Saint Ronnie.

There's also an interesting correlation of the times of highest profit with times of war, but a couple of peaks are left unaccounted for by that.

-- Mal

jp11

(2,104 posts)
29. Income extraction works
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 11:29 AM
Jun 2012

greed is good, if you aren't growing you are dying, run leaner, do more with less, increase productivity, anyone is replaceable, unions push out good american jobs.

No one should have it better than I do unless they are rich because I might get rich and if you are rich then you absolutely did it all on your own had no breaks, no luck, and are the only person who can take credit for your amazing success.



Jake2413

(226 posts)
31. Corporations have a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 12:23 PM
Jun 2012

at the expense of everything else. That is why they need to be regulated and have STRONG laws that are enforced when they are broken. Government's responsibility is to protect citizens from corporate abuse, something the Republicans have yet to understand.

Tuesday Afternoon

(56,912 posts)
32. push 'em down. push 'em down. Way Down!
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 12:26 PM
Jun 2012

way to go Fat Cat MotherFuckers. goddamn you all to forty levels of hell.

bvar22

(39,909 posts)
33. Everybody Calm DOWN!
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 01:04 PM
Jun 2012

All we need is :
*MORE "Free Trade",

*MORE Privatized (Charter) Schools

*fire some more teachers, cut pay for the rest

*an increase in Military Spending and more Drone attacks

*more drilling & pipelines

*a few more Bank Bailouts

*add a few more countries to the War on Terror

*give all the farms to Monsanto

*make it MORE expensive to go to school

*bust a few more medical marijuana Dispensaries

*get rid of some more Public Employees & their pensions

*grind the Post Office into the dirt

*make everybody buy Health Insurance from For Profit Corporations

*bring in more low wage workers to compete for the increasingly rare Working Class jobs,

*bust a few more unions

*lose a few more Pensions

*foreclose a few more home owners

*make it CRYSTAL CLEAR that dissent WILL be violently suppressed with nationally co-ordinated militarized police forces


....and things will start turning around!
Trust me.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
Just wait a few more Friedman Units!






[font size=4]Cherish your memories, SUCKERS!
Cuz we're TAKING everything else!
We WON!
Hahahahahahaha!
[/font]




Broderick

(4,578 posts)
38. In addition to that
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 02:38 PM
Jun 2012

The labor force is down quite a bit (total people working), and the population is up.


None of it is good to be honest.

Initech

(100,155 posts)
40. I think we need to get a serious dialogue going about rethinking what profit means in our society.
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 04:04 PM
Jun 2012

All companies do now is stack billions, pay zero taxes and get away with flat out thievery - until they start putting that money back into hiring workers - and - gasp - paying them fairly - we're never gonna dig our way out of this shit hole. Fuck Reagan and reagonomics.

tclambert

(11,087 posts)
41. Yay! Corporations are winning! Go, corporations, go! Down with people.
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 04:17 PM
Jun 2012

Oh, wait, corporations are people. Mitt Romney and the Supreme Court said so. Anyway, I guess I can quit worrying about the killer robots taking over. The corporations will wipe out humanity. You know what? If human beings won't fight back, they deserve to go extinct.

Curmudgeoness

(18,219 posts)
44. This says all there is to make an idiot understand
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 06:57 PM
Jun 2012

what the problem is....too bad there are too many idiots these days.

I think that the last statement in #3 says it all: "Those "wages" are other companies' revenue."

 

rtracey

(2,062 posts)
48. President correct
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 08:55 PM
Jun 2012

Looks like the statement, the private sector is doing fine really was true huh.

 

Ghost of Huey Long

(322 posts)
49. Our founders intended on corporations paying Tariffs
Sat Jun 23, 2012, 10:01 PM
Jun 2012

If we didn't allow them to keep so much money, maybe they wouldn't be able to buy off our politicians and public airwaves.


Tariffs were the main source of all Federal revenue from 1790 to 1914. At the end of American Civil War in 1865 about 63% of Federal income was generated by the excise taxes which exceeded the 25.4% generated by tariffs. In 1915 during World War I tariffs generated only 30.1% of revenues. Since 1935 tariff income has continued to be a declining percentage of Federal tax income.


year % of Budget Paid by Tariffs

1792 95.0%
1795 91.6%
1800 83.7%
1805 95.4%
1810 91.5%
1815 46.4%
1820 83.9%
1825 97.9%
1830 88.2%
1835 54.1%
1840 64.2%
1845 91.9%
1850 91.0%
1855 81.2%
1863 55.9%
1864 38.7%
1865 25.4%
1870 47.3%
1880 55.3%
1885 56.1%
1890 57.0%
1900 41.1%
1910 34.6%
1913 44.0%
1915 30.1%
1916 27.3%
1917 20.1%
1918 25.8%
1920 13.2%
1925 14.5%
1928 14.0%
1930 14.1%
1935 8.4%
1940 6.1%
1942 2.9%
1944 0.9%
1946 0.9%
1948 0.9%
1950 0.9%
1951 1.1%
1955 0.8%
1960 1.1%
1965 1.2%
1970 1.3%
1975 1.3%
1980 1.4%
1985 1.6%
1990 1.1%
1995 1.4%
2000 1.0%
2005 1.1%
2010 1.2%

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