"especially at a time when finances are stable at best"
Sloppy reporting. Here's what the author should have written:
> Just four years after the worst shock to the economy since the Great Depression, U.S. corporate profits are stronger than ever.
> In the third quarter, corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago, according to last week'si gross domestic product report. That took after-tax profits to their greatest percentage of GDP in history.
> But the record profits come at the same time that workers' wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.
Whoever gets the mouthpiece gets to frame the debate.
The debate is wrong.
What's happening is this: Corporations have people on the hook, because the people are poor & desperate, meanwhile the corporations are more flush with cash than ever before. They know that everyone is running around, pretending we're in a terrible financial crisis… because we are, if you're an individual. The profit-taking is immense and ordinary people are suffering.
This is not a debate about "Well gee can Joe-Bob really produce $8 of value an hour?" because the profits say yes, Joe-Bob is definitely producing much more value than he costs. Even more so, given that this is a time when CEO compensation (a cost that reduces profit) has skyrocketed, compared to the average worker's wage.
Good for Costco. They have always behaved well towards workers, with regards to pay and benefits, even when things really were bad.
Sloppy reporting. Here's what the author should have written:
> Just four years after the worst shock to the economy since the Great Depression, U.S. corporate profits are stronger than ever.
> In the third quarter, corporate earnings were $1.75 trillion, up 18.6% from a year ago, according to last week'si gross domestic product report. That took after-tax profits to their greatest percentage of GDP in history.
> But the record profits come at the same time that workers' wages have fallen to their lowest-ever share of GDP.
http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/03/news/economy/record-corporat...
Whoever gets the mouthpiece gets to frame the debate.
The debate is wrong.
What's happening is this: Corporations have people on the hook, because the people are poor & desperate, meanwhile the corporations are more flush with cash than ever before. They know that everyone is running around, pretending we're in a terrible financial crisis… because we are, if you're an individual. The profit-taking is immense and ordinary people are suffering.
This is not a debate about "Well gee can Joe-Bob really produce $8 of value an hour?" because the profits say yes, Joe-Bob is definitely producing much more value than he costs. Even more so, given that this is a time when CEO compensation (a cost that reduces profit) has skyrocketed, compared to the average worker's wage.
Good for Costco. They have always behaved well towards workers, with regards to pay and benefits, even when things really were bad.