Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low
by Henry Blodget
In case you need more confirmation that the US economy is out of balance, here are three charts for you.
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.
In short, our current system and philosophy is creating a country of a few million overlords and 300+ million serfs.
That's not what has made America a great country. It's also not what most people think America is supposed to be about.
So we might want to rethink that.
Meanwhile, if you want to know more about what's wrong with the economy, flip through these charts.
That these same corporations are busy paying the lawmakers to reduce taxes...only they don't need tax reductions...at this point it's never been lower and they are still crying. No, this is about greed. You can thank the hard times for this as well. You know, getting paid minimum wage, having to work two jobs, and having little or no benefits.
What none of them seem concerned with is that the worker, having no excess disposable income means far less business for all of them. That's the new news that is going to catch up with them soon. One corporation's wages are another corporation's profits. You just can't go from recession to recession, without improvement. At some point everyone says screw it and has nothing to spend. At that point, you see Greece happening right here. The government out of money, business closing left and right because no one has it to spend, and the credit of the nation as well as the money is worthless.
Next time you hear the repubs hollering about how the rich need more tax breaks, I suggest you think on the above. They've had year after year of tax breaks...so where's the jobs? Where's the better economy? Point of it is, the politicians are being paid off to see it the way they are. It will take either threatening them with removal from office or replacing them by vote to drive the message home. At this point, voting for either party is a waste of time as both have been bought off.
The charts show what they show. It spans the times of both parties being in office. The real problem with all this and the economy, is that these same corporations have been taking the money for profit and changing where the money goes in pay, shuffling the majority of it to the CEO and senior management. They are not being rewarded for long term financial health but rather short term, by hook or crook.
...Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low
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