Just in time for the Republican convention . . . may the Gulf hurricane take a hard right into Tampa next week! . . . we have this cheery news. Cheery for corporations in this land of the free and home of the brave.
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).
Not so cheery if you're a working stiff.
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.
And really no surprise given the unemployment situation.
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.
Now, let me just pose this question . . . how can you expect the party of the corporations, the Republican party, to really be concerned about these last two charts? Seriously. Is not the business of corporations to turn as much profit as possible? And doesn't more hiring and raises and benefits for workers, doesn't all that cut into profits? Now, I'm sure there will be howls of indignation at the idea that corporations don't care about the welfare of their employees, especially those working class employees. All I say is look at the evidence. Over the past few decades, these caring corporations have relocated untold thousands of jobs oversees and cut back on what workforce remained in the US. They have abetted the recession by opposing through their GOP legislators relief measures for workers crushed by the ongoing recession. And they are squarely lined up behind Mitt Romney and his pro-business, anti-little person agenda.
I'm sorry, but I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone in the working class with the sense God gave a peanut would vote for a party that exists for the sole purpose of enriching corporations and the filthiest of the filthy rich among us and removing every possible governmental obstacle to their further enrichment. It's one of the great mysteries of the universe.
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