DEAR WORKERS OF THE WORLD: You're Getting Totally Shafted

[BigLouie]

From Yahoo Finance:

It's May Day.

In America, to the extent anyone notices May Day, they notice the sunshine and spring weather.

Elsewhere in the world, however, May Day is all about celebrating the cause (and grievances) of the world's employees.

And because most people in the world are (or want to be) employees, May Day is something a lot of folks can relate to.

And, boy, do the world's employees have something to be annoyed about this year!

1) Corporate profit margins just hit another all-time high. Companies are making more per dollar of sales than they ever have before. If you're a shareholder, that seems like good news (in the very short term, anyway). Alas, most people aren't shareholders. And for folks whose investment horizon is longer than "this quarter" and "this year," it's actually bad news. Companies are under-investing in their employees and the future.

2 ) Wages as a percent of the economy just hit another all-time low. One reason companies are making so much money is that they're paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. That's bad news for everyone, by the way, not just employees. Low employee wages are one reason the economy is so weak: Those "wages" represent spending power for consumers. And consumer spending is "revenue" for other companies. So the short-term corporate profit obsession is actually starving the rest of the economy of revenue growth.

3) Fewer Americans are working than at any time in the past three decades. The other reason corporations are so profitable is that they don't employ as many Americans as they used to. As a result, the employment-to-population ratio has collapsed. We're back at 1980s levels now.

In short, our current obsessed-with-profits philosophy is creating a country of a few million overlords (shareholders) and 300+ million serfs (employees).

It is also resulting in employees sharing less of the corporate wealth that they spend their lives creating than they ever have before.

That's not what has made America a great country. It's also not what most people think America or other lands of opportunity are supposed to be about.

The harsh reality is that there is nothing a sitting President can do about this.

[CuteOldGuy]

Crony capitalism at its finest.

[gnadfly]

Oh but Obama DID promise to do something to US companies that offshored jobs! This was discussed in a prior thread. Besides appoint GE CEO Jeff Immelt to being jobs czar, which failed miserably. what has he done?

You Obamazombies demand so little from "Dear Leader" as he jumps on AF1 to go to exotic vacations, play golf with celebrities, attend fundraisers, make political speeches he could make within minutes of DC, etc.

[Randy4Candy]

I guess, gnadfly, that you are more worried about the "exoticness" of The President for Four More Years' vacations, eh? Shrub was shoveling manure in Crawford during Katrina and had to have Dan Bartlett show him a video of compiled news coverage of the disaster so he would know what was going on. Go figure. Guess you can't fix lazy any more than you can fix stupid.

[Guest040616]

Originally Posted by Randy4Candy

I guess, gnadfly, that you are more worried about the "exoticness" of The President for Four More Years' vacations, eh? Shrub was shoveling manure in Crawford during Katrina and had to have Dan Bartlett show him a video of compiled news coverage of the disaster so he would know what was going on. Go figure. Guess you can't fix lazy any more than you can fix stupid.

Don't pay any attention to Turd(y)fly. He is the ultimate "sore loser."

[Whirlaway]

Editorial by Henry Blodget editor if Business Insiders....if your interested.

[Guest040616]

Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Editorial by Henry blodget editor if Business Insiders....if your interested.

Not interested!

So much for Trendy's idea.

[jbravo_123]

All hail capitalism!

Really, when you remove regulations on corporations and allow them to do what they want, are we surprised when they voraciously prey both upon their workers and consumers all in the name of profit?

It's not like we haven't seen this before in our country's history... (oh wait, we have)...