Hmmmmm....
http://www.businessinsider.com/corporate-profits-just-hit-an-all-time-high-wages-just-hit-an-all-time-low-2012-6
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.
Click this link to see the charts: [http://www.businessinsider.com/politics-economics-facts-charts-2012-6]
All of this to me begs two very obvious questions.
- If corporations are making profits hand over fist and sitting on record amounts of reserve cash, how is it that the Republicans and the Teatards translate these record numbers to match their spittle flying claims that Obama has been "bad for business?"
- Does anyone recall the last time in U.S. history where there existed such a stark wealth disparity between a very small number of American elites and the rest of the country? There once was a period of several decades where big business and Wall Street were left to their own unregulated devices to the point that unbridled greed became such a dominant factor in the zeal to increase profit margins and consolidate wealth that the elites and big business began playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with the U.S. and international economies. It was called 'The Gilded Age' and the 'Robber Baron Age' and 'The Roaring 20's,' and it all culminated in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression which devastated everyday American's lives for about a dozen years or so prior to the start of WWII. So my actual question here is - does anyone see the historical parallel here? Does anyone see how, when the wealthy elites and Wall St. are not closely regulated, that they simply cannot be trusted one iota to look out for the interests of their fellow citizens and the nation's overall economic health which affects the lives of every single American?
Things to think about folks. I am not researching, reading about and writing about this stuff just to see my own words in print. I care about and love this country and I fear that I am watching the slow-motion destruction of representative democracy and the freedoms, individual rights and quality of life issues that are inherent by-products of it.
It's a slow march to serfdom and you are either for it or against it. Better make up your mind soon.
----TFG
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