We've all heard the pseudo-patriot cries for more "Shared Sacrifice" ...
This panacea is heralded as the instant cure for America's Budget problems.
America is portrayed as the stereotypical family who spent beyond our means, and all we need to do is cut back on the frills, and quote "tighten our belts".
Just give up on our goals and our dreams; just admit we did something wrong again and kick in some of our income, for the common good ...
In other words ... All we need is even MORE "Shared Sacrifice". Come on workers, you can do it.
Funny thing is, it’s always one end of the income spectrum that is expected to do the "sacrificing" ... at the other end of the income ladder, well they’re just expected to keep raking in their excess profits, their excess tax breaks, their excess subsidies.
We mustn’t disturb those "Job Creators" ... They are not part of the "America Family" ... if they tried to "tighten their belts" -- well those belts would break, under the excess weight that they have put on the rest of society.
Someone’s got to carry that "profit taking" weight afterall, and you can bet your last bottom dollar, it’s not going to be them. Because if there’s one thing the top 1 percent knows -- it’s how to stay at the top of that profit pyramid, and how to get all the worker bees to carry their weight. To keep us all perpetually on the "ground floor", of their economic ladder ...
Afterall, that "profit pool" is only so big ... and mere working peasants are explicitly not allowed ...
You must be a "Business-owner" if you expect to get "a share" of the business perks ... any good capitalist knows that ...
Afterall, if they let everybody into to the "profit pool" -- Do you know what we’d get?
How about a more socially equitable, stable, and just society, for starters?
Profit Sharing
by Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide
Profit sharing is an example of a variable pay plan. In profit sharing, company leadership designates a percentage of annual profits as a pool of money to share with employees, or a portion of employees such as executives. The pool of money generated is then divided across covered employees using a formula for distribution.
Profit sharing, when distributed as a percentage of annual pay -- a common practice -- results in less money shared with employees in lower paying jobs and higher amounts shared with highly compensated employees. This reflects the belief that more highly compensated employees are responsible for managing the company, making decisions, taking more risk, and providing leadership to the other employees.
Oh My! "Income Redistribution" -- Oh the Horrors!
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But do serious "profit-sharing" companies, seriously work?
What about that flammable fuel upon which the modern Economic Engine relies -- you know that old fashioned "Profit Motive"? ... (aka. that extraction of common resources, to the exclusive benefit of the wealthy few.)
If you give that powerful "fuel" to everyone -- Do you know what we’d get?
How about an economy that actually grows ... that actually works ... that generates its own demand ...
Reasons for implementing profit-sharing schemes
According to the responses of some 700 companies which have implemented a profit-sharing scheme, financial participation, in particular, serves as an incentive device for workers. A large majority of almost 85% of companies aim to raise effort, productivity and/or creativity levels of their employees (see table).
Reasons for implementing profit-sharing schemes in manufacturing and affiliated industries, 2007
Reasons for profit sharing |
% of companies |
Incentive device |
84.7 |
Recruitment of and retaining (specific) employees |
25.2 |
Wage fairness considerations |
19.5 |
Improving workplace atmosphere |
16.9 |
Management by objectives |
11.5 |
Safeguarding jobs |
8.8 |
Note: Multiple responses given; 704 companies responded to the survey item on ‘reason’ for introducing profit sharing. Source: IW Köln, 2007
Overall, over a quarter of the companies surveyed use profit sharing as a device to recruit or to retain employees. [...]
One out of five respondents aims to constitute a fair wage structure, as well as a reasonable distribution of revenues between owners and employees.
by Oliver Stettes, Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln)
European Industrial Relations Observatory on-line -- Feb 04, 2008
Too bad we have to go to Europe to find actual working examples of Income Equality, Social Equity and Worker Respect ... in action ... in production. To see Employees actually sharing in the fruits of their labor.
What about in the USA -- are workers here any less deserving than the typical European workers? Do we not, shed blood, sweat, and tears?
Well here's a Govt Agency page that touts the benefits of Profit Sharing Plans for US companies ... however their "How to" guide seems kind of weak, as best ... they do not "tout this" nearly strong enough, if you ask me.
U.S. Department of Labor
Employee Benefits Security Administration
Profit Sharing Plans for Small Businesses
[...]
Employers start a profit sharing plan for a host of reasons:
-- A well-designed profit sharing plan can help attract and keep talented employees.
-- Contributions to a profit sharing plan are discretionary. The employer can choose when and how much to contribute.
-- This type of plan gives employers flexibility in design of key features.
-- A profit sharing plan benefits a mix of rank-and-file employees and owner/managers.
-- The money contributed may grow through investments in stocks, mutual funds and other investment vehicles.
-- Contributions and earnings generally are not taxed by the Federal government or by State governments until they are distributed.
-- A profit sharing plan may allow participants to take their benefits with them when they leave the company, easing administrative responsibilities.
This booklet highlights some of a profit sharing plan's advantages and some of your options and responsibilities as an employer operating a profit sharing plan. For more information, a list of resources for you and for prospective plan participants is included at the end of this booklet.
Imagine, the combined the strength of Union organizing with the real Incentives of actual profit-sharing programs, driving worker Productivity -- there would be no stopping what Americans could accomplish ... in that kind of equitable environment. And they know it, too.
Especially if we were all Co-Owners in our own Employee-owned businesses too.
Image Source: EPI
Image Source: Daily Kos Labor, Laura Clawson
There is no rational reason that average CEO should make 300 times the wages of their average Worker, like we see now in the recurring episodes of "Capitalists Gone Wild" ...
CEOs Are Overpaid
by F. John Reh, About.com Guide
Pay for Performance
According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980. By 1990 that had almost doubled to 85 times. In 2000, the average CEO salary reached an unbelievable 531 times that of the average hourly worker.
[...]
ZD Net's Total Compensation Vs. Total Return To Shareholders chart (no longer online), shows that total return to shareholders was higher for many companies whose CEO compensation was under $500,000 than for companies who paid their CEOs multi-million dollar compensation.
Hmmm, yet another report showing Uber-Capitalists basking in their luxury "profit pools" ... disappears mysteriously, from further on-line consumption -- Imagine that. That would never happen in a "free and open information" society, like ours, would it?
A society where peasants know their place, and the Uber-Capitalists ... well they know where their Gold Bullion is stashed.
Because afterall, we all know, at least those of us who have been sharing the sacrifice, we know that in today's multi-national America ...
You must be a Business-owner if you expect to get "a share" of the business perks ...
What do mere peasants know about "ownership" -- we are peasants for a reason afterall -- because the only thing we excel at is "more sacrificing" and paying ever more tributes to the Owner's endless demands ...
-- the more of us OK with carrying that Uber-burden, the better -- as far as that Top 1 percent is concerned.
Because in their world:
Carrying the Weight is for Labor;
Sharing the Profits Divvying up the Loot, THAT is the exclusive domain of the Business-Owners, of those Corporate Persons,
-- just as the Founders intended it ... "Out of Many -- One bag of Gold" ...
Afterall, that's what the "Free Market" demands. Just ask that Scottish founder, Adam Smith.
... as we all know ... to the Victor, goes the spoils ... and to the workers, they need not apply ...
It's long past time, to Occupy the Workplace. ... and demand the Business-owners share a bit more of their exclusive Profit-taking Pies.
It's long past time, to become owners of those Businesses ourselves.