A better title might be "Corporate profits hit all time high BECAUSE worker's wages hit an all time low.", or "More proof that trickle down is bullshit"
But the short version is this: Obama was right. Go below the fold and I'll explain why, but first let's look at BusinessInsider.com and their take on the facts . . .
In case you need more confirmation that the US economy is out of balance . . .
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.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/...
Bold text added by the diarist
When publications like
BusinessInsider start saying that America is becoming a country of "a few million overlords and 300+ million serfs" it is newsworthy, in my humble opinion.
But as to my point in the title, Obama was right.
These facts prove several GOP lies totally false. Wealth does NOT trickle down from the rich to the working class and poor. You want proof? Well corporate profits are at an all time high, so why aren't those profits trickling down in the form of more jobs and rising wages? They won't and they never will. Those profits will instead go to the rich, the CEO and investor class.
Obama was right.
Find out why below the fold.
Obama was right.
I am referring to the instance when President Obama recently said that "The private sector is doing fine.", which the Romney campaign pounced upon as if it was equivalent to McCain's disastrous statement during the 2008 POTUS campaign that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" at the height of the collapse. Almost four years later corporate profits are at an all time high and wages are at an all time low. The private sector isn't just fine, its' doing better than ever. Workers aren't just suffering a little, they are suffering like never before. Wages as a percentage of GDP are at an all time low. Why? Because Corporations are not only refusing to hire, they are refusing to pay decent, living wages. Corporations are paying people in America less money than ever, and those workers are producing more than ever and receiving less of the profit created than ever before. The private sector IS doing fine, it's working class people who are suffering, NOT "the private sector". The average worker in the private sector hasn't seen a drop of those record profits trickle down, and they never will.
Which begs the next question. IF corporate profits are at an all-time high, what is the Republican party and Mitt Romney complaining about? The plutonomy that exists for the wealthiest 1% is doing better than ever, what are all these billionaires whining about? They got their bailout, they got their recovery, corporate profits are at an all-time high, what more does Romney and his rich buddies want? The answer; everything.
And this is where the Obama campaign has kinda lost me. Obama could turn this election into an indictment of the idea of "Trickle down", and I think he would win in a landslide if he did. The President could use his bully pulpit to explain to the American people that corporate profits are at a record high right now BECAUSE wages are at an all time low, and yet instead of sharing in the prosperity that exists among the wealthiest we see working class people struggling like never before. It is because super-profits like this can't exist in a normal economic cycle, not when corporations are the only members of society that receive any benefit out of the current economic system. If huge, long term corporate profits were truly trickling down than why is unemployment so high? why are wages so low? why is the average American worker worse off than his or her parents were 30 years ago? It is because the Super-Rich want their cake and they want to eat yours too. It's the greed, stupid. And greed is destroying the foundation America was built on so rich people can privatize it for themselves and outsource it to a Swiss Bank Account under the name Bain Capital. But Obama won't say any of that because it might offend his big donors. President Obama won't tell you that he was right on this one, big time, because that might make the millionaires he needs to pander to for re-election money sad. Mitt Romney doesn't have that problem. And that is what this election really boils down to. Republicans, as always, are hell bent on protecting and coddling the rich at the expense of everyone else, whereas Democrats simply can not defend their rich donors and the working class at the same time anymore. No, I don't have three dollars to help you fight Karl Rove, because I don't even have three dollars. Trying to beat the banksters with money is like trying to wage war against the ocean by throwing water at it, it just isn't going to work, and when working class people have less money than ever it makes it that much harder. The money IS the problem, the money in politics and the obscene income-inequality gap that gives the wealthiest 1% a huge advantage over the other 99% of Americans in our political and economic system. It's time to RAISE taxes on the rich. It's time to RAISE taxes on corporations. It's time to RAISE the minimum wage. It's time to force huge corporations to pay decent wages, and only the Government has the power to do that. Only the Government, as a manifestation of the democratic will of the people of America has the power to defend consumers and workers and to act as a referee on the playing field of commerce, but we need someone to articulate that message and to fight for it, and frankly, that's impossible when Democrats are bribed into pulling all punches on the biggest, wealthiest bullies in America because it is an election year again and they must not make the rich people who bribe them sad.
Yes, Obama was right, but wouldn't it be a shame if he lost because he refused to fight? I blame that on us. There is only one way to reverse this trend. We have to get the money out of politics and we have to elect people who are willing to do that. It would be easier to elect President Obama if he had that message, wouldn't it? Which bring me to my big point, which is Yes, Obama was right, corporate profits are at an all time high, the private sector is doing fine, it is American workers who are suffering, and American wages are at an all time low. Mitt Romney is running for President as a whiny rich guy at a time when rich people have it fine and everyone else is suffering and sacrificing, Mitt Romney's plan isn't to clean the mess up, its' to make the mess worse. If Obama can't say this, if Obama can't mention the fact that Romney wants to repeal Wall Street reform for his Wall St friends, repeal Health Care Reform for his insurance industry friends, repeal the 20th century for his robber-bankster friends, and if Obama can't say that then Team Obama is handicapping themselves needlessly in what should be the easiest campaign of all time. Yes, Obama is right, too bad he seems afraid to admit it. That makes the "Hope" thing harder, but it doesn't change the reality, and that is that Corporate profits are at an all time high, American wages are at an all time low and the only thing trickling down is austerity. It's not as cheerful as "Bin Laden is dead and GM's alive" but it is the truth.
Rant off
The floor is now yours . . . .
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