Between July and September this year - American businesses posted the largest profits ever - nearly 1.7 trillion dollars! Never have US companies been so profitable in the history of this country. In fact - this this is part of a steady trend that started when worker salaries began to flatten out with Reaganomics. Most recently, corporations have seen their profits steadily increase every quarter since 2009 - and then they went through the roof the last few months. Yet what have we seen in the labor market? Nothing. In fact - as businesses started making profits again last year - job losses continued. And now - even as we are seeing record-breaking CEO and stockholder profits - job growth is anemic. Why is that? Reagan told us that hiring would start when companies and their rich stockholders and CEOs started making profits again, and they used those profits to hire employees. That's how trickle-down economics says a labor market recovers from a recession. But Reaganomics - which we're still following after thirty failed years - is a crock. What makes economies recover is when workers have money in their pockets to buy things. Combine that with trade policies that keep manufacturing here in the US, and you have an economy. People buy things, that creates demand for products, which makes factories hire, which gives workers more paychecks. But after 30 years of Reagan/Clinton/Tom Friedman trade policy insanity, that chain has been broken and the factories - and thus the jobs - are now in China. 2 years ago - we all bailed out CEOs with taxpayer money - saving their butts - now those same CEO's are taking that money and running to China and India to build more factories. Oh - and they want a tax cut too. When are we going to realize our nation's relationship with corporate CEOs in no longer mutually beneficial? - Now it's simply parasitic.
-Thom
(When are we going to realize our nation's relationship with corporate CEOs in no longer mutually beneficial? Tell us here.)
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