The following article has been copied from AOL DailyFinance. I have posted the comprehensive article and its link. the embedded diary and associated comments as part of this comprehensive diary was posted on www.leftake.com.
The author, Peter Cohan, is a columnist, author and educator. Since I am 'big on' seeking perspective on writers of editorials and OPED, Mr. Cohan's background is at the rear of the article.
Cohan 'nail-its' and effectively places the U.S. worker into a veritable ant colony.
Cohan writes about Corporate America's calculability in of fragile economy. Many corporations are riding a 'tall wave' of profits while millions (common people/workers) toil like 'Worker Ants' serving their Queen.
His article, in my opinion, accurately depicts a point that has been postulated and opined many-a-time on this site. He makes his point via a path less traveled on the site: profits of the backs of employee cutbacks and 'tripling-up on those who are lift fighting to retain a paycheck. While making that point quite clearly his article can also serve as a form of double entendre.
The formula: CE + SCOTUS Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, No. 08-205, = unrivaled GOP administrations for years to come. (Corporate Earnings [off the backs of fewer workers] PLUS unlimited corporate contributions to political campaigns will result in favorable elections for political parties that favor big business).
Yes, our conservative Supreme Court supports this corporate malfeasance via their decisions to allow unlimited corporate sponsorship of elections. The cooperation should not have the same rights as citizens of the nation. The corporation is not a living, breathing, and thinking being that needs rights comparable to those of human beings (US CITIZENS). The corporation is a profit driven unfeeling entity that can devour the human spirit and often serve as the catalyst for the financial demise of families. Mr Cohan makes that point quite clearly.
Record Corporate Profits Are Coming Out of Workers' Hides
By Peter Cohan Posted 3:20 PM 11/23/10
Full article posted below from DailyFinance, active link: A bitter perspective
How Record Corporate Profits Are Coming Out of Workers' Hides
The Commerce Department reports that corporate profits have never been higher in American history, so why aren't Republicans -- the party of business -- celebrating the news? After all, those profits are coming not from revenue growth -- which would benefit workers and executives -- but from cost cutting. It's that cost cutting that is keeping the unemployment rate at 9.5%, while allowing more of companies' meager revenue growth to flow to the bottom line.
How historic is this accomplishment? The New York Times calculated that at $1.66 trillion, U.S. corporations are on track for annualized profits that are the highest since such records were first kept back in 1950, and notes that the gains in profits are due mostly to rising productivity.
That productivity boost came as workers spent more hours working, and getting paid less to do it. Specifically, between the third quarter of 2009 and the same period on 2010, productivity was up 2.5% as output rose 4.1%, hours worked increased 1.6%, and unit labor costs fell 1.9%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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The profits of U.S. corporations are growing much faster than their revenues. S&P's Howard Silverblatt estimated that corporate profits in 2010's third quarter would rise 18% from 2009, while sales would be up a mere 5.5%. And The Wall Street Journal reported that "Overseas growth is clearly a driving factor for much of the profit gains."
Big companies are naturally focused on selling their products in overseas markets where demand growth is greater than it is at home. They're also hiring workers in many of those countries, and pushing their U.S. workers to work harder for less money. As long as there are workers outside the U.S. willing to do similar jobs for lower pay, there is nothing to stop this trend from continuing.
Corporations booking record profits at the expense of workers is nothing that Democrats would want to celebrate, but if a Republican was in the White House, the GOP faithful would be crowing about the record-breaking numbers. Since a Democrat is overseeing the economy, though, news of this economic milestone will pass without comment from the wing of the media that wants nothing more than to get one of its own paid commentators into the Oval Office.
Peter Cohan
Financial Columnist
Peter Cohan is a columnist for DailyFinance. He is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. His ninth book, co-authored with Professor U. Srinivasa Rangan, is Capital Rising: How Global Capital Flows are Changing Business Systems All Over the World. The Achiever Newsletter ranked his eighth book, You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's turnaround at Boeing, as the #1 business book of 2009. He teaches business strategy to undergraduate and MBA students at Babson College and has also taught at Stanford, MIT, Columbia, and the University of Hong Kong. He has appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America," CNBC, CNN, Fox Business News and the Boston ABC and CBS affiliates. He has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, and Business Week.
One last parting shot.
Yes, our conservative Supreme Court supports this corporate malfeasance via their decisions to allow unlimited corporate sponsorship of elections.
This is one fact that truly astounds me as I consider the current socio/political environment in the nation. The RIGHT-WING political machine is so effective in its manipulations of US citizens we have millions who wantonly journey to the polls and push buttons to elect people who serve no one but themselves: their politicians. Of course some will retort that we have such malfeasance in both parties. I will grant that point but I will quickly counter that clear evidence exists that the GOP is the party of big business vs one for the people.
Oh, let's just minimize the argument. What piece of compassionate, life-sustaining and family oriented legislation has been proposed and passed into law which was sponsored by the GOP? Moreover, how many who have read this article are directly benefiting via some form of entitlement program that was sponsored by the GOP? I hope no one responds with common conservative vernacular such as 'welfare programs' or 'cost too much".
Yes, the treatment that our citizens receive from Corporate America, is directly the result of GOP policies.
I posit that Cohan makes the point quite effectively.