Companies Sit on Record Profits While Millions Are Jobless

[Joanne98]

While nearly 27 million U.S. workers are either jobless or in need of full-time work, America’s corporations are sitting on record profits that could be used to put people back on the job.

This irony is especially cruel for the 2 million workers who will lose their unemployment benefits by the end of the year because corporate America’s Republican friends in Congress blocked an extension of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits for people who have been jobless for six months or more. (Sign the petition and join online solidarity actions to help long-term unemployed workers—find out more here.

The U.S. Department of Commerce reported last week that American companies just had their best quarter ever, earning profits at an annual rate of $1.659 trillion in the third quarter. The next-highest annual corporate profits level on record—$1.655 trillion—was in the third quarter of 2006. In fact, American corporate profits have grown for seven straight quarters at some of the fastest rates in history.


Economists says the record profits can be attributed to strong productivity growth—companies making more with fewer people—and to companies spending the money in—and sending jobs to—fast-growing countries such as China and India. As a result of the Federal Reserve’s consistent long-term lowering of interest rates, corporations have rarely had it better, they say.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/11/29/companies-sit-on-record-profits-while-millions-are-jobless/

[LiberalEsto]

1. That's the plan

They want to destroy the middle class, and so far, their plan is working on schedule.

[atreides1]

4. Yes it is

And with the full assistance of the Tea Baggers, most of whom are part of the middle class! Talk about shitting in your nest.:crazy:

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. This is obscene.

Yeah........conservatives. They conserve their record profits while millions starve or lose their homes.

K&R

[HereSince1628]

3. According to theory...it's only supposed to TRICKLE down

I don't see this as as surprising or outside the bounds of the ideology of the robber barons.

They believe they don't need a middle class consumer, so they are modulating their trickle to ensure that there are more working poor to compete for it.

[AdHocSolver]

5. Profits have risen dramatically BECAUSE so many people have been fired, not in spite of it.

Productivity is achieved by firing half the employees and forcing the remaining employees to do the same amount of work without extra pay (such as overtime pay) with the understanding that if the remaining employees don't "produce", they will join the ranks of the newly unemployed.

Productivity is NOT the same as increased efficiency like scientists and engineers talk about. Productivity means making the same or greater profit while reducing costs (think reducing wages or firing workers).

[Skittles]

6. CORRECT