US corporate profits hit record share of GDP as worker payouts wilt
Corporate profits hit highest share since WWII, as worker payouts wilt
US corporate profits have surged to their highest share of national income since World War II, while workers' compensation has fallen to a record low. The Financial Times reports on the widening gap between capital and labor, with profit margins at historic highs and wage growth lagging. This trend has significant implications for income inequality and economic policy.
Corporate profits have reached their highest share of national income since the second world war, while the share going to workers has fallen to a record low.
- marojejian
free w/ signup, but here's the archive anyhow:
Pretty impressive long-term charts, and dramatic surge in the last years. Of course there are lot of other relevant details (e.g. more people own capital, and this is pre-tax numbers). But overall this seems pretty consistent with the story Piketty tells in Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_in_the_Twenty-First_Ce...
- kerblang
Are corporate profits actually at a peak, or just their percentage share of national profit (per the article)? Not in denial about the wealth gap, just wondering where profit growth is coming from.
- nojvek
Automation can’t be taxed. Servers consuming electricity in data centers to generate what the next ad someone will click isn’t the same as paying employee salary. It’s not taxed.
So Trump cuts tax on the rich, and the rich cut out human workers or depress their pay.
The debt will have to be reckoned with if the govt ain’t getting their share to build infrastructure.
On the other hand US has the highest participation of people who own stock.
Unlike China, where the median Chinese doesn’t benefit from growth of state run companies.