There's a lot of inaccuracies in your post. First off, corporations are not at record revenues and profits. On the contrary, this last quarter was the 5th quarter in a row of DECREASING earnings for the S&P 500. Corporations have been in an earnings recession for over a year now. What is driving stock prices up relentlessly is monetary shenanigans...ultra low interest rates for 7 years and ongoing stealth QE, as the Fed takes the run off from their $4.5 trillion balance sheet and reinvests it in bonds.
Another inaccuracy is that your are blaming the GOP, but we've had 8 years of Obama now. When it was Bush Jr, we all blamed him. Now it's Obama, it's time to blame Obama. We already know that Obamacare has put massive pressure on corporations and it has killed small businesses. With all the uncertainty of the Obama Presidency and his Socialist policies, the massive debt overhang and never ending deficits, the government has effectively crowded out private spending, which is why corporations have hunkered down and slowed down capital investment, preferring to buy back shares and pay out dividends to increase shareholder returns. That is another reason why stock markets are continuing to go up, but that's not sustainable in an earnings recession.
As for why corporations don't engage in welfare, well, the fact that you ask that question tells me you are a socialist. When you set prices including demanding Federally controlled wages, you create a macro environment where the owners of businesses have no choice but to cut expenses to afford those increased wages. For example, if Walmart were to institute the $15 minimum wage you Socialists crave, that would cost them $4.5B. That's money they will not be able to invest in expansion, innovation, and all the other things that create new jobs. Instead, more than likely, they will have to cut jobs to increase the pay of the remaining workers. Don't believe me? In Venezuela the Socialists set prices on toilet paper, among other things, below the cost to produce it. So what did the owners of those businesses do? Stopped producing the non-profitable item. Now there are shortages of toilet paper and all sorts of other goods including food.
You see. Socialism does not work. If you had paid attention in your economics classes, you would understand that and you would understand that Capitalism is what has made this country rich and powerful. Socialism will destroy this country as surely as it has Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba, and many others. |
