It was startling to read a Huffington Post article Friday that finance companies are raking in profits.
Corporate profits reached a record high in the third quarter, and the financial
sector is doing particularly well, the article said, quoting a Commerce
Department report released Thursday.
The article also said that workers are struggling. Average hourly pay,
when adjusted for inflation, has fallen 0.7 percent over the past year,
according to the Labor Department. And the unemployment rate in
October was 7.9 percent, compared to a low of 4.4 percent in May 2007 before
the Great Recession.
Consumers, too, are suffering, with layoffs and foreclosures
continuing.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that, although corporate
America brought the country to its financial knees with the housing bubble
debacle, it has learned new tricks for making record profits while leaving
workers behind.
It’s appalling. Corporations want more and more money for
themselves, while requiring employees to work harder for less and gouging
consumers.
Americans gave Republicans and corporate America a clear
message through the Nov. 6 election – we don’t want a country that runs on
policies for corporations and the rich.
However, corporations are continuing on, as though nothing
has changed.
An example? Another Huffington Post article said that
Goldman Sachs is telling its clients to buy subprime mortgage investments
again.
How can such a disastrous history be repeating itself in
just four short years?
Workers and consumers need to fight against corporate power
by joining together to further their interests.
Among groups that do effective work for consumers are Public
Citizen, Center for Science in the Public Interest, U.S. Public Interest Research
Group, Environmental Working Group, Consumers Union, and Natural Resources Defense Council.
