As Profit Shares Hit New Highs, Washington Focuses on Abuse of Disability System

[Purveyor]

The Commerce Department released data on corporate profits last week that showed the before-tax profit share in 2012 reaching its highest level since 1951. The after-tax profit share edged down by one-tenth of a percentage point from its 2011 level, but was still higher than every other year since 1930. Naturally this new information led the Very Serious People (VSP) in Washington to focus on the problems of abuses of the Social Security disability system.

If soaring profits and rising disability rates seem unrelated, then you better look closer. The most obvious reason that profit shares are soaring is that high unemployment takes away workers' bargaining power. As a result of the collapse of the housing bubble, the economy is still down almost 9 million jobs from its trend growth path.

With the supply of labor continuing along its trend path and the demand for labor having fallen sharply, wages will be pushed downward. That is exactly what we have seen over the last five years as real wages have been flat or declining since 2007. This means that the gains from productivity growth over this period have gone overwhelmingly to corporate profits.

The downturn has also been the main factor behind a surge in disability rates. Prior to the downturn, disability rates were actually somewhat below the projections from the mid 90s. This changed radically when the economy collapsed in 2008. Workers who may have been able to hold jobs despite disabilities in the years before the downturn suddenly found themselves unemployed.

MORE...

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/15450-as-profit-shares-hit-new-highs-washington-focuses-on-abuse-of-disability-system

[lumberjack_jeff]

1. And NPR is running interference for these fuckers.

And it's not just adults with disabilities, they're going after kids with disabilities too.

[Kalidurga]

2. There is another reason profits are tied to disability claims...

People are scrambling 8 hours or more a day trying to do the work of 2-3 people. They are multitasking and they are stressed all day long. Nothing is ever done fast enough or good enough. Do that for a couple of decades and there is a good chance you will find yourself very sick.

[KoKo]

3. +1...we are all either Consumers, Commodities, or Chattel...

these days. Do an "Honest Days Work" and you are looked down on as a "Low Wage Worker" to be put down even lower...because you didn't go to Harvard, Yale or Wharton Business School or the many other Preppy Institutions.

It's about "Classest Attitudes" against the Carpenters, Painters, Plumbers, Installers of Home Goods, HVAC Installers, Service Workers in Restaurants, Food Processing Industries, Lawn Care Services...etc.

All of these are looked down on as "low level jobs" while TECH and Weapons Systems, Military Contractors, Government Lobbyists, Stock Traders, Math Wizard who work for Goldman, Wonks who work for McKinsey and other "Corporate Finance Management Specialists" and the whole rest of the Kaboodle who profited out of the Banking Crash are REWARDED as THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST....the rest are SHIT...and need to be RETRAINED.