Sorry, but it's not a 'law of capitalism' that you pay people as little as possible — it's an excuse [View all]

[n2doc]

One reason U.S. economic growth is still weak is that average American consumers are still strapped.

Consumers account for ~70% of the spending in our economy, so when they're hurting, we're all hurting.

The reason average consumers are strapped is that, for the past 35 years, we have increasingly told ourselves that the only thing companies are supposed to do is "maximize profit." We have forgotten that great companies can serve other constituencies in addition to shareholders — namely, customers and employees. We have come to treat employees not as dedicated, hard-working teammates who create value, but as "costs" to be minimized.

One result of this "profit maximization" obsession is that our big companies now have the highest profit margins as a percent of our economy in history:

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-need-to-pay-people-more-2015-3#ixzz3V8gZ9NSK