And also the overcharged customers, who are in majority the working class. It's a double whammy.
this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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Late Stage Capitalism
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In a healthy economy profits are used to expand businesses improve capital and for R&D.
Yeah we're in a phase with robber barons right now where that isn't always the case. I always wonder, was the last time there were robber barons also late stage capitalism? Was the Great Depression late stage capitalism? Have we been in late stage capitalism for over a century now?
Your first sentence suggests you only have a loose understanding as profit is revenue beyond all expenses including wages, rd, and reinvestment.
It's a pedantic but important difference as businesses regularly take on debt required to generate capital. Profit is also taxable while rd and infrastructure is usually deductible.
I think profits are fine, as long as every company is strictly a worker owned co-op.
I worked for an “employee owned” corporation. It’s more of a tax shelter than an equitable model. The problem is they gift the executives so much stock that the amount any employee has is laughable.
Even if those profits are distributed as shares to the employees. Those who put in the most effort end up with the smallest share.
Worker coops are certainly less exploitative than standard businesses, but compared to public ownership and coordination retains a lot of the limits of market-based systems. I think cooperatives can serve as a good section of a growing and developing economy, but in all likelihood will need to be phased out as competition dies out and public planning becomes more efficient.
Abolish the wage system
Legal pyramid scheme with at least half the country having delusions of some day being the profiteer.
And the products on which the profit margins are too high.