Forum Post: Obama Anti-Business? Record Corporate Profits Suggest Otherwise
Posted 12 years ago on June 8, 2012, 9:50 p.m. EST by JS93
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VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CBsjYymBs
CHARTS: Corporate Profits Have Skyrocketed Over Last Three Years | After dipping during the Great Recession, corporate profits have now skyrocketed past their pre-recession levels, Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal notes. After-tax profits and corporate profits as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) are now higher than they were in the middle of the last decade, after a similar vertical spike. Despite massive profit gains, however, corporations are adding more jobs overseas than they are in the United States and paying one of the lowest effective tax rates in the developed world.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/06/01/493870/corporate-profits-skyrocket/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CBsjYymBs
Tags:
Corporate Ethics
The real bullshit about this isn't the factual nature of the claim, I think it's ridiculous to call Obama anti-business, he's as much of a corporate crony as anyone; but to some of us, that's precisely the problem. Anyone who buys into this competition to show who's more supportive of the status quo, is just missing the fucking point completely. We get it, the only thing you guys will be occupying is the voting booth & good luck with that. I mean, I've personally had enough with partisan politics. The whole lesser of two evils thing -- if it's even true -- is hardly inspiring (and the cloud of bullshit is so thick, I'm not sure how we even discern what is the lesser of two evils).
There's a whole, big, wide, multifaceted, political world out there, and you have to comprehend and engage the context. Otherwise your are marginalized and insignificant.
"Hardly inspiring"!!! It's god damn tragic!! But this is what we get when we neglect our participatory democracy. If we participated we could change it. Turn you back on it, and it will be turned against you!!
If you think the only way you can be significant is by participating in a political system that doesn't give two shits about you, then I really feel sorry for you.
Our "political system" has been abandoned, kidnapped, coerced, tortured, water boarded and gang raped, give it a break! It's not in top form, but it's infinitely resilient! That's the beauty of it's design.
Our forefathers fought and died for it and they were probably smarter than we are now. It's still a good "political system"!! But it's a democracy, it necessarily needs the People to participate or it's useless. But if we do participate, it's awesome, insurmountable and unstoppable!
UNITE and WIN!
If you think we live in a democracy ... man are you deluded! But before you think I'm unpatriotic, I gave nearly ten years to the US Army, served in Iraq, but I know that our politicians are just warm [narcissistic] bodies filling empty suits. There's nothing there for you to win, and the only meaningful way for us to unite, is to actually unite (voting for the same douche bag is not uniting in anything).
The fact is, things change, nothing is impermeable to decay and obsolescence, and the status quo in America, our system, is showing cracks. You should begin to consider the possibility that the crooks have become too sophisticated, too powerful, and our system is no longer adequate.
Frankly, it was never really the most ideal thing men could come up with, but for a long time, it was better than everyone else's cluster fuck (and everyone else was in such profound disarray ... that from a relativistic perspective, we looked like a metaphorical golden city on a hill). That sort of greatness has residual effects ... good mythology dies hard :)
The politicians are not our democracy! Nor are the crooks! Patriotic, if that means I hate and will not stand for greed and exploitation fucking the world for my kids, me and all the rest of us SOBs just trying to realize this experiment "America."
"You should begin to consider the possibility that the crooks have become too sophisticated, too powerful, and our system is no longer adequate." Never give up! Not when we know we have a democracy that topples tyranny all over the Arab World and we see the Powers here spend such astronomical amounts of money to quell our slightest stirrings.
There's hope. There's democracy. There's America. There's our posterity. Do you think it was easier in the 1770's!?! No, it wasn't!
You are seriously misinformed. What tyrannies has the U.S. toppled in the middle east? Certainly not the one in Bahrain.
Democracy, not US.
There's no perfection, but there are starts and improvements.
I've evacuated more in my last dump than you will ever even know in your whole life... "misinformed"?
Ra ra ... goooo team! Give me an A, give me an M, give me an E . . . . AAAAAAAAAmerica :)
The irony will be, you'll think I'm acting stupid.
Why do you give up?
What the hell are you talking about ... giving up? I'm marching in the fucking streets (at least once in a while), what about you? I have plenty of hope, I'm just not stupid enough to have hope in hopeless things.
You give up on our democracy! What do you embrace? What is your alternative? Marching is Marching! What is the track for reform?? What are the "hopeful things" that you have hope in????? You don't know.
The politicians that you don't like are glad to see you march all day and night 365! What will that do in the end if you reject our democracy? It won't hurt them a bit. You are sooooooo against "the system" that you do not have a real plan for reform. Or do you?
We have an awesome tool, left to us by our forefathers. Forsaking it is fucking stupid, unless you have something better. And you don't! Wake the fuck up! If you just want to be a Ra ra cheerleader, OK, we need all the help and unity we can get!! Unite and Win!!
Okay, enjoy your delusions.
Look for the Bill Maher link I posted elsewhere.
PRIVATE Sector Big Biz raking in record profits and sitting on record $trillions as a result of Obama polices. Contrary to what Cons are screaming!!
Green Party of America
http://www.gp.org/index.php
The duopoly we suffer under is most distressing. It prevents all 3rd parties (including green party) from winning anything. The only option now (4 1/2 months before election) is to attempt to co opt the Dems. Any progressive left wing voters (like OWS supporters) who stay home or vote 3rd party are playing into the hands of the 1%. But certainly getting out in the street is something I can agree with. The movement will take years. In the end perhaps we can change election/campaign laws that would somehow give 3rd party a chance, Then I will be right there with you. Green party is great, Working families party is great, Socialist party probably too. But not now. Now it would just split the left wing progressive votes and deliver more power to the right wing criminals who crashed the world economy, continue to enrich themselves and prey on our families.
That may be your only option, but it's not my only option. In my view it hasn't only been "right wing" criminals who did this or that ... after all, Clinton signed Graham Leach into law (overturning Glass Steagall), and he still won't even admit that he made a mistake. Obama signed NDAA into law, I see no impetus on the part of democrats to get rid of the Patriot Act or all the other assaults against our freedoms. The dems are taking Wall Street money just like the republicons, I don't see Obama talking about restoring Glass Steagall, in fact, he didn't even do so much as appear in Wisconsin to fight for workers. With friends like that ... who needs enemies? I'd rather support people with whom I can have confidence in their integrity, rather than hoping to reform a bunch of narcissists. I mean, democrats may have been good at some point in history, but quite frankly, Lincoln was a republican (so they were good in the distant past as well).
Historical nostalgia really doesn't interest me. Until a person is elected, we can only judge them by what they say. But once in office, we judge them by what they do. The democrats haven't done anything for the 99%, therefore, I'm not going to do anything for them (and it's just that simple). I'm sick of their con job ... the old "don't waste your vote" routine (it's been the same old and crusty routine for decades). The way I see it is voting for either of the two major political parties is the only way I would be wasting my vote.
Dems biggest problem is their movement towards the right wing and their loss of backbone against the same right wing. We can change that with a robust, potent, constant protest movement (OWS). Democracy fails fails when people fall asleep as we have. We must be involved if we are gonna recapture one of the 2 parties from the 1% corp puppet masters. It can be done! It is the only way. To suggest not voting/3rd party voting simply plays into the 1% right wing plans.
I disagree, and I've decided to support the Green Party & continue my support for Occupy Wall Street. I mean, you're entitled to think that somehow the two party system is worth your efforts, but I see no redeeming qualities in either party, thus, I will not support them.
In exercising your vote, the question should be, what do I want as an individual. The answer should be the person you decide to cast your one vote for.
Engaging in an inquiry as to how other people will vote, or whether he has the money to convince people in sufficient numbers to support him amounts to abandoning your inalienable personal right to cast your vote according to your conscience.
We do not vote to be seen as having correctly predicted the winner. This will amount to turning the exercise into a game. It is much more serious that that. So serious that I cannot imagine why anybody will contemplate voting for someone they detested or thought unsuitable simply because others appear to be swayed his way.
It is also unhelpful to stay away because you have calculated that your candidate will not win or the process will be rigged against him. Unhelpful and wrong! it is your right to have a say and in an election you can only have your say through your vote. The fact that others may not agree with you does not mean you should not have your say or worse still that you should abandon your say and adopt what others are saying. It is like forsaking your certificate of ‘personal sovereignty!
I agree regarding the gift to criminal health insurers. But it was the only way to get it done. We got our foot in the door and we will improve it. If we protest and pressure the pols (repubs wont respond they have promised to repeal it). That is the only way. Maybe SCOTUS will throw out the mandate (probably not since repubs like that part) but either way we will get the public option. I ain't afraid thatthe world is gonna end. I just can't pretend that the parties are the same. They ain't. The dems are pretty bad. But with the right kind of movement we will get things changed. I've been around a long time too. This movement (OWS) is the 1st time i've seen any hope for real change.
The dems passed fin reform, repubs watered it down. Dems passed health care for all 99%, repubs defeated the public option, dems voted for Buffett rule, repubs voted against! Repubs signed norquist pledge, dems have not. Repub appointed judges found in favor of citizens united. Dem appointed judges voted against. 2 weeks ago ndaa2013 repeal was voted down in the House, Dems voted to repeal, repubs voted to keep. repubs have promised to cut 1% taxes and corp regs. Dems have promised the opposite. Repubs are against gay rights, immigrants, equal pay for womens, and the violence against womens act. The parties are vastly different. What are you talkin about? You ain't makin sense.
The so called healthcare for the 99% is more like a gift to private insurance companies (it gives them 50 million new paying customers). Obama signed NDAA into law, why didn't he oppose it when it mattered? The bottom line is the democrats give us the veneer of populism, but they're no less top down or authoritarian than anyone else.
They cherry pick hot button social issues to talk about (like gay rights, even though there's not much they can do to change state marriage laws, or the violence against women's act, a similar law was previously overturned by SCOTUS, etc.), but where are they on the things they actually can change, and change now? So far they've been MIA, and this is because we've continued to support them, even though they've consistently said one thing -- and did something else entirely.
Every election season is framed in dramatic language, the peril and doom we will face if we don't rush out and support one of the two teams in this contrived drama. After all, fear sells. Based on fear we've allowed our policy makers to build a draconian homeland security infrastructure, militarize our police departments, slaughter tens of thousands of innocents around the world, etc.
Bottom line, I'm sick of it, done with it, and quite frankly, I don't care who wins the election (it won't matter). Put it this way, for all the shit talking of republicons, I doubt they'll dismantle healthcare reform (although they'll pretend to try). They won't re-implement don't ask don't tell (although, again, they may feign an effort). None of these things will help their corporate patrons, they merely need to give lip service to it to keep the evangelical and tea party vote.
So go ahead, think the world will come to an end if your team doesn't win, but after your team wins, and nothing changes, don't be surprised or shocked. This back and forth has been going on for decades, really the better part of the last half century, and nothing ever really changes. At some point we have to cut the puppet strings, and for me ... that point is now.
A vote for RepubliCons!
Whatever ....
You got it right! Dems biggest problem is their movement towards the right wing and their loss of backbone against the same right wing. We can change that with a robust, potent, constant protest movement (OWS). Democracy fails fails when people fall asleep as we have. We must be involved if we are gonna recapture one of the 2 parties from the 1% corp puppet masters. It can be done! It is the only way.
It is pure extraction -
The 30 American Companies That Paid Less Than $0 In Income Tax Over The Last 3 Years
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/these-are-the-30-american-companies-that-paid-less-than-zero-income-tax-from-2008-2010-2011-11#ixzz1xaG2A7C9
Record Private Sector Profits, sitting on record $Trillions!!
Pure greed, hypocrisy, and treason!
And our government is the corporate enablers. BOTH parties have given these tax loopholes to their corporate contributors. It's pure bribery !!
Both parties ARE responsible! But they remain vastly different. the left pushed strong fin reform, the the right obstructed, filibusted until it was watered down, the right signed Norquist pledge and voted against the Buffet rule, The right has promised to cut the 1% taxes and regulations, The left has promised the opposite! The right attacks OWS, the left embraces us! OWS must take back one of the 2 parties. Pull the dems from the right drift they have experienced in the last 30 years, and give them the backbone to stand up to the right wing wacko 1% tools.
Their rhetoric IS different; but their actions are the same. What changed the mind of the left from 2010, when they had ALL three branches and they EXTENDED the bush tax cuts for two years; in exchange for extending unemployment insurance for ONE year, in a lame duck session. Nothing !! Expect another extension this Dec., no matter who wins.
It's the rich vs the poor ............ not right vs left. And the rich are winning!
IMO - Strong Fin reform would be to reinstate glass steagall - Not this paper tiger (Dodd-Frank) that allows too-big-to fail, and requires the American people to back the banks. It has NO teeth and blows smoke.
"Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor". TJ
The actions of the left and right wings are vastly different!. The left haven't had supreme court in many years so they only had 2 branches. The left had the house and senate but the right wing overused the filibuster in the senate to prevent real left wing progress. (are you familiar with that reality?) The left extended the right wing tax cuts for the 1% because we were in the middle of the great recession (didn't want to hurt growth and wanted to get compromise from right wing for left wing recovery legislation) Never got right wing compromise cause they had resolved to destroy our economy rather than have the left wing in power during the recovery. It is treasonous! The fin reform is a paper tiger precisely because the right wing obstructed, threatened filibuster, and watered down the stronger version. The battle is certainly between the 1% and the 99%. But the right left political spectrum that has defined all politics for all history hasn't been recscinded in America. The left wing has slowly drifted right. Thats all. They need us (OWS) to drag them back!! To grow their backbone against the right wing again. Are you with us? Can we grow a left wing movement for the 99% against the 1% right wing criminals that crashed the world economy, enriched themselves and continue to prey on our families.?
I've been voting Dems since the end of the Vietnam War and they have continually thrown progressives under the bus. The only thing I've gotten from them is a kiss, a promise, and heartaches; at the same time they're breaking it off in my ass. Now you want me to give them time and help them grow a backbone as they move farther to the right. Geta clue man; they moved right because that's where they want to be. It's where the money's at. The people didn't guide them there ......... greed did. I've supported the Dems over half my life and I've had enough. I even voted for BO. I used to feel like you at one time; now it leaves me feeling dirty, used, and ashamed for being so gullible.
I feel that you are a patriot and that you honestly have the best interests of the country at heart. I just wish you look at things objectively and realize that what we have now in NOT normal. Two corporate parties.
“Blind faith in your leaders, or in anything, will get you killed.”
I ain't blind. I see clearly the dems have moved right, and lost their backbone against the right. Sounds like we agree on that. I can even agree that money was a big part of that movement. But as big as money is voters. The dems have failed because the people went to sleep. WE lost our heart, you and me. voting ain't enough. lotsa people are not voting. Almost half the electorate! We stopped protesting. We voted President Obama in, then we went back to the couch and said "ok now do everything I want". Please! it don't work like that. Thats lazy, thats a well evolved sense of suburban entitlement. We gotta get up off our asses and work for democracy!. We gotta fight for the right to party!. Or the right wing will create a faux movement (tea party) and use it as leverage. Don't expect one man (Pres Obama) or one party to do for you. We are the change we are waiting for. Get it?
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/07/26/republican-hostage-taking-or-i-thought-we-dont-negotiate-with-terrorists/
"Both-Parties" is a voter suppression tactic from the Cons, don't be their tool.
[Removed]
Most new profits are from foreign countries. Three is little opportunity for growth in the US so American companies are expanding overseas to grow and survive. That is reality. Get government out of the way in the US and you'll be amazed at what happens. :)
What you mean like investment banking(?) - just get out of the way and watch the world go straight to hell !! Is that what you mean? Because that is what you would get!!!.
The people need to get involved with government and the running of this country. Put a proper leash on all businesses. As well as on trade practices.
Leash? Like 4000 new anti-business regs since Obama took office? An energy policy that has doubled the price of gas?
Here's the thing Sparky, libs lost Wisconsin because even the dullest, mouth breathing Dem can see that the deficit spending party is over. Except for a few idiots, everyone can figure out that we simply can't continue to spend money we don't have. 15 trillion is real, there is no plan to reduce or eliminate it, only calls to borrow more.
Real people with real families can see we're failing because government won't stop spending. It isn't hard to figure out this is a dead end and what happened in Wisconsin is the beginning of the end of 20th century liberalism, we just can't afford you clowns anymore and even the 38% of union members who voted for Walker have figured it out.
How much of the 880 billion stimulus did you get? It's over dude.
foreeverLeft - What? - Behind?
How did Obummer double the cost of gasoline? By not regulating fossil fuel speculation?
You are seriously deluded - we are where we are due to the unleashing of the investment bankers on a world wide scale.
We are where we are today due to corpo-rats outsourcing work to foreign sweat shops.
We are where we are today due to fucked-up foreign trade agreements.
We are where we are today because of the death of the middle class wage and corpo-rat or executive management greed.
Pull your head out - or you will always be left "behind".
LOL, we'll see who's delusional, first Walker, then kill Obamacare, then help Mrs. Romney measure for drapes in the White House. You can't build your dream world with nothing, there is no money. If you would pull your head out of your ass, as you so elegantly phrased it, you could see that there is no way to sustain this spending, if you break every rich person and every corporation you will still fail. Actual Americans are figuring that out, Wisconsin was the beginning, blue Wisconsin has seen the light.
People want a future more than a handout, your way is at the end, there is nothing left to give you.
American Companies should remember the "American."
They have hoarded record profits and sit on record $Trillions! While their fellow Americans go jobless, homeless, poverty stricken, broken families, illness and deaths. All for GREED???
They are OUT OF LINE and engage in Economic Treason!!!
It remains their money despite your greed for it. The welfare state is dead, the quicker people understand that the quicker their lives will improve. Sitting around pining for the kindness and cash of strangers guarantees you a life of misery.
Non sequitur, tired-old Frank Luntz taking points.
The companies guilty of these crimes against their own countrymen deserve the harshest of criminal prosecution and permanent revocation of charters. Outlaw business practices perpetuated by saboteur Cons in Congress will soon join the ugly and shameful history of the Bush-Cheney-RepubliCon years of disgrace.
Well, best of luck with all that. Sounds like fun! :)
Working on it!! Their time is gonna come!!
He is anti small business that doesn't support him. Now, if you want to bury half a billion dollars in a technology that doesn't work (solar cells), he is all about getting you the money to "disappear".
Hey Sunshine, where do I sign up??
Oddly, I was listening to this when I read your reply... I hope you like it as much as i do... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXbsq3C4LZM
Hippy! Jah Luv man!