Canadian Corporate Profits: Reach Record High
2007Barry Weisleder 2007-03The page as the paper published it (Wayback Machine) →
From the paper's own web edition, recovered from the Internet Archive: the text as the paper put it online, not machine-read. The printed issue of March 2007 is not held.
by Barry Weisleder / March 2007
When defenders of private enterprise tell you business cannot afford to pay decent wages and benefits today, please tell them this: Canadian corporations achieved record-high operating profits of $231.7 billion in 2006, according to Statistics Canada data released on February 22.
Mind you, the 7.3 per cent profit surge last year was down from the astounding double-digit growth in the previous two years. While CEO’s cry the blues about allegedly low productivity and soaring pension liability, they brutally slash wages (by imposing two-tier wage structures). They vigorously oppose even pitiful increases in the minimum wage and any rise in woeful welfare rates.
Corporate greed apparently knows no limits. So tell me, why should Labour curb its aspirations?
Leading the way in the latest profit binge are the wholesale, retail and construction industries, and a still hot oil and gas sector. Retailers operating (i.e. pre-tax) profits rose to a record high $14.3 billion, up 20.2 per cent over 2005, StatsCan reported. Wholesalers “earned” $16.6 billion, up 15.1 per cent over 2005. Construction in the West is booming. Oil and gas companies� profits hit a record $31 billion in 2006 from $6.9 billion in 2005. Chartered banks operating profits rose 14.3 per cent to $26.4 billion.
On the other hand, motor-vehicle and parts manufacturers, concentrated in Ontario, and wood and paper companies, saw their profits drop 15 and 16 per cent respectively. Such sectoral results are often cited by bosses demanding across the board concessions from working people. But that doesn’t make sense even in those particular cases - regardless the twisted logic of dog-eat-dog capitalism, because there is an alternative we ought to consider.
A democratically planned, publicly owned economy would pool the surplus to sustain jobs in troubled sectors and regions, and ensure the production of useful things and their constant improvement in harmony with nature, for the benefit of humanity.
Now that’s what we mean by 21st century socialism - something worth fighting for.