<p>Ultimately, whatever quibbles my detractors may propose, I notice that all of them continue to dodge the basic question despite numerous entreaties to answer it: **Why would you take the side of corporate management over regular employees? ** That is, unless you are yourself a corporate manager or corporate PR representative, in which case such a stance is perfectly logical as you’re simply ‘talking your book’, and all I would then ask is that you acknowledge your stance is self-serving. </p>
<p>As I pointed out before, and has been restated just yesterday in the WSJ (my detractors’ favorite periodical, even though they apparently don’t actually read it), corporations are enjoying high profits. Yet unemployment remains stuck at near double-digit percentages and the pay packets of those who are employed remains stagnant. Corporations could obviously easily afford to hire more employees and improve their pay - but they won’t do it. And you’re still going to take their side? Why? </p>
<p>* * OCTOBER 3, 2010
U.S. companies are rebounding quickly from the recession and posting near-historic profits.</p>
<p>An analysis by The Wall Street Journal found that companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index posted second-quarter profits of $189 billion, up 38% from a year earlier and their sixth-highest quarterly total ever, without adjustment for inflation.*</p>
<p>[Propelling</a> the Profit Comeback - WSJ.com](<a href=“Propelling the Profit Comeback - WSJ”>Propelling the Profit Comeback - WSJ)</p>
<p>Frankly, I’m still surprised that anybody would actually unashamedly declare such a stance. What I actually expected was the far more intellectually defensible position that fully acknowledges that corporations, given such unusually high profits, may indeed be underpaying its employees, but that they may need time to adjust their pay scales, and the corporate sector nevertheless offers other advantages such as better work/life balance and so forth. Then we could have enumerated the pros and cons of the regular corporate lifestyle vs. that of alternative careers such as IB/MC, law, medicine, and so forth. </p>
<p>But that expected conversation never even got off the ground, because my opponents won’t even acknowledge anything amiss about the unusually high corporate profits-to-pay ratio. I’m not sure whether they would rather choose to ignore it completely, or accept it and are entirely unapologetic about it. I’m also not sure which is worse: that they don’t know (or don’t want to know), or that they don’t care. </p>
<p>But in any case, I’m amazed that some people are clearly unperturbed by the fact that corporate employees are creating record value while capturing an unusually small proportion of that value. That’s amazing to me.</p>