What Would Abe Lincoln Think? And Say? And Do?

(commentary posted by Roger Erickson)

Abe Lincoln: "Call in General Grant. We need this man. He fights. Against, stupidity, sloth, ignorance and corruption. Oh, and Control Fraud too."





Meanwhile, in WalMart land, 150 years later:

Wages as a percent of the economy are at an all-time low.

Why are corporate profits so high? One reason is that companies are paying employees less than they ever have as a share of GDP. And that, in turn, is one reason the economy is so weak: Those "wages" represent spending power for consumers. And consumer spending is "revenue" for other companies. So the profit obsession is actually starving the rest of the economy of revenue growth.

RGE: So WHY are companies obsessing over profit competition? Oh, maybe because if they don't, some other business will? Yet that only begs the question of WHY so many companies are competing in old-fashioned business lines - instead of exploring ways to service emerging group options? Oh, maybe because "we the people" aren't turning, fast enough, to NEW desired outcomes for our nation, and exploring newly emerging national options, fast enough? Hence, firms are over-competing to solve "OLD" requirements? In short, our economy is getting stale?

All we need are a steadier stream of new national goals? Some wag in St. Croix calls that seeking Public Purpose.

(Preferably national goals different than just bombing yet another country, in order to feed a MICC that is even more profit obsessed than WalMart is.)