Richard D. Wolff

Please help me make sense of the Economic Policy Institute data that you mentioned in the most recent Economic Update. In 1952, corporate profits were 5.5 percent of GDP and corporate taxes were 6 percent. Does this mean that all corporate profits were eaten up by taxes in 1952? That doesn't seem possible. Today, corporate profits are 8.5 percent of GDP. If those profits were spread out among the millions of workers in the US, it doesn't seem like it would be of much benefit to them. In other words, 8 percent doesn't fit with the concept of the corporation making huge profits and screwing the workers. My bigger question is, apart from the obvious improvement of making economic institutions democratic, would having workers decide what to do with the surplus really generate a substantial increase in pay for the workers?