Super-profits but stagnant wages

Dear Editor,

Big capitalists never had it so good as during the current year. Big companies of America, England, Japan, Europe and India have made the highest ever profits. Their profits have been steadily growing over the last five years. What has contributed to these ever increasing profits? Obviously, the super-exploitation of labour.

A study by one of the world’s biggest investment banks, Goldman Sachs itself admits that at least 40 percent of the increased profits have been due to wages remaining almost stagnant during these five years. Other major contributor to higher profits has been the lower interest big companies paid on money they borrowed from banks and financial institutions. This is yet another way by which capitalists get richer at the cost of masses of people who earn little for keeping their hard-earned savings in banks.  Low interest on deposits of people in banks allows big companies to access people’s money very cheaply.

According to the study, the main reason for wages remaining stagnant in large parts of the world over the last five years is low wages in China and India.

So, the game of capitalists is clear now. Workers in India and China are told that your wages cannot be increased because Indian and Chinese companies will not be able to compete with companies of rich countries at higher wages. Workers in rich countries are told that your wages cannot be increased because companies in rich countries are required to compete with Indian and Chinese companies which pay very low wages to their workers. Workers in all the countries, rich or poor, are being threatened that companies will close down if you ask for higher wages.

The need is for workers of all countries to unite and expose the game of capitalists.

Sandeep Kumar, Mumbai