Inflation in Australia may be driven by corporate profiteers, but not who you think.
According to the Guardian (18 Jul 2022):
[The Australia Institute] analysed national accounts data to show that rising corporate profits had been a major factor in inflation and that wages had “no contribution” to inflation in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years...
Cue the familiar refrain of workers doing it tough while the big end of town doesn't give a stuff.
Before we Occupy Pitt Street™, we should remember that many we think of as workers are also 'corporates'. These are mostly not the giant listed companies associated with rapacious capitalism, but are smaller in size, from family businesses to entities set up to represent one sole trader.
'Corporate profits' therefore deserves a breakdown (ABS):
The three industries recording the largest income growth* in the same period were Private Education and Training (+48%), Private Health Care (+12%), and Agriculture Forestry and Fishing (+10.6%).
As well as extortionate financiers and gouging retailers, humble schools and clinics are turning the thumb-screws while fattening their margins.
And while mining companies did well (+2.4%), profits in construction rose faster (+2.8%). Anyone who had no choice but to swallow outrageous quotes from tradies could have told you that.
Furthermore, not all corporates profited. Incomes in Transport (-4.8%), Administration (-3.6%), Media (-2%) and the Arts (-1/9%) shrank.
* I do not use EBITDA because it includes pandemic government subsidies.
In a climate of falling pay and rising profits it is fair to ask that some surplus be redistributed as discounts or wages. It would be just as fair to ask those who have profited the most.
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