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Profit over People
If you're working 40 hours a week and can't cover your bills, that ain't your fault. It's the fault of the slags paying you -Danny Dyer
Even though the 0.1% are richer than ever, they want even more. So the rest of us need to sacrifice with worse pay and conditions.
The cost of everything is going up and the standards of products and services are going down. For the majority of us, our working conditions are getting worse and our wages have stagnated since the 2008 financial crash. However, not everyone is getting poorer. In contrast, profits are rising for the biggest companies and some are making more profit than ever.
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Politics could pass laws to regulate corporations whose priority is self-interest and are putting profit over people. However, politicians have second jobs, extensive networks, or significant investments in industries that are making these profits. Therefore, there is no incentive to change the status quo if they currently benefit from it, even if it comes at their constituents' expense.
Record breaking profits
Corporations are making more money than ever. Profits are up 89% at the biggest 350 companies in the UK compared to pre-pandemic levels.
​In February 2023, the FTSE 100 (the list of the most valuable companies on the London stock exchange) reached an all time high.
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Here are some examples of the profits made:
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In 2024, supermarket Tesco announced their pre-tax profits for the year hit £2.3 billion, an increase from up over £882m. That's a 150% increase.
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95 food and energy companies made $306 billion profits in 2022
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BP, in 2021 made $10 billion in profit, which was "more than they knew what to do with". In 2022, this profit almost tripled to $27 billion, their biggest profit ever
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Shell made $40 billion in profit in 2022, their highest in 115 years. They made almost $10 billion in the first quarter of 2023.
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British Gas 2023 half year profits were £970 million, ten times the same period in the previous year and smashing all their previous records.
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The bank HSBC doubled their profits the first half of 2023 from the year before, to $27 billion
Shareholders get a cut of the profits
​The COVID pandemic has not had a long term impact on investors. Big profits for FTSE100 corporations have shown increasing dividends.
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It is not necessary, for any company, that a CEO needs to make this much more than an average worker in order for that company to be successful.
Corporations have also used a scheme called "buybacks" at record levels in 2022 and 2023. This is where company literally buys back shares from investors, which often happens after companies make high profits. £58.2 billion worth of shares were bought from investors in 2022, a record high amount. It is predicted amounts will be similar in 2023.
CEO pay
Bonuses for those at the top of these companies and pay for CEOs keep up with this unprecedented increase in profits. ​
In 2023, bosses at Britain's biggest companies got, on average, a nearly 16% pay rise from the year before, on average making £3.9 million.
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FTSE 100 bosses earn more in three days than the average worker in the UK makes in a year. The top CEOs in 2023 earned 268x more than the average worker.
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Top CEOs are getting these bumper pays despite not being very good. One study found that since the 2008 financial crisis (where their pay has skyrocketed) CEOs have a lower ability, are less interpersonal, less charismatic and less creative. They are also increasingly isolated from the lower earners.
How people are suffering due to corporate greed
Keeping pay low (except for the bosses)
Big increases in corporate profits have not translated to comparable pay rises for majority of their staff. Because the less workers are paid, the more money corporations can make.
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In 2023, where the average worker got a 7.9% pay rise (still a pay cut as it was below inflation, which averaged 9% in 2022). Bosses at the biggest companies got a 16% pay rise.
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For example in BT made big profits in 2022 , but tried to impose a 4% real terms pay cut for staff, before strike action reversed this decision.
Prices rising
If wages don't go up, but prices go up, we can buy less with our wages.
The Lie: Wage increases cause inflation
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In 2022, inflation was as high as 11%. Enduring high inflation was blamed on workers being paid too much. Where in reality a major factor was "greedflation", where corporations (including supermarkets and oil an gas companies) used inflation as an excuse to hike prices, which increased their profits.
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Research by Oxfam found at at least half of inflation in the UK is caused by greedflation shown by citing excess profits in 2022 as the major contributing factor. Even the IMF, who are notoriously pro-establishment and back corporate interests, blamed almost half of inflation in Europe on corporations raising prices more than cost increases.
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According to those in power, giving the average worker a rise to keep up with inflation would cause prices to rise further still. However, this is a lie. If higher wages led to higher inflation, prices would have stood still for the last 15 years, but they haven't. The price of goods have increased more than the salaries for the average worker, effectively decreasing salaries.
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The only sector to have had a pay rise since 2008 is finance and business. CEOs have also had proper pay rises as we've seen. Incidentally, politicians have also had pay rises in line with inflation.
The establishment lies to protect the wealthy's profits and high salaries, while forcing ordinary workers to "accept being poorer".
Worse conditions for workers
Big business cut corners to reduce outgoings which maximises the profit they make. This often skirts the line of what is legal, and often take part in illegal practices to achieve this.
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For example: ​
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Using the excuse of "modernisation" to demand that employees work more hours, more unsocial hours and in less safety. As we seen with the rail worker disputes in 2022.
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Amazon, for example, treating staff like robots, making sure they squeeze every drop of productivity out of them. GMB Union have blamed unsafe "algorithm"-based targets as responsible for the over 1400 ambulances call-outs to warehouses from 2019-2024. See below an Amazon boss being grilled by MPs about their surveillance of workers.
How politics supports profit over people
Supporting low wages for workers
Politicians, supported by the media, are trying to turn the public against those looking for better pay and conditions using the divide and conquer tactic.
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Rather than support our ability to collectively bargain for higher wages and better working condition they instead pass laws to minimise the power the public has to fight against this exploitation , even though the UK already has some of the harshest anti-trade union laws in the developed world.
Deregulating and "cutting red tape"
The are many examples, from parasites in the English drinking water supply, to the flammable cladding at Grenfell Tower killing 72 people, that corporations will do as little as they get away with. They will endanger the public if it can maximise profit.
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However, many politicians want to deregulate even further and cut even more “red tape”. But this doesn’t always mean pointless bureaucracy, it can also mean loosening reins of corporate greed.
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One of the apparent “benefits” of Brexit is that the UK can get rid of a lot of EU legislation, much of which protects workers’ from exploitation and discrimination at the expense of profit. For example, the maximum working time, rest break entitlement, paid annual leave, health and safety protections and pregnancy/parental rights.
There are also public health concerns about abandoning many of these EU laws. Like air pollution limits which, if relaxed, would allow corporations to pollute more. This could lead to thousands of deaths.​
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A group of well-connected, powerful and wealthy people created the Red Tape Initiative. The apparent aim was to cut regulation to boost productivity. As the video below explains, groups like these, organisations who fund them and the individuals at the helm care more about making themselves big money at the expense of the wider public's safety. Due to their immense power and wealth, they are insulated by risks that cutting of this "red tape" would cause.
Little consequence for breaking the law
​Politics often does very little to prevent people and the planet being exploited. And those how face limited consequences. The following are a few examples:
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In 2022 P&O fired 800 employees without notice. Although they knew it was wrong, they admitted they would do it again. No action was taken against them.
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Fast fashion company Boohoo have been accused of illegal business practices, including paying staff less than minimum wage. They promised to improve their business practices, but investigations in November 2023 found their activity is still unethical and potentially illegal. They are still one of the biggest fashion brands in the world.
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In September 2024, the findings of the Grenfell Inquiry were published. It found that the fire that caused 72 deaths were preventable and avoidable. A lot of the blame has been put on successive governments as well as cladding companies who "deliberately concealed" fire risks of their products. It is as of now unclear whether those involved will see suitable punishment for their actions.
Making the public pay for problems corporations caused
The greed of the super-wealthy and corporations cause problems with the economy. Then, the public, who did not cause the problem, are forced to fix them.
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Taxpayer bailing out banks following the 2008 financial crash
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The actions of privatised water companies in England as we explain below.
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Example: Water companies ​
While paying themselves billions in dividends, privately owned water companies have not spent enough to upgrade sewerage systems. It’s cheaper than treating the water or upgrading the sewage systems. This has led to raw sewage being dumped into waterways, leading to high levels of E.coli in the water
​The Environment Agency recorded 464,056 sewage discharges lasting 3.6 million hours in total in 2023. Despite this mismanagement, from 2021-2023, water companies paid themselves £2.5 billion in dividends. They have also paid millions in bonuses to the CEOs of these companies.
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The law has done little to punish the water companies who have filled rivers and the shore with raw sewage. Richmond Council in England has fined private company Thames Water 350 times in four years for mismanaging repairs. However, these fines pale in comparison to the profits being made, and are cheaper than paying to upgrade the systems.
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In May 2024, Parliament held a vote to hold water companies criminally responsible for not tackling sewage spills. Conservative MPs voted against it and Labour MPs abstained.
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The consequence of this lack of accountability will likely mean that these water companies, despite having taken billions in profit, will drastically raise bill costs to pay for the badly needed upgrades. Yet another example of the public being forced to pay to solve a problem they did not cause. Further more, while paying large dividends to shareholders, companies have been amassing billions in debt.
Example: The UK economy from 2021
The UK economy since the COVID pandemic is an example of how suffering is exploited for profit which creates a vicious circle, enabled by the establishment, where the public have to pay to enable corporate greed.
In 2022, prices for energy around the world skyrocketed. the excuse for this was Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, these costs were passed on to the consumer far more than was necessary to maintain profits.
As the below graph shows, wholesale gas prices have dropped. But if companies want to keep charging the extortionate prices to increase profits further, there is really nothing stopping them.
The banks using inflation caused by greed to make more money
The Bank of England's solution to enduring high inflation is to raise interest rates. This increases the cost of borrowing, giving people less money to spend and theoretically inflation will ease. However, this only works if high wages are the cause of inflation, which they are not. As previously discussed, soaring profits caused by corporate greed was the biggest cause of inflation.
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The Bank of England would rather make the majority of us poorer, knowing the suffering will do nothing to solve the problem, rather than admit that it is the excess profits of corporations.
The consequence of these interest rate rises mean banks make billions, and their profits soar. The big four UK banks - Lloyds, Barclays, Natwest and HSBC – enjoyed an 80% increase in profits in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period the year before.
In summary, the wealthy make their money by exploiting normal people. But this hurts the economy therefore the political machine create a solution which involves taking more money out of normal people's pockets and handing over to the wealthy.
What happens when people fight back?
In the UK, there has been a surge in Trade Union activity, fighting back against the profit over people culture among the wealthy and powerful. This is a positive step as the more collective bargaining (i.e trade union activity) there is in a society, the more equal that society is.
It is clear that workers need to take back more power, and to have more democracy within the workplace. Even though those at the bottom make the largest contribution to a company’s profits, it is the interests of those at the top that are most often represented.
