Well, the Dirty Fucking Hippies knew that the Republican tax cuts weren’t going to wind up in workers’ pockets. So far, early signs favor the Hippies (boldface mine):
The HR consulting firm asked 333 employers with at least 1,000 employees what they have done or plan to do as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Only 4% of companies said they had “increased wages for all employees”; an additional 3% said they planned to do so in the next year. While a further 13% said they’re “considering taking action this year or next,” a full 80% of companies aren’t considering giving raises at all.
Stocks will be doing well, though (boldface mine):
But asked to parse out how companies will use the windfall from the tax gains, most respondents didn’t see much going to workers. About 36 percent is seen being used to buy back shares (22 percent) and dividends (14 percent.)
Debt reduction is forecast to get the next biggest piece of the pie at 13 percent. Workers are estimated to get just 12 cents of every dollar of additional savings from the corporate tax cut.
This would amount to much less than estimated by Trump administration economists, who have argued that workers could reap 70 or 80 cents of every dollar of corporate tax relief.
The Republican tax plan is estimated to cost around $150 billion per year. You could cut employee contributions to Social Security by one-third (two percentage points) for the same cost (making up the shortfall from general revenues). And every cent of every dollar would go to wage-earners, whether high or low. Not twelve cents on the dollar. Whether that’s the best use of a $150 billion annual deficit is debatable, but it would beat the hell out of the Republican plan.
The beer brewers around here just got a fifty percent tax cut at the turn of the year. I asked at the time: do you really think the price of beer will go down? The price at The Pub just went up fifty cents.
You’ve got to keep beating those quarterly profits forecasts. It’s not just profits, you know – it’s the greatest possible profits.