Celebrate Corporate Profit Freedom Day - April 15, 2010!

As many people are filing last-minute tax returns on April 15th, another important thing will be happening that day, Corporate Profit Freedom Day.  This is the day on which working people will have finally worked enough to pay for the corporate profits going to the wealthy and powerful.

Corporate Profit Freedom Day (CPFD) in 2010 will officially occur on April 15th.  That is because the total of profits and income to corporate entities and the wealthiest individuals was 28.8% of the total income available for everyone. (in 2009, the year used to calculate this year's CPFD). That means that, out of 365 days, a worker has to let more that 105 days worth of income go to corporations and the wealthy before any goes to his or her own family.

Another way of looking at it is that a typical worker must work 11.4 hours out a 40 hour workweek to create profits for corporations and the wealthy. That is almost one and a half days out of a five-day workweek.

So, think of it like this: If you work a Monday to Friday workweek, you have to work all of Monday and half of Tuesday to support yachts, mansions and Wall Street power for the very rich.  Only after lunchtime on Tuesday do you start actually creating income for you and your family.

Corporate Profit Freedom Day has also been getting later over the past several decades.

In 1970, fewer than 51 days out of the year went to corporate profits. Corporate Profit Freedom Day based on that year's numbers was February 25th.  The growth to the current 105-plus days per year for corporate profits shows a trend over the past few decades of increasing concentration of wealth, in the hands of an elite few, at the expense of everyone else.

Looking at this graph, it is easy to see why working people are feeling increasingly squeezed: More and more of their working time and the fruits of their labors are going to the wealthy and Wall Street inside of to their paychecks.

But, as lamentable it is for being so late in the year, working people will be able to at least take some comfort on April 15th.  At least on that day, they are working for themselves and their families instead of to make more profits for the rich and powerful.

To see how Corporate Profit Freedom Day is calculated, see the previous article on this site.