cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/69294703
cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/mop/p/931202/wage-theft
Both those numbers seem too low. The right one doubly so.
this post was submitted on 22 May 2026
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It should be kept in mind that this study was in 2012, but it may still be a conservative record.
I'll help you out. Let's take the top 500 companies. SP500. According to a crap AI response I'm not gonna double check. It was $2.2 trillion in 2025.
That's the wage theft. Profits are just the theft of the workers surplus labor value. And that's just the top 500 companies.
We don't need to investigate wage theft by the definition capitalist prefer. We know where profits come from. They come from you being paid less than the value your work produces. And the capitalist happily post that theft every year.
If I'm interpreting the text at the bottom correctly, that's only the amount that actually had to be paid back because of a court decision. So basically the amount that was actually proven. The real number is bound to be much higher.
I agree. But I really think the "personally bad individual" argument is unhelpful. It's not about "what kind of person" they are. The system of capitalism itself ensures that the worst kind of people rise to the highest degrees of wealth and power.