What's this about?
FT reporting that corporate profits have reached their highest share of the economy since the Second World War, while payouts to workers decline.
What is "profit share" measuring?
Split national income into what goes to labour (wages, salaries, benefits) and what goes to capital (profits, dividends, retained earnings). Those shares were remarkably stable for most of the twentieth century, which is why economists treated the ratio as close to a constant. It has been moving toward capital for decades and is now at a post-war extreme. This is the number underneath most arguments about automation and inequality, and it moved before AI, which matters for how much of it AI can be blamed for.
Why is it worth noticing?
HN 137 points, 54 comments
- It is the macroeconomic backdrop to every "will AI take jobs" discussion, and it shows the trend predates the current wave.
- It also frames the Silicon Valley backlash thread from earlier in the week — the anger has a measurable basis.
- Included as context, not as an AI story; the causal link is contested and this reporting does not settle it.