From the Bureau of Economic Analysis news release of May 29:
Profits from current production (corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments) increased $42.6 billion in the first quarter… Taxes on corporate income increased $31.6 billion… [therefore] profits after tax … increased $11.1 billion.
In other words, taxes extracted 74.2% of any added (marginal) corporate earnings, leaving only scraps for stockholder.
Companies that lost money, on the other hand, were often bailed out and/or nationalized.
Why bother even trying to maximize profits or minimize losses?
