ustxtxb_obs_1976_12_10_50_00018-00000_000.pdf

WE’VE TRIMMED THE UTILE GUY BACK TO 20 OF THE GRAVY! T “Home of Texas Traditional Music” Down-Home Food 217 So. Lamar Austin, Texas Big business grows fatter Austin Despite what the economists call a continuing economic “slump,” the giant corporations and conglomerates continue to make big profits, according to figures compiled by Business Week magazine. Workers, small businesses, teachers, family farmers, retired people, and other average Americans have been hard hit by a combination of re IN 1960, SMALL BUSINESS MADE MORE NAN 40 PER CENT OF THE BUSINESS PROFITS INI1AIS COWRY. Ben Sargent cession and inflation, but Business Week’s report on 880 of America’s largest firms shows them doing well again this year. Through the third quarter of 1976, compo site figures for the 880 giants showed a 30 percent profit increase over the same period in 1975. NOW, 11-IROUG1411-1E MODERN MIRACLE OF CONGLOMERATION The all-industry national composite of big business reported by Business Week was a 5.5 percent net profit on sales and a whopping 13.7 percent return on common equity. Primarily due to factors of raw economic powersuch as monopoly position, vertical integration, conglomeration, huge advertising expenditures, and government subsidythese giants of industry transcend the pressures of “free enterprise” that buf fet the country’s many smalland’medium sized businesses. Even though the smaller firms tend to be more efficient, more in novative, more productive, and certainly more competitive than the giants, they are less profitable. It is what Ralph Nader has called “survival of the fattest.” Business Week’s compilation shows big Texas-based corporations running ,a little better overall than those in the rest of the country. The median profit on sales of 38 Texas firms listed was 6.3 percent, and their median return on common equity was 15.7 percent: Financial analysts generally consider the “return on common equity” figure the most accurate reflection of corporate profit performance. It relates a firm’s profits to the amount of corporate equity \(including common stock, capital surplus, and re CLASSIFIED 18 The Texas Observer Classified advertising is 20 per word. Discounts for multiple insertions within a 12-month period: 25 times, 50 percent; 12 times, 25 percent; 6 times, 10 percent. JOIN THE ACLU. Membership $15. Texas Civil Liberties Union, 600 West 7th, Austin, Texas 78701. NEW ORLEANS ON $8 A YEAR. The Weekly Courier, 1232 Decatur, 70116. THE NEW YORK TIMES Sunday edition delivered to your home in the Dallas area. Call 2395325 for rates and information. NEED SOMETHING from Germany? Jim & Hanni International, 1600 Northwood, Austin 78703. 474-2582. BOOKS PRINTED from manuscript. Biography Press, Rt. 1-745, Aransas Pass, Texas 78336. JOIN COMMON CAUSE. Only one person can make democracy work again . . . YOU. $15 \($7 Antonio St., Austin, Texas 78701. LIBERTY LUNCH. 405 W 2nd. Austin. Eclectic fare. Jazz Theatre. BOOK-HUNTING? No obligation search for rare or out-of-print books. Ruth and John Mc173, Austin, Texas 78703. BOOKPLATES. Free catalog. Many beautiful designs. Special designing too. Address: BOOKPLATES, P.O. Box 28-1, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387. WHAT EVER HAPPENED to Carole and Bob Rogers and their daughter Becky? Pat Lawrence, 5113 N. 9th, Fresno CA 93710. NEW OBSERVER STAFFER in immediate need of 1-bdrm. apt., furnished or unfurnished, in Austin. Call L. A. Walsh, 477-0746. MOVING BACK TO AUSTIN. Soc. grad student wants to share house with other starting January. Bill Gibson, 97 Sylvia, Arlington, Mass., 02174. PRISONS FEED ON THE POOR AND THE NON-VIOLENT. 2,000 new prisons and jails will be built before 1960 unless you act to stop them. Join our network. National Moratorium on Prison Construction, 3106 Mt. Pleasant St., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20010.