[CountSessine]

The average operating margin for the S&P 500 is 10.53% (although that may have been 2018). And economists are worried that even that is high - traditional manufacturers like Ford typically manage operating margins of ~5%. Workers are already getting 95%. And then everything after that like R&D, marketing, and capital amortization has to come out of that 5%. And then finally a bit is left over for earnings for the owners. You’re mistaking wealth for income. Surely the workers could use more wealth, but what we’re discussing is the price of goods and this is operating revenue and income. And workers already get the lions share of this.

If you’re going to make US manufactured goods cost competitive with foreign goods, much of it has to come out of that 95% operating revenue that is operating expenses, most of which will be employee wages. There’s no way around this.

[hannasanarion]

workers are not getting 95%. Corporate profit and revenue is at an all time high, but wages are down since the 1980s. All that corporate growth goes into price fixing schemes and mergers to establish monopoly, and "consulting fees" to suspiciously named LLCs in the Caymans.

[CountSessine]

Read some 10-Qs for some big companies sometime. You might be surprised. Like I said - S&P 500 average operating margin was 10.53% a couple of years ago. And that’s crazy high - probably because of pharma stocks and the US’ dysfunctional generic drug regulation.

[sudosysgen]

This isn't a correct way of looking at it. You're assuming that the sum total of profit generated is in that one manufacturer. It isn't the case. You have subcontractors that also make an additional ten percent, then materials coming from a supplier that takes another ten percent, which comes from raw material suppliers that make yet another 10%, and then you're going to have consultants in R&D and marketing that might make even more than 10%, and so on. So it really can end up quite a bit higher than that.

[CountSessine]

Possibly - although if your suppliers have operating margins that are as wide as yours, or wider, it might actually make sense to just buy them and take those earnings for yourself. I wonder how many of Ford's suppliers have an operating margin as wide as Ford's 5%?