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Originally Posted by JFKDemocrat  The oil companies make about 3 percent profit off of gas. Your local, state, and federal government make several times that. There are a whole host of businesses that make way more profit than 3 percent. Software companies make over 20 percent profit. Star bucks makes over 10 percent. I could go on and on. Why don't you call your congressman to ask why you are paying so much profit to Microsoft? It's simple economics of supply and demand really. China and India are consuming like never before. China has 5 times the population. |
Profit is a manufactured statistic. Take the company I work for, as an example. Because we work with all government contracts, we quadrupled our rates a few years ago, then we started offering 20% discounts to "preferred clients" who buy more than one product from us.
So does getting 20% off mean you are getting a good deal? Nope, the price is still 320% inflated. But as far as any of the clients are concerned they got 20% off.
Especially when you are dealing with futures markets and speculation, profit calculations are not as cut and dry as you would think. Most of a companies revenue can just be "reinvested" back into the company, or into shell corporations -- and that all draws from the bottom line.