Upcoming Presidential Debate

Quote: SOOPOO

Without quoting everyone’s posts….. You must be kidding if you don’t think FORCED higher wages do not put a strain in small businesses. You obviously don’t know anyone who ever owned a McDonalds or similar.
And I don’t care what that article says…. the ARTIFICIALLY high minimum wages seep up so that the worker who was making $16 an hour when minimum wage was $10 now somehow magically thinks he’s worth $20!

I worked for minimum wage as a teenager. $2.65 an hour. If there was no minimum wage law might it have been $2.50? $2.09? Who knows? But I’d have had a choice…. take what’s offered or don’t take what’s offered. But I knew it was a start. Not a finish.

Quote: Tanko

The writer should have concentrated on sector net margins, instead of profits temporarily enjoyed by a few companies.

The article mentions the profits a few companies made in 2021 and 2022. It does not mention that Hershey's EPS are now down 55% YOY , or that Kraft-Heinz EPS are now down 92% YOY, and Tyson Foods EPS are down 146% YOY.

What companies charge for their products is determined by input costs and consumer demand. When either of those increase, prices generally go up.

The price of a barrel of oil has nearly doubled in the past four years. That means higher input costs.

A better indicator than profit, which can increase due to divestitures, favorable foreign currency exchange and increased sales volume, is Net Margin, which is the percentage of profit a company generates from revenue.

Food prices increased 23% over the four years, but net margins in that sector remain very low.

The net margin for grocery and food is only 1.18%

Apparel, Auto, Drugs, Food Wholesalers, pharmaceutical drugs and Household Products have similarly low net margins. No price gouging there either.

Walmart works on a 1% net margin. Their earnings per share are down 42% YOY.

Margins by Sector:

S&P 500 REPORTING LOWEST NET PROFIT MARGIN IN MORE THAN 3 YEARS FOR Q4

Quote: GenoDRPh

And I'm saying tough chit about FORCED higher wages. I am completely okay with government setting a floor for wages, in order to ensure workers earn at least enough for....whatever.

I am completely okay with meddling in the unbridled free market.

Quote: AZDuffman

Spoken like a person who has never run much l ss owned a business. You are the type who thinks when you own a business the monopoly guy brings a wheelbarrow of money by twice a day.

If a person needs to earn more money they need to build skills and value to justify it. The government cannot just magically make it happen.

Quote: GenoDRPh

No ,matter how hard you all try, and no matter hard you attempt to insult me, I will never feel any sympathy for a business whose business model is paying workers as little as possible in order to turn a profit. Never ever going to happen. That's not a business worth having. And I'm okay with that.

Quote: AZDuffman

Then don’t have it. Just keep your selfish and greedy hands off it and it’s owner.

Quote: GenoDRPh

You got me. You want to pay workers less so the owner makes more. That makes me the "greedy" one. That dog don't hunt.

Quote: ams288

Sometimes Duffman gets twisted into such a pretzel defending his nonsensical views, his ensuing attempts to insult just don’t make any sense whatsoever.

Quote: GenoDRPh

I'm surprised he hasn't managed to somehow work transgenderism into the conversation yet...

Quote: GenoDRPh

We await Tanko's objective, impartial analysis of the root causes of inflation from 2019 to present!