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Comment by Arodex | Hacker News Reader

Of course not. It is precisely because they have to fight for scraps that this is the place where workers are beaten down the most, because the owners are making pretty damn sure they will be the ones to get that margin lining their pockets, everyone else be damned.

In high-margin industries, you can give a 3% salary increase and free coffee and snacks, it is a rounding error compared to the 20% yoy increase applied to your multi-billion dollar compensation.

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> Of course not. It is precisely because they have to fight for scraps that this is the place where workers are beaten down the most, because the owners are making pretty damn sure they will be the ones to get that margin lining their pockets, everyone else be damned.

My class-brained friend, margin is what you get after wages, not before.

"Corporate America is raking in record profits, luxuriating in luscious margins and capturing the largest chunk of the country's income on record."

https://www.axios.com/2026/10/13/earnings-3q-ai-stocks

I was talking about the supposed oppression of customers through high prices, but it’s typical that communists imagine that the purpose of an enterprise, private or public is to provide jobs to union workers rather than to actually useful products or services to customers.

See graph.

https://www.axios.com/2026/10/13/earnings-3q-ai-stocks

Share of income has nothing to with profit margin.

I was referring to profit margin, i.e of the $x you spend on 5 lbs of apples, what % did supermarket keep.

Very little, which is why supermarket owners make everything they can to make sure they - and not their workers - get most of it. You still can't understand that the least lucrative industries are the ones where the owners and managers are the most cruel against the workers?

So if the profit margin is low, capitalism is bad cuz the workers are exploited.. ... and if the profit margin is high, capitalism is bad cuz the workers are exploited?

got it!

Meanwhile under communism.. the workers are exploited everywhere and the profit margin is 0 everywhere, except the black market, and the black market is the only place you can find anything.

Meanwhile under socialism, in all Nordic countries, the profit is shared more evenly and you get perks such as cheap universal medical care.

The USSR fell more than 30 years ago. Trump is very very chummy with Xi and Kim. Find yourself another scare.

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