Post #7682 by mungofitch on the Berkshire Hathaway board

Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A)

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The rise in corporate profitability as a share of the pie came more at the expense of the government (falling taxes) and bondholders (lower interest) than from crushing the workers.

To be fair, that observation skips over some real issues because it's discussing pay for the average US worker. I imagine that the average worker has done much better than the median worker, as I suspect the deviation in salaries has risen. So the pay distribution curve is a valid topic of social policy, and maybe an entirely valid complaint for Joe Median. I would guess that the percentage of US GDP going to the 90% of workers with the lowest total compensation has fallen a noticeable amount.

For shareholders the distinction between median and average is moot--pay is an expense rather than a profit whether it's all going to the boss or it's divvied up equally.

Jim

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