Reply #73: You are asking the wrong question. The real question to ask is what should be the rules for...

[AdHocSolver]

doing business in a fair and reasonable way.

To use the sports analogy, there are rules for playing a game, such as baseball, and there are umpires and referees to watch the game and ensure that the rules are being followed, and that no one is breaking the rules (cheating). The referees mediate when there is a conflict about a play, and the referee or umpire has the final say. No one limits how many points a team can earn. The only limit is that enforced by the teams having to play by the rules.

In the same way, there is no need, nor is it desirable, to decide ahead of time how much profit is "fair". We only need to establish rules of "fair play" and see to it that they are enforced.

The capitalists / corporations have succeeded in turning the planet into a cesspool of pollution, and the U.S. into a country of economic extremes and corruption, by distorting or eliminating the rules, for example environmental protection laws, to increase their profits. The deregulation brought about by corrupting the government, which is supposed to serve as referee, is the cause of our problems.

Deregulation of the media, one-sided trade agreements such as NAFTA, WTO, etc., absurdly applied patent laws, a hodge-podge of health insurance schemes and ripoffs, prevention of mass transit development, privatization schemes of what should be government run social welfare programs, government regulatory agencies headed by corporate executives of the companies that they are supposed to regulate, etc., etc. These are the rules that have been broken and that have brought this country the misery it faces.

Reinstate the umpires and referees, reimpose the rules of fair "economic" play, and bring transparency to government operations and the appropriate "profit margins" will take care of themselves.