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But that's sort of irrelevant, isn't it? When the USAF buys an F-35, the cost of the F-35 is almost entirely domestic US labor, even though on the military budget it counts as equipment.


labor is a small component through and through. Most of the money goes to paying off capital. You can dd up all the salaries all the way through and they won't amount to more than 25% of the total.


What do you mean, "paying off capital"? There's no way salaries amount to less than about 90% of the total.


have you ever thought where return on investment/capital comes from?

You can hire 100 people to make 100,000 needles a day by hand tools or instead build a $200,000 plant that make 10 million needles a day with three guys operating the machines. In both cases the profit goes to the plant owner, while in the second the cost of labor will be less than 3% of the receipts.


3%? No. That's not even close. And you're leaving out indirect labor - people got paid to build everything you buy.


how much labor does capital need to produce returns?

the wages in economy are well documented. as well as returns on capital. Actual data matters. Don't take my word for it. read up an actual economist.

http://voxeu.org/article/reducing-inequality-deconcentrating...

The rich aren't rich because they put in more labor and got more salaries.


This doesn't support your point at all. It's only tangentially related.




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