I think people are largely arguing over whether or not the share of economic value is proportional to contributions and when they talk about that share they typically refer to profits. I think redefining/reframing what profit means in this conversation is intentionally misunderstanding/redirecting the argument.
Workers: "We should see more of the profits the company makes and we are making the case that collectively we produce a larger portion of the value we're asking for"
Poster: "Your pay is part of the profit, the more money you make the less that goes to the owner"
You're right. I shouldn't assume a framing is misleading just because its unorthodox, I'm attempting to make a case for the framing being misleading with supporting statements.
At best the parent comment isn't saying anything of substance at all (in response to ITS parent comment), and in my view, at worst its an attempt to redirect the concept of 'profit' to make the argument seem less credible.
I don't agree that jerrre isn't saying anything of substance. It could have been fleshed out better, but what they say is a reasonable counter to their parent's argument.
ceronman's thought experiment was "if you have employees, you have to share your profits ... If [they] don't produce any value, easy, fire them all, you get everything."
jerrre's response, which I think is fair, is that we're already running this experiment. If businesses did not think employees produce value, they would not pay them wages or salaries, because every dollar paid to an employee is a dollar less of profit for the company. Companies already acknowledge the value that employees create value by the very fact that they pay them anything.
In other words, what's actually at stake isn't whether employees create value but how much, and ceronman's comment doesn't contribute anything to that discussion.
I disagree with your interpretation of ceronman's experiment and the premise that we're already conducting it.
I believe they were making the case that Employees need the company as much as the company needs the employees. The experiment is to split the profits evenly amongst those who created the value in the first place - The people that work inside the company. If they can't produce the value, get rid of them (And if that's the case there's more profit for everyone right?)
They could also mean that the profits are distributed amongst the employees based on individual contribution when they conclude that there wouldn't be any self-made billionaires because no single individual produces that much value.
I still disagree with the conflation of wages/cost of business and profits, even though more mages means less profit - Profit is still surplus after all has been paid. The distinction is important for more than just the scope of this conversation.
Workers: "We should see more of the profits the company makes and we are making the case that collectively we produce a larger portion of the value we're asking for"
Poster: "Your pay is part of the profit, the more money you make the less that goes to the owner"
You're right. I shouldn't assume a framing is misleading just because its unorthodox, I'm attempting to make a case for the framing being misleading with supporting statements.
At best the parent comment isn't saying anything of substance at all (in response to ITS parent comment), and in my view, at worst its an attempt to redirect the concept of 'profit' to make the argument seem less credible.