Tesco issued a profits warning the other day, so they are in their terms doing badly. That was not the point though. What I said was if they paid more in tax they would have less for wages, which would be clearly the case irrespective of whether you feel that should pay a larger percentage of their income as wages or not. Linking to what has been said on another thread about poor investment in industries in the past, part of the reason for that was as those industries suffered competition too big a portion of their reducing revenues was going in wages, making them increasingly uncompetitive and investment pointless.

So these companies are paying wages out of profits? The staffing costs don't get factored into the price of the goods/services to be covered by turnover?



And you think this "business" thing is a good example of how to run the country?



God help us all!

Yes, that's the point I was trying to make. It's not the individuals taking out loans they couldn't afford that was the [iprimary[/i cause of the crisis, but the banks gambling with this sub-prime debt to try and make a quick few million here and there.

Any company that pays wages out of profits wants its collective head looking at.



On the basis of your comment, if Tesco make a loss, they will automatically have to pay every employee less.



And you've confused revenue and profit in the full original post I quoted.

So the dividend paid to their shareholders would be slightly smaller. I'd say this was a worthwhile sacrifice to ensure that the companies are paying what they ought to be paying in tax, and that their employees are able to live without having to seek help from the state.

A profits warning means they got their forecasts wrong, if they are doing badly I'd like to be a quid or two behind them.







And clearly they wouldn't, the could use a little of their profit to cover this.









Tesco is hardly suffering from under-investment.

They pay wages out of income. Income is constrained by what their competitors charge. If supermarkets sold just one prduct, say milk, and Tesco charged £1.50 for a pint and Asda £0.45 how long do think Tesco would last? If it were simply a case of factoring costs into prices then virtually no business / no industry would ever have gone bust!

He didn't suggest that.



He suggested that they pay their tax bill.



Just like you or I have to do.

Have you edited my post!? I wrote (or intended to!) "...in their terms."



They are suffering from under-investment - or at least they feel they are - as they are talking of spending hunddred's of millions revamping their shabby stores.

They clearly have paid their tax "bill" otherwise HMRC would be taking recovery proceedings.

LOL, you clearly don't understand that supermarkets have a refurb scheduled and any announcement to deflect a less than stellar performance is most welcome. Tesco spend millions on their stores every year, clearly not an under-investment

Yes, of course they must.

I mean David Hartnett has never let a company off has he?