I'm not even sure the Jol Dantzig article scratched the surface of business costs. I didn't see any mention of real and personal property taxes, most utility costs, tools and machinery, depreciation, advertising, backup power, computer systems, inventory costs, cases, return costs, shipping, receiving, bad debt writeoffs, worker's comp, and..oh..I could think of an awful lot of business expenses that every business has, too many to list here. Like health care for employees, and employer's contributions to things like pension plans, etc.
People think that if you have a company with employees, you're on easy street, but they don't realize that every day in business is a competitive struggle, and no one feels sorry for you when you screw up and you've made x number of widgets that you can't sell.
Heck, Samuel Colt went broke despite the success of his invention of the first truly successful revolving firearm just trying to enforce his patents.
It's expensive to do business out there in the real world, and it takes a special kind of person to handle the inevitable pressure, let alone succeed.
