Average stock return between 12 and 16% based on the size of the corporation.

Are you talking about public or private companies? If public, are you talking about pre-tax operating margins? Educate yourself. Go to Yahoo Financials, pick out a few companies, and review their balance and income statements, along with their 10K and 10Q.

Thats down 5.3 billion from the same period for 07

Im not sure it can be compared to 04 though. These figures are only for 50m and over.

I run my own business.  It is primarily service based, so I have a very low overhead of about $10,000 per year, thanks to computers and internet.  Therefore, 100% margin, i.e., if by that you mean my profit in relatin to expenses, would be another 10K.

Obviously, I can't live on that, so it is in excess of a thousand percent just to hit $100K, which in L.A. in not much.

On the other hand, if a business deals in goods,, if you have a million dollars in merchandise, and your profit is 10% you make 100K.

Thus, to say ask what profit margin is does not mean anything.