The only reason to hire someone is to ROI on what that person costs. As Paul Graham has written, the most obvious example is hiring a sales person. If you have

The only reason to hire someone is to ROI on what that person costs. As Paul Graham has written, the most obvious example is hiring a sales person. If you have to pay a sales person $75,000 per year, plus benefits, plus office space and equipment, he/she has to be worth more than that. If said salesperson can bring in $250,000 in annual revenue, and they cost $125,000 to keep around, well that's a trade any businessperson would love to make. But what if the market size hypothetically tops out at $250,000? You'd never hire more than one salesperson because by the time you were up to three, you'd be losing money again. So, at that point, the government could give you a ton of tax breaks, but you still wouldn't hire more than one salesperson.