I know that this is not the most exciting question on this board, but this is bugging me. My friend and I disagree on an issue. She insists that most dual partnerships in business are not 50/50. That one of them usually starts up a business, and that the other one subsequently joins, and is in no way entitled to half of its profits. I was always under the impression that most partnerships are split halfway, and that one would be foolish to enter into any such proposition unless it was on an equal profit sharing basis. There are many scenarios that I can think of that would be equal in responsibility even if one of them conceived of and started the business, and many more of them in which the lesser partner would stand to be way screwed no matter how much he contributed to said enterprise. What, pray tell, is your oppy?
It seems in partnerships the measure of contribution is a subjective one. If both were contributing like abilities it would be easy to discern a concrete line. But it seems most partnerships are more a blend of abilities, where the strength of one compliments the weakness of another and vice versa. The good ones anyhow. There are always those doomed partnerships where two people match their strengths, lock horns over who is contributing more and learn all too late that it was their mutual weakness that brought it all down in the end.
I know quite a few people in partnerships that are not 50/50 who are quite happy. It really depends on the specific circumstances.
Also, Not a Well Woman, please don’t take this personally but a kind of hot button issue around here is posting in the correct forum. GQ is for questions with a factual answer, not for asking opinions. IMHO is probably where this should go - you might want to ask a mod to move it.
Since you’re asking for opinions, I’ll move this to IMHO.
-xash
General Questions Moderator
It seems your friend is telling you that she is the stronger one in the partnership. If you do not agree or can’t get her to change her mind; Look out!. Bringing in another person wouldn’t help either, since two always gang up on one. If you are part of the two, it will still boil down to the standoff between you after the third is negated. 
Oh, we are not partners, kniz, I was just curious as to how many partnerships are actually 50/50/.
How would anyone know the answer to this? Partnerships aren’t required to report any such info to the government (IRS only wants to know your income, Secy of State only wants to know that you are registered as a partnership, etc). And most partnerships would consider this very private info.
I’d think the best answer you could get would be from an accountant, who could tell you what is most common in the partnerships he works with. But that could only tell you about his clientel, which might be different than the average.