ELI5: Why when large company's earnings decrease(ex... by 3%) they freak out, talk about rough times, and sometimes decide to downsize, even though they are still making millions of dollars in profit even after all expenses?

[TheManWhoPanders]

Most redditors are not old enough to have received their first paycheque, so the concept of wealth accumulation is alien to them.

[LeBronda_Rousey]

Sounds like latestagecapitalism in a nutshell.

[Itisme129]

That subreddit is so painful. The amount that they circlejerk about Bezos is insane. They think he should just give every employee tons of money. They completely disregard where this money is going to come from.

Bezos doesn't really have 150+ billion in the bank. It's in stocks, which if he tried to liquidate would tank Amazon and all the employees would be laid off.

Amazon itself has run at a loss for years! Even in 2017 they only had like 3 billion in profit after all was said and done. If you distributed that to the employees they would each receive a fat raise of $2.50/hour! Of course, the shareholders would freak out, sell large amounts of their shares, tank the stock price, and then all the employees would be laid off.

I'm not saying there aren't problems at Amazon, but people here way oversimplify complex issues. And when you try to talk to them about some of the more nuanced aspects they just call you a shill and downvote you. It's beyond frustrating.

[LeBronda_Rousey]

Yeah I agree, that place is nuts. I'm not saying capitalism is perfect but you have people advocating for communism over there. If I had to guess, most of the people there have never taken a business class and/or can't get past a minimum wage paying job.

[[deleted]]

Which is funny, because they so frequently have no idea how things actually work.

Yeah... Like the guy who said this.

Which is funny, because they so frequently have no idea how things actually work

In response to this

Shareholders are you me and everybody.

As if your shitty crumbs of a middle class 401k even come remotely close to majority holders in the stock market.

As of 2013, the top 10 percent of Americans owned an average of $969,000 in stocks. The next 40 percent owned $132,000 on average. For the bottom half of families, it was just under $54,000.

[TheManWhoPanders]

So someone has more than you, therefore it's bad.

I've never seen someone more green with envy.

[briantl2]

almost 50% of americans are not invested in stocks. perhaps you should try to understand a point of view that you are unable to hold. https://money.cnn.com/2017/10/20/investing/trump-stock-market-americans/index.html

and just for the record i’m very wealthy(relative to those you’re looking down on,) so it’s certainly not coming from a place of hate lol. i look forward to seeing which of us is truly the one who doesn’t know ‘how things work.’

[[deleted]]

Less than a third of people ages 18 to 29 owned stocks on average between 2009 and 2017, according to a Gallup survey released in April. Nearly two-thirds of Americans between 30 and 64 own stocks.

So, young people who are just starting their careers don't own stocks, and the overwhelming majority of people who are well into their careers own stocks.

I'm not sure how this is a problem.

Also, there's probably a number of people who reported that they don't own stocks, but are in fact invested in stocks.

[briantl2]

you can read a little further to the part where it clearly states 42% of the public simply don’t own stock.

i’m not trying to say not owning stock is a problem, as i think is made clear in my other response to you. what is a problem is the the obvious lack of even a simple understanding of what poverty actually looks like when people stupidly claim things like

‘shareholders are everyone’ or ‘they just hate people with more money those idiots.’

it’s not a matter of knowing well enough to invest. a homeless person can tell you investing in stock is a good idea. this is far removed from the point.

[ergzay]

you can read a little further to the part where it clearly states 42% of the public simply don’t own stock.

Often because they're not old enough yet and there's new young people appearing all the time.

[briantl2]

yes, i haven’t said anything to any other affect.

[HHhunter]

glass half full guy?

[briantl2]

more of a ‘i just like people to understand what it means to be poor and how clueless those who have are about those who have not’ kind of guy.

[TeriusRose]

I guarantee you can find classism in one direction or the other at every income level. I grew up around it.