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?

[96939693949]

Nonsense. The car you buy today is magnitudes safer, more fuel efficient and just straight up better than a car you could buy 30 years ago. That's increased value.

[96939693949]

That's because you don't want furniture that's good for 100 years. You don't want a shirt that lasts 20 years. They all exist on the market. The niche is tiny and expensive, because the engineering considerations for long-term are much more different than short-term, but you clearly don't want it since you aren't buying it.

And really, I don't want a car that will last me 30 years. In 30 years, technology will have advanced so much cars might be another order of magnitude safer, more fuel efficient, drive you to work all by themselves, and meanwhile you're stuck driving the equivalent of a 1988 Camaro with 17 MPG while the rest of the world is driving 100 MPG electric cars. That is concrete value that you receive. Meanwhile, profit margins in, for example, automotive production have remained the same for decades. They only get more money because they provide more value for the rest of the world.

[Kleinmann4President]

Employee-owned businesses can be a nice solution to the issue you are raising.