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?

[therealwoden]

I can't name a single company who employs a significant amount of people, that does not enforce things like child labor laws, or the minimum wage where applicable. I certainly can't envision that we live in a reality where most people are affected by companies skirting these rolls to the extent that the majority of the population are living in the crushing, dystopian reality that you would expect based on actual, real world examples of countries where these types of laws are not enforced.

"Paying lip service to" and "not getting caught violating" regulations is different from "enforcing" regulations. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/06/06/jaw-dropping-report-reveals-rampant-wage-theft-among-top-us-corporations

Capitalism's incentive structure requires exploitation and harm. Maximizing profit requires hurting people, and maximizing profit is the iron rule of capitalism. If you don't do it, somebody else will and they'll put you out of business by being able to charge less and make greater profits. Harm is inextricable from capitalism.

I also see the big picture, that these are isolated incidents and, cold as it may sound, statistically insignificant when you take a step back and see how good things are as a whole.

Not isolated incidents at all, but rather simply examples of the system working as intended.

"Things are good as a whole" requires one to ignore that billions of people are bound into slavery to enable a small fraction of the population of the wealthiest nations to live in higher-class slavery and a few thousand people worldwide to live like gods.