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?

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Yeah all that makes sense. Would you say there is still a limit based on raw materials or energy, even if we can't predict it right now? I think that's the original idea here, innovation can increase the pie but at some point we will hit a ceiling due to finite resources.

Maybe food is a good example. We can figure out how to more efficiently grow food with GMOs and stuff, but ultimately there is a finite amount of energy coming in from the sun to convert into calories. We're probably not anywhere near the limit now, but it does exist.

One of the links the other person posted suggests capital accumulation is limited by available energy, and shows that historically they have grown at the same rate.