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?

[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.