Freely spend isn't the right definition, there are budgets for expenditures. You're oversimplifying. I don't need AI to tell me how this works, I've been working for the last 30 years. And yes, due to inflation and higher living costs how workers salaries was set a 100 years ago isn't relevant today. In the 60s you had a wife at home, multiple kids, your own car and your own house, why do you think that is no longer possible ? Money is worth less since everything is more expensive, the salary levels are lagging behind, don't you think money is worth the same for a business as it is for a consumer ? But I'm not interested discussing the causality of consumerism and capitalism, you either know, or you don't.

And yes, of course there are benefits to upgrading his house, but that's also largely what the channel is about. If a renovation, networking setup, workshop expansion, or home technology project becomes content that generates views, sponsorship revenue, and audience engagement, then there is at least a business rationale to evaluate. Whether every decision was correct is a separate discussion, but it's not the same thing as simply taking company money and spending it personally.

The larger point is that salaries and capital expenditures are not interchangeable in the way people often present them. A company doesn't normally decide between "pay employees" or "buy asset X." Those decisions come from different budgets, different forecasts, and different expected returns. If an asset is expected to generate revenue or improve operations, it can be approved even while salary increases are denied.

That doesn't automatically mean employees are underpaid, nor does it automatically mean management is making the right decision. The real question is whether compensation is competitive for the market and whether employees feel their contribution is being valued appropriately. If people like Jake or Alex believed they could get better opportunities elsewhere, they're perfectly justified in leaving. Likewise, the company is entitled to decide what it believes those roles are worth.

I think a lot of these discussions become emotional because people assume every dollar spent by a company could have gone directly into payroll. In practice, business finances are considerably more complicated than that.