• PiousAgnostic@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    This would be very deep to a 12 year old.

    That’s not correct, not even a little. How would a company stay afloat without reinvesting profits into themselves. At the very least, they have to keep their equipment working.

    Or growth? Does every company need to stagnate soon as they are developed and never grow or change?

    • psud
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      4 months ago

      If a company spends money on itself, that money isn’t profit. Profit is the money left over which the business has no better use for (usually decided as being excess by people who will share in the profit when it is distributed)

      • qarbone@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And this line of thought is one of many ways how companies avoid taxes despite raking in ungodly amounts of money. Instantly throwing “all” that potential profit into expansion.

        ‘We didn’t make any profit for the past 5 years. Yes, we have grown the company 5000% since we started but we’ve made no profit, so wages will stagnate. In fact, we might have cut some positions if the stakeholders don’t see some profits soon.’

        • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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          4 months ago

          Or worse: “invest” it in stock buy-backs and thus allow shareholders to realize the profits indirectly anyways.

          But that doesn’t invalidate the original observation that investments into the company and maintenance costs are not paid from profits.

    • poVoq@slrpnk.net
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      4 months ago

      I think you need to educate yourself what “profit” actually means 😜

      Maintenance of equipment costs and most investments are subtracted from a company’s revenues before calculating profits.

    • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      I was under the impression that investing in your employees counts as investing in your business.

      If people do their jobs so well that a company is raking in profits they deserve a raise.

      That’s how the job I work at functions. It’s smallish company, but we get more raises for being competent than our larger, more established competitors give… so I’ll be staying at my current place of employment since they treat us like people.

    • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Maybe its time we re-evaluate the position of companies in our culture. It’s obvious that capitalism has failed and is taking the world down with it.

      Is it really that important that we have 50 different varieties of breakfast cereal that is all just different formulations of the same 3 ingredients?

      Is it really beneficial for us as a species to have every single material need catered for instantly regardless of the long term impact?

          • qarbone@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            I can’t tell if they have. I can tell you that your previous comment was about as well-crafted as a child’s when they first encounter some of the world’s evils.

            “Yes, we probably shouldn’t be ravaging the world. No, all the cereal we eat isn’t probably the largest contributor to that nor is it the primary beneficiary of the competitve, economic system that has been chosen to continue.”

            I can’t tell how far you’ve thought about it but that comment you sent was laughable. I can almost see it in a one-panel boomer comic being said by a protestor while the lead character says some shit like “Guess he didn’t hear breakfast is the most important meal of the day.”