Why do companies need to increase their profit year on year? If a company makes $20m in profit in 2016, why's it so bad if they make $18m the next year as long as they remain profitable? Isn't is possible they just reach a profit ceiling where their profits stay?

make companies more beholden to their employees who in a sense are investing time/labor

That's what wages are. Now you can argue about the level of wages, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Actually this thread is making me realize how silly financial structure can be.

If you think this about companies, wait until you hear about the financial structure of banks, especially pre-2008.

In a sense crowdfunding, shares, and loans are all the same thing with different paint

What they have in a common is that they're all means for the company to get some capital. Loans (for example corporate bonds) and shares are fundamentally different in every other aspect though.

I'm talking about giving employees stake in the company

In the end of the day, companies are there for one single goal: make profits. If giving employees a stake in the company does not increase profits, why do it?

If you want to argue about fair compensation of employees, there's where the government has to step in and impose regulations.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent