FUCK INVESTORS Because they push cash into a company and expect more cash out, they fuck things up on all ends. It's all about short term profits and bottom lines. Wanna know why public companies worry more about stock values and dividends instead of substantially re-investing into their own work force and product in a meaningful way? Cause investors demand it, cause it's about the bottom line. Wanna know why people in retail have such shit options for health insurance? Cause investors demand it, cause it's about the bottom line. Wanna know why hours get cut, people get layed off, and the work spreads thinner and thinner? Cause investors demand it, cause it's about the bottom line. Basically, if a company makes a decision and it doesn't make money tomorrow, investors get pissed. So companies stop worrying about what's right and financially healthy and then you get shit like this. Seriously, as an investor, if you're getting antsy because Target is raising its wages because it can be good for employees on the short end and hopefully lead to competitive retention and help the company in the long run, you're an asshole who doesn't give a shit about the company you're investing in or the people who work for it and you deserve every last heap of scorn you get. THE FACT THAT THIS IS THE CASE IS LITERALLY INSANE AND GOES TO SHOW HOW UNHEALTHY BEING A PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY CAN BE!!! FUCK APPLE AND COMPANIES LIKE THEM IN PARTICULAR! I'm so glad you brought them up. Fuck them and their investors and their bottom line. Fucking story time. Way back when, in the '50s and '60s and even somewhat into the '70s, companies invested in each and every employee they had. From the janitors to the engineers to the fucking CEO. It was good. People were doing good. Then somewhere, someone got the idea to hire third party companies to take care of grunt work, because it was good for the bottom line. So instead of the janitors working for the company, they work for some third party company, for worse pay and worse benefits. People saw this was good for the bottom line, so this trend started to spread. It's been getting worse every decade. Now IT is outsourced to India. Now people are getting hired as "temps" or for "individual projects" then let go. This shit affects people's short term happiness and long term financial security and it's one of the mechanisms that's literally eroding the middle class. Know who fucking clamors for these business practices? Investors. Investors. Investors. FUCK 'EM My fucking social class are working our hands to the bones and are getting less and less for it each year while investors sit on their asses and reap the real rewards of our hard work just because they have the money to basically buy our rewards from us. I said it yesterday, I'm saying it now, and I'll say it again tomorrow. FUCK INVESTORSThe reason investors have so much pull, is because companies have leveraged themselves so hard against their stock price. A drop in the stock price basically places them "underwater", like a homeowner who suddenly owes more money on their home than it is worth on the market.