I love how all of the big retail and service companies are treating drops in profits compared to 2020 as if it were smart to have based projections on that year specifically. All of them saw a massive influx of purchases and subscriptions due to people not being able to go anywhere or literally having to all of a sudden buy shit in order to work from home. I work a service position at a retail chain in the US, and have personally seen how my company both treated shit like they were about to go out of business (even though they made crazy big profits compared to any normal year), AND honestly base sales metrics and shit like that on said massive profits like it was something that would just keep going higher and higher. They sent out multiple fake pleas for everyone to understand “we have all had to make massive sacrifices” and how “we have to get rid of workers that have had multiple decades of experience because the company so badly needs more profits”.
Literally some of the most tone-deaf shit I have ever witnessed when I had to watch our CEO’s video messages. Fake sadness in trying to make thousands of workers “understand” why it was important to get rid of them because they want more money. Of course our current CEO is our former CFO, and those fucks literally only care about numbers and not the how or why. The capitalists do weird things to get a good “brand” image. Like maybe have lots of customer service workers that actually help customers with issues (not always just simply giving free stuff either, but actually hearing the people out). But the second they have a “good” year and see that it might drop (or God forbid stay level). Then they start getting rid of the very things that got the “good brand”. And just start getting rid of things and act like “why are the rest of you not ‘adding value’ or building real relationships with our customers?” It is always the workers’ fault and then they get such a low opinion of the importance of workers that they need to work.
I am willing to bet that if Amazon dips low enough, it will be yet another “too big to fail” bullshit moment. They will get no strings attached tax payer money and will purge workers anyway (while giving themselves those “much deserved” bonuses). Though maybe another round of that bullshit that still claims to pray at the church of “free market principles” while demanding free government aid/protection. It might actually awaken enough of the masses to start physically harming the CEOs/elites/politicians IRL. Which would be a boon for converting people to the left.
I imagine the inflation is actually the main factor. Investors put money into companies with the expectation of getting a return within a certain period of time as the company grows. However, inflation devalues the currency and this makes it hard for companies to grow at a rate that makes it worth investing in them.
Very good point. I hadn’t thought of that, and it’s certainly going to be a factor, although it would hit not just IT companies. Maybe IT companies more than others, because they often basically could not exist without venture capital.
And it’s pointless arguing this without concrete numbers, but I could still imagine that the “lack of lockdowns” is a problem for some companies.
I basically don’t watch Twitch, so very selective view here, but last weekend I was checking in on a streamer who started streaming during the pandemic and has made it her job.
She explicitly said that the times are over when she was getting 10–20 new followers per stream. It’s mostly stagnant now.
And I remember times when she put down a new PC as the thing she wanted to use tips for, because she didn’t really need anything else, and she still got the money for that within two days. This time, her tip jar purpose was being able to pay rent for this month, and it had already been sitting there for a few days.
And yeah, Amazon takes a cut, not directly from these tips, but when people are buying subscriptions or tipping via Amazon’s virtual currency. Which definitely also went down, possibly even more than direct tips.
If that’s the same situation for most streamers, Amazon is going to be making significantly less money than during the lockdowns, so that’s why I could also imagine this being the main factor.
I love how all of the big retail and service companies are treating drops in profits compared to 2020 as if it were smart to have based projections on that year specifically. All of them saw a massive influx of purchases and subscriptions due to people not being able to go anywhere or literally having to all of a sudden buy shit in order to work from home. I work a service position at a retail chain in the US, and have personally seen how my company both treated shit like they were about to go out of business (even though they made crazy big profits compared to any normal year), AND honestly base sales metrics and shit like that on said massive profits like it was something that would just keep going higher and higher. They sent out multiple fake pleas for everyone to understand “we have all had to make massive sacrifices” and how “we have to get rid of workers that have had multiple decades of experience because the company so badly needs more profits”.
Literally some of the most tone-deaf shit I have ever witnessed when I had to watch our CEO’s video messages. Fake sadness in trying to make thousands of workers “understand” why it was important to get rid of them because they want more money. Of course our current CEO is our former CFO, and those fucks literally only care about numbers and not the how or why. The capitalists do weird things to get a good “brand” image. Like maybe have lots of customer service workers that actually help customers with issues (not always just simply giving free stuff either, but actually hearing the people out). But the second they have a “good” year and see that it might drop (or God forbid stay level). Then they start getting rid of the very things that got the “good brand”. And just start getting rid of things and act like “why are the rest of you not ‘adding value’ or building real relationships with our customers?” It is always the workers’ fault and then they get such a low opinion of the importance of workers that they need to work.
I am willing to bet that if Amazon dips low enough, it will be yet another “too big to fail” bullshit moment. They will get no strings attached tax payer money and will purge workers anyway (while giving themselves those “much deserved” bonuses). Though maybe another round of that bullshit that still claims to pray at the church of “free market principles” while demanding free government aid/protection. It might actually awaken enough of the masses to start physically harming the CEOs/elites/politicians IRL. Which would be a boon for converting people to the left.
looks like tech bubble is finally bursting
I think, it’s mostly companies that benefitted and grew during the pandemic reducing their workforce again.
But yeah, with so many bad news in short succession, we might see investors shy away and the whole industry falling down.
I imagine the inflation is actually the main factor. Investors put money into companies with the expectation of getting a return within a certain period of time as the company grows. However, inflation devalues the currency and this makes it hard for companies to grow at a rate that makes it worth investing in them.
Very good point. I hadn’t thought of that, and it’s certainly going to be a factor, although it would hit not just IT companies. Maybe IT companies more than others, because they often basically could not exist without venture capital.
And it’s pointless arguing this without concrete numbers, but I could still imagine that the “lack of lockdowns” is a problem for some companies.
I basically don’t watch Twitch, so very selective view here, but last weekend I was checking in on a streamer who started streaming during the pandemic and has made it her job.
She explicitly said that the times are over when she was getting 10–20 new followers per stream. It’s mostly stagnant now.
And I remember times when she put down a new PC as the thing she wanted to use tips for, because she didn’t really need anything else, and she still got the money for that within two days. This time, her tip jar purpose was being able to pay rent for this month, and it had already been sitting there for a few days.
And yeah, Amazon takes a cut, not directly from these tips, but when people are buying subscriptions or tipping via Amazon’s virtual currency. Which definitely also went down, possibly even more than direct tips.
If that’s the same situation for most streamers, Amazon is going to be making significantly less money than during the lockdowns, so that’s why I could also imagine this being the main factor.
I definitely agree that all of the economy is cooling down. Incidentally, I found this was an excellent article explaining why the economy in US is largely composed of software and service industries. https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2021/08/the-value-of-nothing-capital-versus-growth/