me_irl

Lol, my mom had to pay like a ¥15000-¥30000 rmb (idk the exact details) fine for my legal identity papers, due to violation of the One Child Policy, and that was a lot of money for my parents. Like... literally got a bill at spawn. My mom keeps talking about this and joked that I have "negative net worth" lol.

Because growth is required for shareholders to keep funding the company. Shareholders don't care whether a companies product is "finished", they need growth. This is the case for public companies anyways, a lot of smaller private companies also try to grow, but they try to do so within reasonable limits, because they aren't pressured by investors. As long as the company stays afloat, the growth rate doesn't matter

because the shareholders want returns on their investments. if you own stock, you want the value of the stock to go up. that requires more profits.

it's not really an issue for private companies. a lot of private companies/small business don't grow as long as they provide adequate cash flow to their owners.

it's a public company issue.

It's the Ford vs dodge case that dictated this, instead of investing back into the company or its employees, they were required to provide as much profit to shareholders as they could

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.

One thing i don’t understand is why a company always needs growth.

Promises of growth mean the firm is eligible for more lending at a lower interest rate. Growth implies lower risk of default and higher ROI down the line. So people will risk more money with a lower immediate expectation when they assume the investment will pay off big in the future.

This higher rate is lending can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you can borrow cheaper than your competition, you can expand your enterprise faster and move more units sooner. You can consolidate market share and transition towards monopoly status sooner. And that means you can raise your prices with impunity.

Even if you can't deliver, it's good to promise growth and then fake it until you make it, in order to access all that cheap borrowed money asap

One thing i don’t understand is why a company always needs growth.

It doesn't, but if it's publicly-owned, shareholders will want a return on their investment, which requires growth, and that creates the pressure to continuously grow.

Growth = shareholder get big dividends and bigger share prices.

Because Samsung thinks refrigerators & laundry machines must have tablets & wifi. After that they MUST KEEP GROWING and attach Tesla cars with unopenable doors to their refrigerators & laundry machines. And subscription-based functionality for every basic function.

Yeah a few aware older folks get it.

must be because of tik tok! and tylenol!

A little unironically. There's something to be said for a large social network of like minded people who can reinforce one another's beliefs. One of the appeals of The Prosperity Gospel, for instance, is that you're following the playbook so life will just... work out. No need to worry, you've got this because God's got you.

Great for climate denialism, too. "God said he wouldn't flood the planet again. That's what the rainbow proves."

It's often surprising to see what people will go through when they're convinced it's all just going to work out for them.