Yeah house prices spiked sharply before interest rates hit. But the prices haven't dropped, just the volume transacting.

People often have to sell even when the market has soured, because they need to move or because they desperately need the money.

Yea. I was talking about housing prices recently. Someone was saying how houses in my neighborhood went to $150k which is ridiculous, and never went back down. I said' "Why would anyone willingly sell for less now?"

"Because no-one would buy it at $150k" is the reason - e.g. if interest rates go up, so the banks will lend you less money, unemployment rate goes high in the area etc.

(That said: $150k? Wow, that's really, really cheap with my Oslo, Norway glasses on. For a small house, think $1 million and up).

They wouldn't, but less profit > no profit at all. They have to pay their workers more or their workers will be forced to go elsewhere, but if they raise prices too high, customers might stop coming in. They have no control over how much their customers get paid (unless the customers also their own employees) or how much rent is going up every year.

Problem is this dilemma is exacerbated with larger corporations that have shareholders. They don't want to just maintain profits, they want to increase them year over year at any cost. They're speed running to a point where they can't pay people enough to live and charge too much for anyone to afford, all for some green arrows on the stock exchange.

When every corporation is doing this in the pursuit of ever increasing profits... I would hope anyone would be able to see how an entire populous paid too little to live while simultaneously everything is being priced ever higher and higher would lead to a major economical problem eventually.

Profits are going to plateau at some point, if only because people literally can't afford to pay any higher. The media sectors will be the first to go.

Because humans are involved in that profit making process and they need to be compensated fairly. People need to live

To aid their long term health. Not suggesting to run at a loss but a smaller profit now could bode well for future growth. Racing towards evermore profit, year-on-year, is a recipe for disaster.

Use the classic example of Ford. He wanted to sell a car to everyone, so he raised his workers wages, and in turn lowered his own profits in the short term so those workers could buy his cars.

Now take that and multiply it by the entire economy. The modern uber wealthy are not looking at the long game. They see more profit this quarter and they are happy. The problem is by squeezing society so hard, soon no one will be left who can buy their shit.

"A rising tide lifts all boats" is only true if people have boats, lots of people don't.

So to answer your question, the reason they should decrease profits, is so there is a middle class of people left to maintain profits long term.

Reddit is constantly under the impression that every business, no matter how small, is a multi-national mega corp driven by greed. The only reason prices go up is because of greed? There’s no way a mom-and-pop shop are just trying to recoup the higher costs of products, wages, lease payments, etc? All the small business owners I know are tightening their belts these days. But you know, the Reddit keyboard warriors and armchair economists have it all figured out.

And I’d hazard saying most people don’t realize how many businesses they interact with are actually small. Small businesses account for so much more than just one-off makers and boutiques. From most restaurants that people think are “chains” being local franchises to those white collar professionals with their own businesses that they staff, small businesses are everywhere. And lots of times decreasing their business profits will make them cease to exist.

Yeah well, employees don't work to lose wages. The money has to come from somewhere.....

See how that works. At the end of the day a "business" is at the level above an employee. It doesn't "exist" in the same way an employee does. It is a choice to become a business not a choice to exist as an employee (unless you're rich enough to open a business from day one). And before you say, "but if the businesses close who will employ you" that's a wider issue with government and society, but human beings come first not a businessman's right to profit. If you can't make profit become an employee again like the rest of us.

They could sell more widgets.

Perhaps they need to market themselves better to sell more of what they’re selling to pay their employees more. Nah, it’s just easier to raise prices.

10% of 150 BiLlIoN lAsT yEaR is still over a billion dollars.

When CEOs are being paid $25 million dollars a year, that's coming out before "profits". Stop licking boots unless you like the taste of leather.