[WalterBright]

All the money the company disburses, whether it be bonuses, profit sharing, or salary, all comes from the same checking account.

Trying to infer an injustice by the what the check is called has no point.

The purpose of accounting is to organize and understand where the money comes from and where it is going and where it is allocated, and to compute the tribute owed to the government. But a check written to someone is a check is a check, since money is fungible.

[gaius]

Trying to infer an injustice by the what the check is called has no point.

Sure it does. Ever seen a contract that promises a bonus of “up to” some percentage? That should be read as “no matter how well we do your upside is capped and management trouser the rest”. It's a calculated, deliberate strategy to exploit naivety.

[WalterBright]

Again, it's the amount on the check that matters, not what the check is called.

Seriously, if you believe you're delivering far more value than what your checks represent, it's time to have a chat with the boss and go over it. If there's still no agreement, find another job.

[throwawayjava]

> Trying to infer an injustice by the what the check is called has no point.

Oh, I might now see why you're being so pedantic about the definition of profit.

When I asked "If I'm the one figuring out how to create value, why the hell are the C suite, middle managers, and investors getting 99% of the profits?", I wasn't trying to make a moral point. It's not intended to be read with an indignant tone, but with a curious tone.

In fact, at the end of the post, I answer this question: because the engineer in a large firm has (perhaps) traded a bit of the value they create in order to be insulated from business decisions, allowing them to focus on engineering instead of on running the business.