[hnfong]

Bullshit jobs are created for many reasons, I think you and GP are both right.

GP's point may not be obvious on the surface, but another way to look at it is, if for example the economy cools down and GOOG is pressured to maintain its profits, you can bet that management will decide to lay off even more people. In this sense it is just behaving as if it earns as much money as "expected" (by shareholders or the public, doesn't matter).