I doubt most who say this sort of thing mean it literally (although no doubt some naive sorts do, but they usually are self-identifying through the other outrag

I doubt most who say this sort of thing mean it literally (although no doubt some naive sorts do, but they usually are self-identifying through the other outrageous things they say, and thus can be ignored). But one counterpoint to keep in mind is that the alternative view is every company is running as efficiently as possible. I doubt anyone really always believes that, either. For example, when a story about Twitter was posted on HN recently, it was widely discussed that they probably don't need anywhere near as many engineers as they actually have, and could perhaps reduce costs to the point where they are at or near profitability just by reducing staff. There might be some truth to that. Point being, it's not that simple, and there are no absolutes.