They're usually right that juicing their numbers in the short term means they can cash out with higher stock and better bonuses in the next 5 years. There is a

They're usually right that juicing their numbers in the short term means they can cash out with higher stock and better bonuses in the next 5 years. There is a cliff though where if you go over it you do alienate everyone and sentiment turns against the company and it'll fail. That isn't measurable though so nobody cares, and they'll just leave and land at a different company and try to juice it as well. But overall with every business in the country doing this, it becomes pretty toxic. You're not actually producing things that people really want, you're producing things that maximally exploit consumers. At some point, though, does the whole culture and economy fall over that cliff and you get systemic failure?