Capitalism really breaks people's brains sometimes. It isn't about who owns the profit. An employer/employee relationship is a business agreement. That inclu

Capitalism really breaks people's brains sometimes. It isn't about who owns the profit. An employer/employee relationship is a business agreement. That includes an implicit (and sometimes explicit) agreement to regularly reevaluate employee compensation based off a combination of employee and company performance. This decision severs that connection. Now there is no level of employee performance which can yield better compensation. There is also no reason to believe this will change in the future because this decision is not motivated by a lack of money. It is motivated by the desire to increase profits. That desire isn't going to go away in the future. And if we must truly take the perspective of the shareholders, this is a stupid move because that link between performance and compensation is the primary motiving factor for many employees to put actual effort into their job. Why should any Microsoft employee put in anything but the minimal effort at this point? Is personal pride the best remaining reason?