It isn't stealing. There was an exchange of value, labor for salary, that was agreed upon.
I came across an excellent phrase not but an hour ago (italics mine):
"The political mobilization of envy has led to legal restrictions on productive groups, preferential policies for those unable to compete with them, mass expulsions, confiscations, and mob violence..." [1]
The prevalence of the idea that "shareholders are stealing" seems like an example of "the political mobilization of envy."
[1] Race and Culture: A World View, by Thomas Sowell - (He was talking about the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Germans in Russia... throughout history, not just current events.)
That seems ahistorical. "Shareholders are stealing" is a modern idiomatic expression of the rightful ownership of surplus value, which is an analysis going back to the 1770s at least.
You can have different perspectives or ideological relationships to this concept, even make an argument for the role envy could play in this expression of it. But there is literally centuries of analysis of this you should catch up on before you try to simplify it so completely.
I came across an excellent phrase not but an hour ago (italics mine):
"The political mobilization of envy has led to legal restrictions on productive groups, preferential policies for those unable to compete with them, mass expulsions, confiscations, and mob violence..." [1]
The prevalence of the idea that "shareholders are stealing" seems like an example of "the political mobilization of envy."
[1] Race and Culture: A World View, by Thomas Sowell - (He was talking about the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Germans in Russia... throughout history, not just current events.)