The Legend of NES

Wages stagnate as profits are passed directly to shareholders. [i.e. not you]. 

Share repurchase (or stock buyback) is the re-acquisition by a company of its own stock. It represents a more flexible way (relative to dividends) of returning money to shareholders.

In most countries, a corporation can repurchase its own stock by distributing cash to existing shareholders in exchange for a fraction of the company’s outstanding equity; that is, cash is exchanged for a reduction in the number of shares outstanding. The company either retires the repurchased shares or keeps them as treasury stock, available for re-issuance.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, there was a sharp rise in the volume of share repurchases in the US: US$5 billion in 1980 rose to US$349 billion in 2005.

In 2007, buybacks peaked at $589.1 billion

Context: This all started in the 1980s

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess