Businesses do not need to grow to survive. "Profitable" means making money, which means not losing money, which means staying open. If something is profitable, you dont need more growth to "stay alive". In many cases, blindly chasing growth kills more companies than helps them. Small businesses stay open for decades with proper leadership. Weird how they dont just die randomly after not being a multinational corp?

I dont know how you can hold this opinion after thinking about it for even a few seconds.

No kidding the "people at the top" set the prices. If you mean it in the most literal, un-nuanced sense. The question you want to ask is "why?". As it turns out, the economy is far more complex than just corperate greed. Prices actually change based on many factors! Crazy thought i know.