There are many industries in which somebody is abused. The fast food industry makes billions a year yet many fast food restaurant workers don't make enough to keep them above the poverty line. This is not because restaurants are greedy money-grubbers just like those evil record companies you hate so much, but because restaurants, just like record companies, have plenty of expenses. If you own a PC from a major vendor like Dell or Gateway, it was put together by a salaried worker who probably helped build dozens of PCs that day, which Dell or Gateway sold for a total of many thousands of dollars. The salary they made for that day was hugely insignificant compared to the gross revenue that Dell or Gateway made selling those PCs.
Record companies are like lots of other companies.
Some are big, some are small. They are responsible for the livelihoods of many sorts of people who have families and personal expenses just like you do. The executives of said companies are highly paid, but by and large, record company executives are paid about the same as executives of other companies of similar size. Record companies hardly dominate the economy. And, the record stores aren't robbing you blind any more than any other store in the mall.