Comment by wilkommen
4 hours ago
Good companies go bad because the American financial system and thus the companies that live within that system are geared for "shareholder returns" as the primary objective of existence for the corporation. If the objective of the corporation was simply to protect its continued existence, more akin to a nation-state or a club, then it would be possible to have a wider variety of corporations which each behave differently and behave more according to their own internal rules and principles instead of behaving according to the demands of external shareholders who only want money, even if it distorts or kills the company in the long run.
What's interesting is that this is not a long-standing pillar of the American financial system but a relatively recent addition that was done without any democratic legitimacy whatsoever. I think it's pretty clear that if we go a different direction, we can have a different outcome.
Is it much different in other countries?
In America it's more important to maintain or grow shareholder returns than it is to not poison your customers. Its perfectly alright to give your customers cancer (Roundup, Fracking, Massive amounts of sugars which lead to metabolic disease)as long as it makes someone rich and they can donate to a political campaign. We really are the most evil and corrupt country to ever exist. We need a Mao, Stalin type figure to set things straight.