"Corporations act in their own financial interests unless compelled otherwise."
I'd like to suggest a more productive way of thinking about corporate behavior. Your statement is absolutely true, but it suggests an unnecessarily antagonistic way of thinking about how to deal with corporate anti-social behavior. Corporations are not the enemy; they're a necessary component of our economies. I think it better to think of them as sharks, which are necessary components of the marine ecosystem. Sharks aren't evil; they just do what they are meant to do. Yes, sharks kill people horrifically, but we don't consider them to be an enemy of humankind. Instead, we take preventative measures to the extent that is possible to minimize the harm done by sharks.
I think that we should think the same way about corporations. We don't want to harm corporations unnecessarily, but we have a higher priority of protecting society. So we enact a variety of laws to constrain corporations. For the most part, this strategy is effective, but American constraints on corporations tend to fall short of the ideal.
In particular, the American legal theory that a corporation is a person in the eyes of the law allows corporate participation in political discourse. This is a blunder that opens the door to many social evils, yet too few Americans understand the principles at work, so there is no political pressure to correct the problem.
"Corporations act in their own financial interests unless compelled otherwise."
I'd like to suggest a more productive way of thinking about corporate behavior. Your statement is absolutely true, but it suggests an unnecessarily antagonistic way of thinking about how to deal with corporate anti-social behavior. Corporations are not the enemy; they're a necessary component of our economies. I think it better to think of them as sharks, which are necessary components of the marine ecosystem. Sharks aren't evil; they just do what they are meant to do. Yes, sharks kill people horrifically, but we don't consider them to be an enemy of humankind. Instead, we take preventative measures to the extent that is possible to minimize the harm done by sharks.
I think that we should think the same way about corporations. We don't want to harm corporations unnecessarily, but we have a higher priority of protecting society. So we enact a variety of laws to constrain corporations. For the most part, this strategy is effective, but American constraints on corporations tend to fall short of the ideal.
In particular, the American legal theory that a corporation is a person in the eyes of the law allows corporate participation in political discourse. This is a blunder that opens the door to many social evils, yet too few Americans understand the principles at work, so there is no political pressure to correct the problem.