Its unreasonable to expect a publicly traded company to do anything other than chase profits the best way they can.
> Its unreasonable to expect a publicly traded company to do anything other than chase profits the best way they can.
And that attitude is why we can't have nice things. That would be what's known as "enabling." How about, "It's unreasonable to expect a beer company to do anything other than sell as much alcohol as they can, however they can, to whomever they can." Or, "It's unreasonable to expect an oil company to do anything other than ship and sell as much oil as they can as cheaply as they can."
No. Companies, publicly traded or not, are not mindless automatons, inhumanly calculating the optimal methods to extract as much profit as possible, even though they do seem that way. Companies are comprised of people, people who are a part of the society in which their company does business. Therefore they have--should have--the responsibility to behave ethically to society, not merely their shareholders. And even besides that, shareholders' ultimate interests are not served if their companies behave in ways that are destructive to the societies in which they live.
I don't know where this idea that "companies are required or expected to make as much profit as legally possible" came from, but it's 1) untrue, and 2) morally and ethically wrong, regardless of #1. Please stop enabling this behavior by spreading this incorrect and just plain wrong idea.
Unless the destruction occurs outside of the realm (spatial or temporal) of the shareholders, in which case the destruction can rightfully be modeled as an externality and ignored.
I don't know where this idea that "companies are required or expected to make as much profit as legally possible" came from
Started with Dodge v. Ford Motor Co.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.
This was somewhat superseded by Shlensky v. Wrigley:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shlensky_v._Wrigley
This in turn is arguably superseded by eBay v. Newmark:
http://www.litigationandtrial.com/2010/09/articles/series/sp...
Please stop enabling this behavior by spreading this incorrect and just plain wrong idea.
It's more dangerous to assume that corporations can be held to task than it is to assume that they are amoral profit-seeking entities. Only in the former case are you unpleasantly surprised if you're wrong.
You are missing the point just as the gp did. I never said that corporations can be held to task for such things.
I'm talking about what they _should_ do, i.e. right vs. wrong, i.e. morality. And such hypothetical destruction cannot _rightfully_ be ignored, because to do so is _morally wrong._
_That_ is the point. By continuing to miss it you are further illustrating the problem. Please wake up.
They can be. Say there are 1000 equal shareholders in a company, and they make up .01% of society. If they do $10,000,000 in damage to society they discount that by .01%, and just need to earn $1,000 as a company, one dollar each, in exchange in order for it to be "rational".
For A&E to work well needs A&E departments located within easy reach of an incident and to be staffed by people who are kept in practice and will operate immediately if required, instead of doing financial admin first.
Now this list of factors means you can always make money by shutting down A&E departments as they cannot do anything but operate at a loss.
However no matter how much money you make by doing so, you are increasing your own accidental mortality risk.
We are all poorer--as a society--when some people profit at others' suffering.
You are demonstrating precisely the problem mentality that I am pointing out. Please wake up.
Don't get me wrong, I completely agree their lobbying is against the general interest of society, but it was the government that was elected to protect the interests of the public, and failed.
It was not a punctual failing of the moralities of the companies, it is a consequence of a system that stimulates them to do it and given them the power to do it successfully.
