“Shareholder Primacy” aka, THE WORLD’s DUMBEST IDEA – Revisited
Groveling to corporations, throwing tax abatements at them and begging them in your city was not the norm prior to the hegemony of “Shareholder Primacy”
Before THE WORLD’s DUMBEST IDEA became business school (and legal) orthodoxy, many companies had a healthy interest in their country, their communities, and their workers.
In 1970 that was all swept away, and replaced with what we have now – a shitmess.
Here’s the problem: Even when corporations were “good” (meaning paternalistic — a good father as opposed to the current abusive model), they weren’t living up to their responsibilities. One reason they could afford to take good care of employees was they spent literally nothing on waste disposal. This movement you cite began about the time society, through government, forced them to spend money on it so no more rivers would catch fire.
The problem is the profit motive itself, especially in phases like ours (and the last Gilded Age), because the best return these companies can possibly get on investments is buying political influence. They spend millions but reap tens of billions.
Great points. Late stage capitalism is never going to fix itself.
Even “Neutron” Jack Welch CEO of GE agrees…
https://www.ft.com/content/294ff1f2-0f27-11de-ba10-0000779fd2ac
“On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world,” he said. “Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy . . . Your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”