Do publically traded companies cause more harm than good nowadays? [View all]

[Montoya]

You hear it all the time, "I have a responsibility to the stockholders". Should their duty be to the product they produce or sell? To the workers who keep their corporate machine going? This may sound crazy but wouldn't putting your top priority on your products or services be a better model? Nowadays especially we see all these giant corporations doing whatever they can to squeeze every nickle out of consumers and workers. All "for the shareholders" and the "bottom line". And they do these things right out in the open, with layoffs outsourcing, lobbying for deregulation, less worker and consumer rights. All in the name of those holy "profits". I always thought when consumers are sold superior quality and given superior service profits will take care of themselves.

It just seems today is so anti-worker and so anti-consumer that it doesn't surprise me that products produced today are of much lesser quality than even 15 years ago. Not to mention worker performance.

Thoughts?