this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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I dunno man, I had a management professor raise an argument that a publicly traded business had only one function, and that was to provide value to its shareholders. Anything else, such as charitable donations, could be considered stealing from its shareholders - unless it provided a return on investment (e.g. a charitable donation provided good PR which caused more people to buy your product).
I don't think the professor truly believed the argument he was making, but more presenting it as a "this is how many successful businesses operate and how they justify it".
It's actually Supreme Court precedent that will allow shareholders to sue if a public company doesn't choose the most profitable way of doing business.
So in a public corporation, they have to choose the most evil way of doing business.
That's not the case and it's definitely not so simple; here's a short read on why:
https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/04/16/what-are-corporations-obligations-to-shareholders/corporations-dont-have-to-maximize-profits
Thank you for sharing this, I heard that justification so many times I had taken it for fact.