May 2024
Legislatures can’t always enact new laws to curb destructive corporate behaviour. Sometimes industry’s political power is just too strong. This puts the common good of all at the mercy of big companies when their behaviour is immoral or unethical, but not illegal. It can create huge problems. The climate crisis is a good example. A solution must be found and quickly.
Corporations wouldn’t exist if laws all over the world didn’t allow them to be organized. These same laws tell their directors they should pursue their company’s interests at all times. This dedicates every company to the pursuit of self-interest even when it causes severe damage to the environment or another element of the public interest. It makes all corporations ethically challenged.
These laws need to be changed. Governments, whose purpose is to protect the public interest, can’t allow companies to be formed which severely harm it and, then, can’t be stopped.
From the day they are organized, all corporations must have something in them that makes them stop on their own when they discover they are causing severe harm—i.e.,at least the bare minimum of a moral conscience. The good news is it can be done. More on that tomorrow.
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