Right. And how does capitalism have anything to do with it?
Edit: companies do not exist. Humans do
And how does capitalism have anything to do with it?
Oh that’s a rhetorical question right?
Under capitalism companies have one and only one responsibility: making the most profit from the capital invested in them. This means that the responsibilities of all employees, even/especially those deciding how the company should act, are driven by this directive. A CEO would not be fulfilling their responsibilities to the shareholders if they made decisions that lower their profits without being forced by law to make those decisions.
companies do not exist. Humans do
Companies forwards their directive of maximizing profits to the humans that are employed by these companies.
No, that’s not a rhetorical question. The “profit above all else” you have described is a bullshit tracing back to this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareholder_primacy
And again, there is no such thing as “companies direct responsibility”. Humans do
So once again, what does capitalism have to do with people being absolute morons?
It’s not people being morons it’s people following the incentives of the system and fulfilling the responsibilities given to them by the companies they work for. Both of those are directly tied to capitalism. Because those “morons” are doing what capitalism strives for: maximizing the return on invested capital.
How exactly do you think that Wikipedia page disputes that companies are incentivised to maximize profit over everything else? It clearly says that
However, the doctrine of shareholder primacy has been criticized for being at odds with corporate social responsibility and other legal obligations.
The social responsibilities have to be enforced from the outside exactly because they are “at odds” with what companies would do without that enforcement.
