• DarkMessiah@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    That’s the thing, though. Corporations are all about the short game. They don’t give two shits if a cost-saving measure now will end up costing them triple that next year. They don’t care if breaking environmental laws, disposal laws, safety laws, or even labour laws will give them fines in the billions later, so long as they can save millions now.

    The corporation as a concept desperately needs to be overhauled if it’s going to survive at all. Problem is: it has massive momentum being as it is, and the entire business environment around the world is extremely hostile to that sort of change. So, effectively, the corpos are gonna push and push and push until something snaps. They just can’t conceive of another way to be.

    When something does snap, people are going to die, by violence or negligence or nature saying NO. Then, maybe, we’ll be able to change things.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      I agree and don’t doubt the corpos gonna corp. I’m only unsure whether the courts are going to go along with them.

      It’s not even necessarily gonna cost them triple down the road, assuming no total economic collapse, which isn’t impossible. The major shareholders offload their shares in the corpos they’ve brought to the brink before the losses hit and move on to the next one. The smaller fish and the corpo’s workers are typically left holding the bag. To be honest I don’t think the American publicity traded LLC will survive without strong unions. It either needs strong unions to counterbalance the major shareholders self-destructive profit maximizing, or things will start breaking as you said and the LLC as we know it would be eliminated.

      I think the breaking point is pretty close for some and already here for many at the lower end of the wage scale. I think the last stat on people living paycheck to paycheck was over 50%.

    • Venia Silente@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I remember a wonderful quote about that, something along the lines of:

      The world was done and ended, but for a brief shining moment, value was created for the shareholders