Quote:
Originally Posted by valo403
This ridiculous disconnect seems to be a common theme among a few people in this thread, corporations owe no duty to be "socially responsible", their mandate is to operate in the best interests of their shareholders. A failure to comply with that mandate can result in a company facing lawsuits, or in extreme cases directors facing personal responsibility. You're asking corporations to diverge from their stated purpose, and for what? A wishy washy notion of social responsibility? That's not their role, they are to operate as best they can in a competitive environment. If there are regulations that allow tax income to escape they should be strengthened, but don't forget that increased taxation doesn't mean increased tax revenue, it could very well have an opposite result.
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And you manage to accurately summarize one of the reasons why people are protesting.
How far do you let "maximize profits and shareholder value" go? You're accurately explaining the status quo on the corporate front and people are saying the status quo is no longer OK with them. You are 100% valid holding your opinion that this ok and business as usual. The protesters and other people are also 100% valid in stating otherwise.
Regarding a company being socially responsible, let me share this story of a company I know about. The company is facing a land use dispute. The group of people making the dispute are asking for monetary compensation to make the dispute go away, essentially. Now, the O&G company could just pay this group of people and be done with it. Project moves ahead, profits rise, shareholder value increases. However, they are not just throwing money at the dispute as the group of people are requesting. They are going to mediation saying yes, we'll provide you with monetary compensation but it will be in the form of community improvements, money for programs, etc. They are addressing the dispute and making a socially responsible choice that is no doubt affecting the project, their profits, and their shareholder value.