OP ED: America’s Corporate Moment

I love being an American and I (we if you’re reading this) won the lottery by being born in this era in many ways. And, one of the tricky traps of American society is the dynamic created in the business marketplace when corporations reach a certain size, especially when they become publicly traded. 

It’s in this level of business dealings that corporations are no longer really tethered to people. Furthermore, they can’t act in true freewill anymore, because they have governance that becomes tethered to bringing shareholder value. In this paradigm, shareholder value is defined by an increase in stock price. Full stop. 

Well, that leaves out a ton of humanity. 

As the American economy trudges through this difficult period, I’ve got to wonder how we can justify giving our funds to corporations who can’t and won’t make human decisions when there are privately held small businesses owned by humans. 

I’m not preaching from a place holier than thou. I’ll have Amazon packages at my doorstep, too. But, I do find it tougher and tougher to choose nameless, faceless corporate options over giving my money to people who are holding risk that publicly traded companies don’t seem to carry.