The thing about capitalism is that no matter how much they espouse how great an economic system it is, that it has at least one fatal flaw, which is that many capitalists are all about making profit and increasing revenue, year after year, which thereby puts immense pressure upon upper management to sacrifice doing the right thing which should fairly take into account the impact of today’s actions in regards to harming tomorrow’s people through environmental damage, pollution, and the over usage of irreplaceable natural resources, in which they deliberately ignore that, because profit is the only thing that matters.
It is because of this mindset that we see companies harming the environment, and harming people, often knowingly, because their pursuit of profit is their overriding concern, and thereupon they will do whatever that they can to ensure that nothing gets in the way of their revenue growth and financial gain. Indeed, in an equitable world, companies would have the explicit as well as the implicit responsibility to do right by the environment and by the people, by dealing with hazards which are detrimental in a responsible fashion, as opposed to burdening not only today’s people with pollution and ill health, but also leaving it up to future generations to clean up the mess.
There are all sorts of tricks that corporations can play to subvert and avert their responsibilities, often aided by a government that either looks the other way, or is complicit with what is occurring, because the responsible government agency, has essentially been captured by that corporation, so that, no honest broker is looking out for the common man, signifying that corporations need not overly worry about the harm that they contribute to the environment or to people’s health, along with the salient fact that many products are not constructed with any sort of sensible plan as to what to do with those products once they have reached their end of life, and thereby need to be disposed of responsibly and sustainably.
The pollution and environmental damage could be successfully dealt with if this government would use its power to effect appropriate change with these corporations that are the worst violators, and while there are plenty of laws and agencies that, in theory, are structured to do that very thing, we find that they are in the present day, often ineffective, because those that are specifically supposed to deal with this very thing, aren’t getting done what needs to get done.
It should be that the mistakes that we make are ours to own. Still, when those mistakes are passed onto future generations, for them to deal with, this is the height of irresponsibility, which is why these well-connected mega corporations need to be held to account, or else the problem will continue to get worse. Those then who have yet to be born will inherit an earth that isn’t what it could or ought to be. This is why we need an effective government, which takes its responsibility to do right by those who are its citizens, as the most important thing, so that the rule of law and its implementation trumps money and profits.