No, it is your misunderstanding of human nature, of which corporate greed is just an extension.
If your boss just decided to give you more money, you're going to keep it right? Corporations are no different because they are run by people. And people are greedy.
So no, they aren't going to lower prices simply because their expenses went down. Prices only get lowered in response to competition, and even then they will find a way to extract most of it back.
Your 401(k) will be happier because of this.
Hold on, you’re telling me there are no *systemic* factors, only greed from individuals?
Didn’t the laws change in the Reagan era to mandate that return on investment shareholders was the primary guiding principle? Wasn’t the very act of stock buybacks illegal because it was considered stock price manipulation just a few short decades ago?
The rules of the game, put in place by corporate owned politicians, *mandate* behavior from corporations that would be considered sociopathic in humans.
This isn’t simply “humans are greedy”, corporations clearly operate in a regulatory environment that incentivizes malicious behavior, with no consequence (outside the “cost of doing business” fines that are merely minutes worth of profit). Additionally, if there was ever such a thing as a benevolent CEO (there isn’t, not in any companies large enough to matter) they would be fired immediately for any changes that negatively effect the bottom line (outside of superficial acts which are often part of the PR budget) because they’d be failing in their legal duty of maximizing return on investment for shareholders.
The concept of a corporation has been so bastardized since it’s inception (originally a corporation had to spell out in its charter why it contributed to the public good, and if it failed to live up to it at reviews the charter could be revoked). When was the last time you heard about any major company being put at risk for shutdown? It’s not even a serious option anymore because corporations now simply have the implicit RIGHT to exist. That was never historically the case until the dawn of the neoliberal order.
Corporations don’t age, they don’t get sick, they don’t have anyone to look after (other than shareholders), they don’t eat, they don’t sleep. The idea that corporations act in the way humans do because they consist of humans is an insult to our intelligence, I’d expect someone with an MBA to not spout such empty platitudes. That said, it seems to be the result of plenty of MBA programs in the first place so what do I know?
