Yes, greed is a personal choice, but it is unavoidable in corporations where the shareholders demand the highest return possible. Greedy, and often criminal, behavior will always supply that. An altruistic manager may only make such value judgments for a business s/he owns and expect to remain employed.

However, it isn’t the corporation that is ultimately at fault. A corrupt government that allows the corporations to subvert its better judgment in exchange for political support is our problem. Our government should be setting boundaries and regulations with tough enforcement to make sure the corporations live up to the original purpose of incorporation, which is to serve the public purpose. In the early history of corporations, management was a joint effort between the business and the government to assure this.

This is a natural result from the errant view of business as the creator of the currency. This misconception is reflected in the common use of “job creators” in describing business which injects the false perception of limiting business in any way somehow “costing” the society something in terms of the overall economic well being. This also serves to let the government off the hook for properly managing the economy, passing off regular periods of recession/depression as “business cycles”.