THE common yet questionable refrain incredibly still prevails among “free-market” capitalist nation governments and corporate circles. It claims the best business practices, including what’s best for consumers, are best decided by business decision-makers.
But that has been proven false numerous times with the biggest of businesses, including Boeing.
The first 737 Max crash was Lion Air (October 29, 2018) and the second was Ethiopian Airlines (March 10, 2019). The two crashes killed all 346 people on board.
The United States’ Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rubber-stamped the giant Boeing corporation’s new planes, as it did with the flawed 737 Max product.
I feel that Canada’s air safety regulator is just as bad. Following the two catastrophic crashes, Transport Canada deliberately waited for the FAA’s relatively slow decision to ground the 737 Max planes flown by American carriers before it acted.
The 737 Max crashes remain most concerning, especially since the disasters were quite preventable.
I can see corporate officers shrugging their shoulders and defensively saying their job is to protect shareholders’ bottom-line interests.
And the shareholders also shrug their shoulders while defensively stating they just collect the dividends and that the big bosses are the ones to make the moral and ethical decisions.
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It really does seem there’s no human(e) or moral accountability when big profit is involved; nor can there be a sufficiently guilty conscience if the malpractice is continued.
“We are a capitalist nation, after all,” the justification may go.
Still, there must be a point at which corporate greed, will end up hurting big business’s own monetary interests.
Perhaps the unlimited-profit objective/nature is somehow irresistible.
It brings to mind the allegorical fox stung by the instinct-abiding scorpion while ferrying it across the river, leaving both to drown. -Frank Sterle Jr
