Comment by lucidguppy | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lucidguppy | Hacker News Reader

In Europe the pinnacle of collective action is the government.

In America the pinnacle of collective action is the corporation.

Corporations are required by law to maximize shareholder value - not maximize communal quality of life.

There are other levels of communal action in the US - churches and family mostly.

Cities are a product of intense collective action. In the US - it's very easy to hobble the collective action of a city. The days of Robert Moses are gone - which is a good thing - he was a bastard.

Even if we adopt strategies like "Strong Towns" that's not a guarantee of non-squalid street conditions.

Nation states need to re-evaluate what their purpose is. Not likely to happen though.

Singling this out of that collection of unbacked assertions . . .

> Corporations are required by law to maximize shareholder value

No. And saying it more often does not make it any more true.

What they are getting at is the concept of "fiduciary duty". Executives appointed by a board or partners in a partnership must act with fiduciary duty, which generally means they have to act faithfully to the wishes of the shareholders. BUT, the shareholders can specify any values they wish. They don't have to be maximizing shareholder value, they can be to pursue environmental goals, or social improvement, or anything they so chose.

In modern publicly owned corporations, most shares are actually held by intermediary banks, and votes are done via proxy. Most shareholder resolutions fail, and votes are given to those who most claim to maximize shareholder value. It doesn't NEED to be this way, but this is the way it is now. But it could be different.

They're required by law to follow their corporate charters, and those almost always require maximizing shareholder value. They don't typically restrict that to short-term value though, so long-term growth strategies aren't ruled out by this.

>Nation states need to re-evaluate what their purpose is.

Re-evaluate all you'd like. America's purpose is to uphold capitalism at literally any cost.

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