This is part of a larger degradation of rules-based order. Companies do not fear regulators and certainly have no moral or ethical qualms about violating established rules. Ignoring rules is now an expected part of business. It is rewarded. We champion "disrupter" leaders who openly defy authorities and tear apart established norms of behavior. That needs to change. Shareholders need to stop rewarding such activity.
And how, exactly, do you expect that to work? Shareholders are going to pay attention to what's profitable, and basically nothing else.
No; the government needs to stop turning a blind eye to such activity. We need the relevant enforcement departments to be better funded, the policies to be in favor of cracking down on violations of all types, and a mandate from the highest levels not to be shy about seeking the heaviest penalties even from the biggest, most lobbyist-endowed offenders.
I agree with what you think needs to change, but I don't think anyone should be confused about corporations in the past somehow being more ethical than they are today.
Yes, that's what happens. If you leave a couple of bad apples in a barrel they off gas ethylene and spoil every apple in the barrel. You have to regularly get rid of bad apples before they spoil the bunch.
It's such a great metaphor, it's too bad it's so widely misused and misunderstood.
There's obviously no scape goat in Boeing. IT's systemically corrupt, which means Americans will happily try to make it look like that's normal and reasonable and "the best we can do". If not outright find the most dull, corrupt white guy and hold him up as a paragon of the perfect saint.
Do you care about "Elevance Health" - they larger than Boeing according to the fortune 500 list (20 vs 52 in 2024) - but I hadn't even heard of them until I looked up the list just now. I have no clue what the company is up to (health informs my guess, but it is a guess). Companies like them can continue to do whatever and voters won't care.
Unfortunately, Americans and the peoples of many democratic countries have given up on verifying if their elected officials are actually doing what they say they are, so taking a ~~bribe~~ campaign contribution and lying about it is a medium-high gain and low risk activity.
As a bonus, you can then use those contributions to market yourself and your lies to the same voters even harder!
It'll take much much worse than a couple more crashes for the Boeing issue to eclipse all those things to become an issue people actually change their voting over.
If a plane full of Americans falls out of the sky and kills everyone on board, and it turns out to be because of negligence at Boeing, and it happens close to an election, that will definitely be used against any incumbent politician who could be portrayed as responsible.
Politicians want to avoid a scenario like that. But it does require several things to line up for that scenario to unfold, so they have no incentive to care beyond what is necessary to prevent it.
those may not be your side of the issue but it is clear a lot of voters care and are voting opposite of you.
Like 240 decades.
Can you name someone whose been scapegoated for 200+ deaths recently?
Correction - a lot of rich and powerful crooks,
This is what you get in a society in which money is the only thing that matters. This is a stupid idea to even write here let alone build a society upon.
Boeing would be huge news, and would be in much worse trouble, if there was a flamboyant bad guy to hold people's attention. Being dull is an important quality for corporate leadership for exactly this reason.