The greedy capitalists of the old shareholder model of corporate responsibility had one thing in common with their shareholders, namely, both were largely motivated in the same way. Management was incentivized to maximize profits, and investors invested so that those managers would do so. Under the new stakeholder dispensation, presumably management is to be concerned with the public good. Greed and self-interest are replaced by concern for public well being. Of course there might still be a way to interpret the actions of management under this new dispensation as self-interested. They can now avoid having to answer solely to the group most likely to monitor their activities – their investors – in favor of a concern for their stakeholder pool in general. This might be another way of saying they don’t have to answer to anybody while pretending to care about everybody.
-Doug Den Uyl (A State in the Heart of Capitalism)
He’s kind – this is just another FORWARD move of Socialism in we see the replacing of private ownership by a control of an company that have no “skin” in the game financially. They want the gain (in this case, the Power to control) without the responsibilities (will it fail?). Shareholders want a return on their money – stakeholders want to take that money away for their own purposes which, most often, have nothing to do with the well being of the company.
Let’s face it, this is socialism writ small; an effective “ownership” by a self-selected collective that has no money invested and may not actually be consumers of the company’s products.
They remind me of the vulture capitalists like Mittens Romney / Bain Capital – buy up assets, strip out the cash, let the hulk rot. At least they put money into the venture.
These Stakeholders don’t even want to do that but sure as shootin’, there will only be a dry husk left at the end – and they will move on to their next victim with their banner of “PUBLIC GOOD!”.
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
