Why do Corporations put profits over safety?

Azzie Trembly: The short and sweet answer is that there isn't enough regulation either through government action (eg passing safety laws) or through the actions of private citizens (eg boycotts and picketing). The purpose of a corporation is to maximize profit through legal means. If profit isn't maximized then the company president may be kicked out or held legally liable for the loss. The problem then is that having a safety driven executive is unstable in the current environment since safety does not maximize profit.If you wish to change things then organize boycotts and protests. Change the status so that lack of safety hurts profits dramatically. Goals may be to change legislation or to directly impact the profit motive....Show more

Tobie Oshea: at circumstances, they have. purely as unions have. I labored in a unionized plant and observed distinctive examples (and had union workers bend my ear) approximately how in the time of settlement negotiations, the clos! e by unions traded risk-free practices claims and violations against protecting some malcontents and undesirable actors. confident, the close by grow to be greater interested in retaining the human beings who confirmed up drunk or extreme than in having variations that superior worker risk-free practices. we've additionally seen the government and different communities, placed self-activity over citizen risk-free practices. like the human beings who banned DDT. The ban grow to be consistent with some very undesirable technological information and has led to thousands and thousands of deaths and much greater circumstances of human beings being stricken unnecessarily with ailment. no one has claimed that firms are any distinctive than the different team. We purely are not delusional adequate to have faith, as you curiously do, that they are the only team that has undesirable human beings in it....Show more

Donnie Bolio: This is known as 'Capitalism' .. delivering what t! he customer demands at the cheapest possible price is a natura! l outcome of an effective market ...The basic FACT is, whilst a FEW customers are willing to pay extra for additional safety features, the vast majority are not ... in other words, the customers are demanding an inferior product at a lower price .. manufacturers who supply that product will thrive . those who try to supply a 'better' product (at a higher price) will go bust (as, indeed, they should)If customers refused to buy cars without, for example, air bags, then the manufacturers would only product cars with air bags .. in the same way as customers demanded spare tyres and windscreen wipers (neither of which were fitted to early motor vehicles :- ))When the customers demands chnage (eg. as expressed by their Government changing the law) manufacturers will product cars that meet the new standards .. this will cost them more so they will raise prices (if they can) .. if the customers refuse to pay extra, all manufacturers will be squeezed and some may go bust or simply p! ull out of the market until supply shortages force the customers to pay extra ..Ward is making an argument that is valid ONLY in Communist system, where 'socialist' concerns matter more than the customers willingness to pay .. and whilst this is a laudable aim, as we know, in practice, Communism delivers jokes like the Trabant (the most polluting car on the planet)His concerns are misplaced .. in a Capitalist system industry ALWAYS produces what the customer wants .. he should be EDUCATING THE CUSTOMERS, not ranting at the poor producers whose hands are tied by open market competition :-)...Show more