[Slansitartop]

> Wow! And here was me naively thinking that we have for-profit companies to bring profit to their owners/shareholders.

Yeah, that is pretty naive thinking. We're talking about society as a whole, but that line stops at the motivations of a particular actor in it.

An ideal society allows for the seeking of personal profit, but only so long as the side effects of that profit-seeking are beneficial overall. When it isn't, you get things like externalities that need to be curtailed somehow.

[ramzyo]

I’m pretty sure capitalism isn’t only interested in overall benefit to everyone in society, nor is it interested only in overall detriment to everyone in society. More simply, there are winners and losers. This is a side effect of a capitalistic system. I’m also pretty sure society isn’t ideal, and that corporate law dictates that corporations act in the best interests of their shareholders and the corporate entity itself. This may or may not include consideration for the overall “net goodness” of side effects to profit seeking.

[perl4ever]

Don't anthropomorphize capitalism...it hates that.