[tonyarkles]

Everything you said is true, and at the same time misses an important nuance. Yes, your obligation is to maximize shareholder value, but there are an infinite number of ways to do that. Treating your employees like crap and paying them the minimum you can may temporarily maximize your returns for a quarter, but your hiring and training costs will rose as employee turnover goes up. “We treat our employees well because we believe that that maximizes our organization’s long term productivity and profitability“ is a perfectly reasonable approach to addressing your fiduciary duty to your shareholders.