[NhanH]

I might buy this argument for privately owned company, but for public traded company, wouldn’t they acting against their interest saddle the society with the costs (as the public, or in other words, society, is their owner)

I understand the follow up argument about a majority of people might not hold ownership in any public company at all, but that feels like a separate topic.

[jacquesm]

The public is not in general the public that is active on the stockmarket, in spite of the name 'public company' you are looking at very large amounts of institutional capital and a relatively small part owned by the guy in the street. Of course in times of a perceived downturn all of those institutional investors will be trying to offload their holdings onto the guy in the street before the music stops and that is one way in which the 'public' then participates in the market: they lose their shirt.