CEO's and companies can act ethically while that aligns with the interest of the shareholders. Reality is that at some point, this becomes impossible even for those with the best intentions. "Do no evil" rings any bells?

To be fair, Google has done a lot of shitty things, annoying things, short-sighted things, even unfair things. But I can't, offhand, think of anything "evil." Like, we're purposely going to fuck with this guy (or group). Examples?

> CEOs and companies can, and should, act ethically.

I can and should always drive the speed limit. But that doesn't mean I do, which is why highway patrol exists, to keep people in check. "Should" is such a worthless word when it comes to these discussions because if you believe that an executive needs to act a certain way but you don't believe it enough that some sort of check is placed on them, then you must not believe in importance of their good behavior that strongly.

If unelected CEOs have more power than the democratically elected government, we aren't in a democracy. That's the problem.

History proves that we have way more CEOs and companies acting out of self-interest, against the common good, than otherwise.

So yeah, they should, but they don't.

I feel I made it clear in my post that indivual integrity matters and has real consequences. But you as a citizen have 1 no way of validating a CEOs real intentions and 2 no recourse when that CEO fails to live up to those intentions. If you only fight for the protections you want once you need them, you will be at a serious disadvantage to win them.

I'm not sure you could ever say that a company can act ethically. People within the company may act ethically, but the company itself is just a legal entity that represents a group of people. The company has no consideration of ethics to act ethically.

A company that is composed of 100% ethical actors may one day have all their employees quit and replaced with 100% unethical actors. Yet the fundamental things that make the company that company would not have changed.

> because it's the best way to guarantee the integrity of the brand in the long term

If you personally make less money would you still do it?

You might answer yes but many wont.