Why are Corporations Such Bastards?

It's the rules they play by.

Publicly traded corporations are inherently evil. Consider:

You are the CEO at a large, publicly traded corp. Your contract is up for review this year, and while the stock price has been steadily, if slowly rising, and most of your compensation comes in the form of stock, you'd really like to boost your personal wealth, while making the stockholders happy enough to restructure your pay to make you wealthier still.

Laying off 10,000 workers would make your bottom line look better, since labor costs would go down, and you can always rehire new workers if you need them. Better still, the new workers will have no seniority and lower pay. We'll see about rehiring after your new pay package is approved.

Laying off those workers will also raise profits on paper, at least temporarily, which will raise the stock price, making shareholders happier, and you more wealthy still.

No brainer, right? 10,000 people lose their income, their health care, their economic security, but you, already rich, get that much richer, as do your stockholders. And you can easily avoid paying taxes on the new money by using your stock as collateral, and taking out a loan for your spending money. Debt isn't counted as income. Mega-yacht, here we come!

And if you don't do this, and the stock price flattens out, you might be replaced by a new CEO who promises to increase the stock price more than you have. In fact, that's probably how you got the job.

Again, no brainer, if you're a sociopath. And you didn't get to the top of a big corp by being a nice guy.