“One of the most interesting and unnoticed developments of recent decades has been the tendency of big enterprise to socialize itself”

Nick Schulz writes on “The Greening of Capitalism.” He finds this quote from John Maynard Keynes:

A point arrives in the growth of a big institution…at which the owners of the capital, i.e. the shareholders, are almost entirely dissociated from the management, with the result that the direct personal interest of the latter in the making of great profit becomes quite secondary. When this stage is reached, the general stability and reputation of the institution are more considered by the management than the maximum of profit for the shareholders. The shareholders must be satisfied by conventionally adequate dividends; but once this is secured, the direct interest of the management often consists in avoiding criticism from the public and from the customers of the concern….They are, as time goes on, socializing themselves.

Posted by Eddy Elfenbein on June 3rd, 2007 at 1:27 am

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