Perhaps the unseen hand that moves the economy is really greed. The recent actions of some of America's CEO's certainly would attest to that. What fueled the bull market of the late nineties? In retrospect, the market of the last decade appears to have been a shell game played by corporate directors to impress day traders and fund managers. Their game was certainly convincing for a while. The stock market was on a roll and at one point it seemed like even a monkey could have thrown a dart to pick a stock with a rising share price. This certainly wasn't a market influenced by an overall motive to do the most good for the greatest number of people, either with regard to the environment or concern for social justice. In fact, the gap has widened between the haves and the have-nots, and as environmental destruction accelerates, the game continues. And to a great extent, how well the executives play the game determines how much they are paid. Their runaway salaries are but one manifestation of a greater problem that deserves serious evaluation. .
To appreciate how the corporate elite have commanded such wealth it is helpful to look at the relationship between the government and corporations . Top corporate officials would never have been able to command such enormous remuneration if the evolution of capitalism had taken a different turn along the way. The history of corporations is rich in instances where their finances have been given full consideration before that of the public's well being. Initially corporations were formed to assure that organizations which provided for the public like hospitals, bridge works, or coal mines would live on after the death of their owners. Before the seventeenth century, corporate structure was used strictly for not-for-profit entities. Their charters had to be approved by the Crown and if they acted outside of their constitution, they were considered to be acting "ultra vires" and the courts could condemn the act.
