> If that focus on immediate shareholder value means the quality of products suffers, the environment is damaged, that workers are treated poorly, or even if it comes at the expense of the long-term sustainability of the business, that's too bad! Today’s profits are the only thing that matter in a world of financialization.<p>... is this trying to argue that corporations cared about all of that stuff <i>before</i> financialization? Because that is what it seems like it's trying to argue. And as anyone who's done even a cursory glance at the history of the 19th century well knows, corporations were far more rapacious than they are today.